The ongoing success (and failures) of a living Jewish People are so uncomfortable for many. Always the exception, often ahead of everyone, and with few true friends and plenty of enemies in every generation.
When Jews make you so uncomfortable, what can you do to regain feeling at ease again? Here are some time-tested formulas.
1. Talk about the Judeo-Christian tradition. There never was, is, or will be such a 'longstanding practice' but besides that, it does a good job of eliminating the Jews by pretending that the two Monotheistic Traditions are in fact one. This includes ignoring the Jews for new advice, pretending that the giving of the Torah is an ongoing process for Jews, and equating Jews and Christians. Jews and Gentiles are basically the same.
2. 'The Old People.' This might sound well outside the West. But modern time has no patience or respect for parents, grandparents, or ancestors. This includes Roman Catholics now calling Jews 'our Older Brother.'
3. Lovingly putting Orthodox Judaism in a museum and regarding ultra-Orthodox stuck in a primitive past. Sephardic Jews take subjectivity and feelings into account, so, for the scientifically enlightened, they're even more so ancient primitives. This includes gratefulness for once sprouting Christianity, Karaism, Islam, Modern Science, Democracy, and Equality.
4. Karaites believe that G^d was right to write the Torah, give it to humans, and in particular to the Jews. The Rabbis faithfully transmitted the letters, spaces, vowels, and punctuations, but everything else they passed on was either mistaken or corrupted. This also denies that the giving of the Torah to the Jews is ongoing. Included is Christianity holding that the Written Torah ('Bible') can be understood without the Oral Tradition ('the Rabbis').
5. Jews for Jesus. Judaism was only the stem onto which the superior Christian Tradition was grafted. Judaism without Jesus is a bulb that never sprouted. Jews who reject this replacement are stuck in primitive rituals. How G^d can still love them is an enigma to them. Included are Jews who consider and present themselves as Orthodox but align themselves with fundamentalist Christians publicly constantly obfuscating differences.
6. Let's distill the wisdom from Judaism and give it to everyone. That's its essence, no? Let's take G^d out of the equation since He can't be proven anyway. This denies that living Jews, including Talmud Scholars, and their lives are more significant than Jewish Literature and Thought.
7. Let's pick and choose from Judaism what we prefer and ignore the rest. This denies that Judaism comes to change us. Just what we like is not always the diet we need. This places self-reliance above teamwork, and self-confidence above humility, producing terrible self-importance.
8. Jews are evil. We can clearly see that through the ages and the 'facts' as presented by people who understand that Jews are wicked. They are not Chosen nor equal; they are less, Untermenschen.
Eight creative ways to try and nullify the Apple of G^d's Eye.
Jewish history summarizes in three sentences. They tried to exterminate us. They failed. Let's eat. Gentile history summarizes in three sentences. We tried to exterminate them. We failed. Let's drink. Yes, it's a joke.
