views commentary The Larry David Holocaust Joke – Not What You Think. Larry David T rue, Larry David told a concen- Jews such as Einstein and Jonas Salk — tration camp joke during his Nobel laureate for developing the first monologue late last year on polio vaccine. He then continued, in a Saturday Night Live. As expected, our humorous way, suggesting that Gentiles American Jewish watchdog groups scrutinize Jews, and that Jews tend to immediately sprang into action, roundly care too much about what Gentiles condemning the Jewish come- think. All true, all connected in a dic genius. They denounced light entertaining way. David. “Offensive, unfunny Then came the concentration and insensitive all at the same camp part. David explained that time,” according to the Anti- if he were growing up in Poland Defamation League (ADL) when Hitler was in power and CEO. ended up in a concentration Sadly, such criticism evinces camp, would he still be check- an ominous ignorance of the ing women out? “The problem Eugene media and how messages are is, there are no good opening Greenstein promoted in our media-centric lines in a concentration camp,” culture. It also demonstrates he said. ignorance of Larry David, who When we connect the dots, recently found out his mother’s David’s subtle and subliminal entire family had been mur- message is clear: Judging all dered by the Nazis on an epi- Jews — or any group for that sode of Finding Your Roots. matter — based on the bad David’s monologue, like any Jews or some bad members is episode of Seinfeld or Curb what leads to genocide. Judging Your Enthusiasm connects dots all Jews based on the bad Jews Martin Leaf — many of them seemingly makes us no better than Nazis. insignificant at first. However, Judging all Jews based on the by the end, these dots connect bad Jews is as bad as judging in important ways. That is all Gentiles based on the bad the architecture of both Larry Gentiles, e.g. Nazis and their fel- David’s comedy and his mind. low travelers. David’s monologue mentioned that It doesn’t matter whether the ADL “many, but not all, of the sexual preda- CEO consciously figured all this out tors are Jewish.” True enough. He then as it was happening. What matters is stated that on the other hand, there are how the tens of millions of the most Contributing Writers: Ruthan Brodsky, Rochel Burstyn, Suzanne Chessler, Annabel Cohen, Don Cohen, Shari S. Cohen, Shelli Liebman Dorfman, Adam Finkel, Stacy Gittleman, Stacy Goldberg, Judy Greenwald, Ronelle Grier, Esther Allweiss Ingber, Allison Jacobs, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz, David Sachs, Karen Schwartz, Robin Schwartz, Steve Stein, Joyce Wiswell Arthur M. Horwitz Publisher / Executive Editor ahorwitz@renmedia.us F. Kevin Browett Chief Operating Officer kbrowett@renmedia.us | Editorial Managing Editor: Jackie Headapohl jheadapohl@renmedia.us Story Development Editor: Keri Guten Cohen kcohen@renmedia.us Arts & Life Editor: Lynne Konstantin lkonstantin@renmedia.us Editorial Assistant: Sy Manello smanello@renmedia.us Senior Columnist: Danny Raskin dannyraskin2132@gmail.com Contributing Editor: Robert Sklar rsklar@renmedia.us | Advertising Sales Sales Director: Keith Farber kfarber@renmedia.us Account Executives : Wendy Flusty, Annette Kizy ideal demographic — the 16- to 40- somethings — were affected. There is every reason to believe David’s mes- sage positively impacted their minds. David’s message and method is exactly what modern, expensive advertisements do — subtle, subliminal, entertaining and targeted to young adults. It is also the method Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Nazi minister of propaganda, arguably the greatest propaganda genius of all time, believed was the most effective method. There is a significant increase in anti- Semitic messages in American media that are subtle, subliminal, embed- ded in entertainment and targeted to young adults. There is also a significant increase in anti-Semitism among that demographic, including Jews. In fact, the anti-Semitic messages are so preva- lent they are now being tweaked to tar- get different types of young adults. The 2011 motion picture Drive targets the NASCAR crowd and Hispanics to hate Jews. Nike’s anti-Semitic advertise- ment “The Last Game,” seen by billions, exploits the well-known anti-Semitism among soccer fans worldwide. The film Triple 9 reaches out to young adult blacks with its message of Jew-hatred, and so on. This should be alarming given the fact that the Nazis only pro- duced two major anti-Semitic films: Jud Suss and The Eternal Jew. Now comes the ominous part. If our watchdog groups are blind — willfully | Production By FARAGO & ASSOCIATES Manager: Scott Drzewiecki Designers: Kelly Kosek, Amy Pollard, Michelle Sheridan, Susan Walker | Detroit Jewish News Chairman: Michael H. Steinhardt President/Publisher: Arthur M. Horwitz ahorwitz@renmedia.us Chief Operating Officer: F. Kevin Browett kbrowett@renmedia.us Controller: Craig R. Phipps | Social Media Producer Andrea Gusho socialmedia@thejewishnews.com Sales Manager Assistants : Karen Marzolf | Business Offices Billing Coordinator: Pamela Turner | Fulfillment Joelle Harder jharder@renmedia.us or otherwise — to these effective anti- Semitic messages and methods, then American Jewish watchdogs are in the same precarious and ineffectual posi- tion they were in during the Holocaust. History now proves unequivocally that the American Jewish watchdog groups knew about the Nazi policy of genocide as early as 1942 and about the mass murders and war crimes much earlier. The ADL and the other Jewish watch- dogs were virtually silent then, believing it better to suspend their Jewishness. Even worse, they tried to silence, sabotage, denounce and harm the few heroes such as Academy Award-winner Ben Hecht and Peter Bergson. Hecht and Bergson and their mostly Christian supporters were all trying to stop the genocide. It takes courage and a moral com- pass to get up in front of America and promote the message Larry David deliv- ered. The Jewish people and America need more such individuals. The leader- ship of our Jewish American watchdog groups needs to understand the power of the subliminal in film and they can learn a lot from Larry David, if they would carefully listen. • Eugene Greenstein, Ph.D. is a community activist from West Bloomfield and Martin Leaf is a Sylvan Lake attorney who is litigating a number of cases involving advanced deceptive anti-Semitism. | Departments General Offi ces: 248-354-6060 Advertising: 248-351-5107 Advertising Fax: 248-304-0049 Circulation: 248-351-5120 Classifi ed Ads: 248-351-5116 Advertising Deadline: Monday, 2 p.m. Editorial Fax: 248-304-8885 Deadline: All public and social announcements must be typewritten and received by noon Tuesday, nine days prior to desired date of publication. 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