Firstly, to be honest, being part jewish (by blood, agnostic by belief), I am troubled by what you refer to as the jewish stereotype, regardless of whether or not you believe it. Either way, it is evident to me how little contact you have had with jewish people.
The only stereotype, (with the exception of the Nazi's who demonized Jews to an unbelievable degree) I was aware of was that of being garish and greedy, or at least self interested. From my experience, particulary with the older generation, I see some basis for jewish people having a tendency to be loud, and amongst the very religious orthadox group, I can see how their feverish desire to further their own community with little concern for those outside could be stereotyped into the view you refer to. But again, this does not hold true across the board.
As far of Jews fear of the far right goes, it has nothing to do with stereotypes. It stems from the extreme distaste Jews have for evangelicalism and the fear that the Ultra conservative right wing bible thumpers see them as heathens or something. BTW, Many many jews consider their ethnicity to be more culture and tradition than religion (with the exception of the conservative, orthadox and hacidem who have much more in common with the ultra right). I know that most jewish people I know just consider it part of their heritage, they are not in the "religion" of it and when they see anyone out there who would take the bible word for word as reality, even those in their own jewish faith, it scares the crap out them. |
