Quote:
Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
I've eaten shellfish at dinner with Orthodox Jewish friends. They didn't take offense. They just laughed at my obvious ignorance when I offered them a cherrystone clam. Nobody got offended - they just did their thing and I did mine. That's how its supposed to work.
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If an orthodox Jew gets offended when a non-Jew eats traif (non-kosher food), DAT'S CRAZY [said in voice of Brian Fellowes]. Only Jews are under the obligation not to eat that stuff. Most Orthodox Jews don't even care if other Jews eat it -- some of the most observant of them might "wish it were different" but wouldn't ever say anything.
cf. [this is a long story, but please... stay with me]. I have this friend (call him John -- 'cause that's his name) who went to a fancy prep school with this other guy (call him Tim -- I'm not sayin' whether that's his name...), whom I knew in college. So Tim is from this very blue-blood, "fancy" hi-falootin' family yadda yadda yadda. However, at some point in Tim's late college life (by which time he and I hadn't run into each other, so I had no idea about this), he has some road-to-Damascus type epiphany and decides he's some born-again kind of guy (I realize that's shorthand and not all "born-agains" are this way -- I just don't remember the name of his particular, um... sect). He ends up living with the members of his cult (uh.. I mean church) in some disease-infested building in Times Square.
So John is telling me about how he and Tim were walking together down some street, and across the street and up ahead are some black-hats (the technical name for Lubavitchers who wear the side curls and black heavy coats throughout the year). Tim takes it upon himself to yell (yes, YELL) across the street:
JEWS!!! (pronounced "Jooooooooooooooz") Walk with Jesus... OR WALK ALONE!!! Egad.
I don't think John saw much of Tim after that. In fact, I wonder whatever happened to him. I always look for him in the "class notes" section of the alumni magazine, but he's never mentioned. Hmmm. (Nor is he in the "dead" section -- the only two sections I ever read.)
