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"The Apprentice U.K." Nearly Boots a Contestant for Being a Bad Jew |
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 by Tamar Fox, May 13, 2008 |
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The British version of "The Apprentice," helmed by Sir Alan Sugar, a Jew, has an odd source of controversy this week: kosher vs. halal chicken. It also touches on the "who is a Jew" issue, and has us wondering why anyone would put "good Jewish boy" on their resume.
Michael Sophocles: a half-Jewish schmuck
In last week’s episode, two teams were tasked with haggling for various items in Marrakech, including a kosher chicken. One team succeeded, but the other ended up with a chicken that was halal. (At the market, they keep asking that the chicken be blessed by someone from the mosque and inexplicably making the sign of the cross. You can watch the video here).
Michael Sophocles was one of the two people sent to look for the kosher chicken, and when his team was called to the boardroom to discuss their loss with Sir Alan, he was called out for his lack of knowledge of kashrut, for not knowing what l’chaim means, and for putting "good Jewish boy" on his CV, which Sir Alan concluded was basically just a method of kissing up. His scintillating response: Well, he’s half-Jewish, and he does know what the word schmuck means.
Sophocles narrowly avoided being fired, but the whole spectacle is really amazing to watch. (You can see the boardroom interrogation here and here). In the boardroom Sophocles also refers to himself as a “nice Jewish boy” which seems in direct conflict with his claim that he “will manipulate others if necessary to get the prize.”
While it’s embarrassing that someone who claims to be a good/nice Jewish boy doesn’t know that there’s a difference between kosher and halal, it’s more depressing that knowing the word schmuck is Sophocles’ main claim to Judaism. And then there’s the issue of “half-Jewish.” Since his last name is Sophocles, it’s reasonable to assume it’s his mother who’s Jewish, and while Sophocles clearly can’t be expected to understand the nuances of Halacha, that would in fact make him 100% Jewish. Can someone really claim membership to Judaism with a line like "good Jewish boy," but simultaneously hide behind a disclaimer of half-Jewishness?
Sir Alan, at least, has a nice way of dealing with the situation. “I don’t give a shit,” he says. “Talk about chickens, I’ve got headless chickens right here.”
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RW
Ouch.
Simply reading it is enough to hurt my head. The "half" apparently stands for "half-assed".
Anonymous
interesting but...
It might seem that "Sophocles" suggests the Jewish half would be the mother, however as it's common for Jews in the UK to anglicise or de-Jewify their names, I won't make assumptions. Who knows, maybe Sophocles is a common name among Greek Jews?
Even if it's not, Michael crossed himself before going into the boardroom, and when describing "blessing" to the Muslim butchers. That gesture makes him more Roman Catholic in spirit than any lapsed Catholic I know.
My favourite moment: Siralan offering to pull down Michael's trousers in the boardroom to confirm which way he swung.
Fascinating episode; TV gold.
Jacques
names and peoples
Actually 'sophocles' for a (gentile or christian) Greek surname name is extremely rare. This name as a surname would have to occur in a subgroup that was isolated from the rest of greek heritage to have survived the christian age, hence I believe it is a jewish-greek name from before christ. Years before christ during the time when my Greek ancestors (I am half greek and half french) worshiped the old gods a group of greeks converted to judaism. They survived as a distinct group marrying only other jews and today Israel has recongnized them as a valid jewish group (like the ethiopian group). The vast majority of Greeks in the christian age got rid of pagan surnames and many surnames in Greek are actually medieval in origin (and have a meaning relating to work or location or even character just like the other medieval names in Europe). So like in the German or English has 'smith' (from blacksmith) and 'miller' etc so the common names of Greece today.
Among modern Greek people you will find pagan names as FIRST names because they are back in vogue but surnames? Hardly.
Michael is jewish and probably on his FATHERS side not his mothers side as some of said. The greek jews did not change surnames nearly as much as their christian counterparts. This would explain why he considers himself half-jewish and not simply 'jewish'. (In orthodox jewish law if your mother is jewish you are jewish not 'half-jewish' you see). So the father was a Greek-Jew and his mother was most likely a gentile. By his appearance I would judge she was possibly a southern european but not Greek. He has an obvious latin/Italian features that radiate strongly around his eyes and cheeckbones. I have looked at thousands of photos of various facial features of southern europeans and am reasonably confident of what I am writing here.
Who am I ?
a grad student of anthropology and history at the University of Toronto. Obviouisly I cannot 'prove' it on here but that is my 2 cents worth.
Jacques
P.S.
there are many sub morphic groups within Latin group (like in all groups). I won't get into the technical names etc but take a picture of a young mussolini and put it side by side with michael and you will see the latin features I refer to.
even older fatter faced (hence obscuring part of the features) musslini has these:
http://www.voxnr.com/c_images/icono/0510/mussolini_dux.jpg
however of great help is the overlap morph representing the average italian young male face:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tazebao/393758494/
conclusion: I would hazard to guess he has a greek-jewish father (not mother) and an italian mother. I would guess my accuracy is about 75 % so I could be wrong.
Anonymous
pps
oops I must also add when he "crossed" himself in the market to talk about "kosher" (i know , he is one confused fellow) he crossed himself in the Roman Catholic not Orthodox Christian method, I just noticed that on youtube.
make that 80% accuracy (not higher because there are greeks about 50 000 who are roman catholic chrisitan and not orthodox christian).
okay now I have to get back to my studies.
love reading jewcy even though Im not jewish! cheers all!
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