Anti-Semitism exists throughout the world, but when such blatant examples occur, is that something Jewish people can use as a net-positive?
According to comedienne Sarah Silverman, it is. In an appearance on Friday’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” on CNN, Silverman explained that in America as a pop culture celebrity, she was popular for a Jew, but questioned the world’s attitude toward Jews.
“It’s 100 percent true,” Silverman said. “I mean, if there’s one thing we should realize is that it’s in general the world hates Jews, you know. But, you know, it’s nice to be an underdog I guess.”
Silverman insisted it was true and alluded to Mel Gibson’s 2006 anti-Semitic rant during at a DUI arrest in Malibu, Calif. She explained instances like that give Jews an opportunity to show anti-Semitism is real and not just an abstract invention.
“I mean, I think when stuff like Mel Gibson, when he said you know, like Jewish stuff or anything like that — there is outrage,” Silverman said. “But I think secretly there’s nobody that likes blatant anti-Semitism more than Jews because it’s something you can point to. It’s not just a gas in the air anymore, you know. But I’m not — you know, I’m a Jew in that it pours out, that it oozes out of my pores uncontrollably, and personally I have no religion, but I’m Jew-y. It’s beyond my control.”
And though Silverman said she isn’t a religious Jew, she maintained she was culturally Jewish.
“Jew-ish, you know, I’m a Jew — culturally beyond my control — I mean, God – I probably have — after I wash my face, I have full-on payos,” Silverman said. “I mean my old boyfriend used to say, ‘Yeah, ‘payos’ – why do you think they call it ‘pay-us.’ It’s terrible, aye yi yi.”
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