I don’t care whether Lena Dunham’s jokes are funny or not. But I do think that if you’re going to say that she doesn’t have the right to tell Jewish jokes in this day and age because “in the U.S. today, most Jews are just white people” and “to most millennial-and-younger Americans, Jews are regular old boring white people” then you should stop and consider what this means.
For starters, it would help explain why American Jews and Israeli Jews are not viewing Benjamin Netanyahu the same way. At least, if Jewish Americans feel that they are basically boring white people, then it follows that they don’t feel besieged. And for my purposes here, all that really matters is how American Jews feel. I think most of the country (geographically, at least) still sees Jews as exotic, different, and suspect. But where most American Jews actually choose to live, they are blending in a little more each day.
Maybe this is why some folks are emphasizing the anti-Semitism in Europe. It’s an attempt to maintain that sense of besiegement so that American Jews don’t get so comfortable that they forget why Israel exists.
You might think it’s a sign of progress that people don’t laugh knowingly when Lena Dunham says that her Jewish boyfriend doesn’t tip. And it is.
But, for some supporters of Israel, the lack of laughs is seen as a dangerous signal that American Jews are forgetting their past.
Both assimilation and acceptance are creating a wedge between American Jews and Israel.
