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A bum is panhandling in the New York theatre district. He sees a well-dressed couple walk by and says "Spare some change, mister?"

The man thinks for a second and says "Neither a borrower nor a lender be - William Shakespeare"

The bum thinks for a minute and retorts "Go fuck yourself - David Mamet."

As a non-jew but who has recently been deeply interested in jewish culture and matters, I have been pleasantly surprised to observe in the jewish (New York) diaspora what Mamet describes here as negative. So, there is diversity in the way people perceive their jewishness. Why is that bad? I am free to say "I dislike matters in Greece" or "I do not approve of the greek church" but a Jew is not allowed to say "I dislike matters in Israel" or "I don't like going to the synagogue"?

For me, what is unfortunate is that despite the openess and tolerance of the american society (to say nothing about other more homogeneous/less tolerant societies e.g. in europe), Jews refrain from discussing their jewishness (not necessarily defending it, but also, yes, defending it why the fuck no?) with people outside their faith. And it is unfortunate because there is a lot of misunderstanding and misapprehension that could be readily overcome. Or so I think.

Anyway, I love Mamet even when I disagree with him.

Oh yeah I'll be using the phrase "fuckspeak ratio" in the future, you can fucking take that to the cocksucking bank.

Where is this cocksucking bank? I'd like to make a deposit.
*ducks*

Jon made me laugh!

I'm definitely on the 'out' side of Mamet's 'in or out' question. That interview made me like 'Homicide' a little bit less. Oh well.

it is self-loathing that animates Jews who don't glory in their heritage, culture and tradition

This is silly. Sure, there are self-loathing Jews, but not all people who are bored by their heritage harbor hatred of their race. Mamet (who I greatly admire) is making a logical error. He's assuming that everyone cares deeply about their ancestry. If this were true, then maybe I'd agree with him. If you care deeply and don't glory, then I guess you hate. But some of us just don't care.

I'm a Jew and I don't glory in my Jewishness. I don't glory, because I don't think about it very much. But I'm not ashamed of it, either. It just doesn't interest me. First of all, I'm an atheist. Second, I have no extended family (that I know well). My parents didn't raise me with any traditions. So why should I care one way or another.

I do find Jewish history fascinating -- as I find all history -- but I don't think of it as my history.

Jews shouldn't step up and denounce anti-antisemitism. PEOPLE should step up and denounce prejudice and murder. I guess I DO care about my race: the human race. That's the race I feel a part of.