OIL AND WATER/TEA AND WINE

I recenly met someone - a man, about my age. He is a lawyer, Ivy-League educated, and like me, a secular/reform Jew.

I make a point of not talking much about my personal endeavors here because, honestly, they would not be of interest to anyone else but me. But this encounter holds special significance because the man in question and I are on opposite ends of the political spectrum.

Now, that may mean very little to someone who is not politically minded. But in truth, politics is life. It is the door to someone's worldview. It is also in many ways the tip of the iceberg.

So he is a conservative and I am a liberal. Being American, his conservatism is reflected on his support for El Presidente and the current administration, the death penalty, restrictions on gay marriage, the right to bear arms and so forth. Being Jewish, his conservatism shows in his support for the occupation of Palestinian territories (he actually claims that said occupation is not really an occupation, since according to him this land was Jewish to begin with - in line with the biblical land of Israel argument, which frankly has no place in the mind of a secular/reform Jew), and his complete detachment from the Palestinian reality or at least the fact that they represent the other side of the same story.

Which, in turn, means that I was having a glass of wine (while he, due to some predictable allergy, was sipping on hot tea at the very busy and trendy Ciudad in downtown LA) with an extremely intolerant, black-and-white type of person on a precious Friday evening.

It only got better. Later on he told me that the Muslims are responsible for every problem the world has, and that it has always been the case. I was speechless (which is a very rare phenomena) and really did not know how to counteract such a statement. How do you argue with someone who is so completely disconnected from everything?

And then, it only got worse (and please keep in mind I am taking shortcuts here) - somehow, somewhere, Germany came up. Or Germans. And he told me that he hates Germans/Germany, that he will never set foot in Germany, he will never make an effort to meet any Germans (of any generation) or relate to them in anyway etc etc out of respect for the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

As I asked a few questions to try and understand his logic (I was hoping there was some sort of logic to it all), I told him that I thought this was incomprehensible to me. He wanted me to elaborate and I explained to him that he was so young, and so completely intolerant and insensitive (and probably ignorant too, but I left that one out in fear he would crush my head on the bar counter). That he was so shut off from the rest of the world. That by lumping all Germans and Muslims together as mass murderers and whatnot, he was just like the worst of them. That as a Jew, he has a moral obligation to be the least prejudiced he can possibly be, and that is where he should invest all his energy.

"Oh", he said, "so you are a Nazi apologist."

Anyone who knows me and/or has read this blog (at least the text right underneath my picture) knows that I am the farthest thing from a Nazi apologist. But I refuse to classify all Germans as Nazis - those who lived before, during and after the Holocaust were people, not an amorphous mass. I refuse to pollute my mind with such hatred. And such lies.

Same goes for Muslims.

It was a memorable night. One that lasted too long as well. But in the end, it reinforced my newly acquired theory that there is something really wrong with these offsprings from affluent Jewish families who get their degrees at Ivy League schools. Especially the lawyers and MBA'ers. Something is happening on the way to heaven, that is clear.

Imagine - a young man like this, smart and devoted to his ideals (I assure you he is both), could one day become an influential judge or politician. What are the odds that he would become more liberal with time? Very slim. Most likely he will join some vigilante group by the time he is 50, bandanna and all, and police the borders on weekends. Or go quail hunting. Or just hunting. Who knows what on earth else.

On a positive note: this encounter led me to reread the amazing "The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness" by Simon Wiesenthal (recommended a while ago by Andrew in his blog) and also the very lucid "How to Cure a Fanatic" by Amos Oz. Both should be required reading; and in cases involving Jewish Ivy-League educated, prejudiced and borderline xenophobic tea-drinking lawyers, they should be intravenously fed.