Jewish-Themed Satire at The New Yorker

Allison Silverman composed a piece that has its humor moments, entitled:

A House Divided, and Other Presidential Speeches About the Jews

It spins off the media storm on the statement made by Sarah Palin it which she accused the media of manufacturing a “blood libel.”

Silverman suggests that many US Presidents’ great moments of rhetoric were, in fact, allusions to far-fetched beliefs about the Jews.

Here are two:

• When a young U.S. Senate nominee named Abraham Lincoln warned, “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” he was referring to the then widespread misconception that Kosher households, burdened with two kitchens, one for meat and one for dairy, led to architectural problems which often caused the homes to collapse.

• “Speak softly and carry a big stick” was Theodore Roosevelt’s way of reminding himself to live like the biblical Moses, who had a speech impediment and carried a large staff. At the time, many Christians mistakenly believed that after liberating the Jews from Egypt, Moses invaded Cuba and wore a monocle.

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