<> "Well, it's the same thing every year. Dad comes home from the office. > We all get into the Rolls Royce, and we drive to his toy factory. When > we get inside we look at all the empty shelves and we sing," What a > friend we have in Jesus. Then we all go to the Bahamas.">
That was doing the rounds in my childhood in the east end of London, but was consigned to the trash can many years ago as totally non PC. I've seen it in emails to DH a couple of times recently though. Tamara wrote: <Um... Actually... You got your seasons mixed up a bit... *Easter*, not Christmas, marks the "open season" for Jew-hunting.> I always understood it was an expression of resentment of the Jewish immigrant business community in Stepney (east London) and their aptitude for business which was lacking (often through lack of opportunity) in the resident poor population. Christmas was chosen as an example of the time when toy factories (assumed, rightly or wrongly, to be run by Jews) did most of their business making them rich and keeping the locals poor. I expect the subjects of the resentment have varied over the years because that run-down area of London was first populated by Huguenots, who moved out as they became more affluent, then by Jews, and now by Muslims. The Catholic churches were sold and became synagogues - around 40 in my childhood. Most of those have now been sold to becomes mosques. I used to go there a lot when I lived in London and Essex because the wholesalers of textiles, yarns and haberdashery sold relatively small quantities to anyone for cash without proof that you were in business. Last time I went (15-20 years ago) most of the wholesalers had gone, and had been replaced by clothing sweatshops. Got no idea what type of businesses are there now. Jean in Poole To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
