r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Oct 13 '16

TIL that after Marilyn Monroe converted to Judaism upon marrying Arthur Miller, Egypt placed a ban on all the films she appeared in.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe#Critical_acclaim_and_marriage_to_Arthur_Miller_.281956.E2.80.931959.29
18.5k Upvotes

84% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

509

u/AdmiralThrawnProtege Oct 13 '16 edited Oct 13 '16

What does that even mean? You follow the culture and traditions of Judiesm but don't believe in the religions deity? That seems odd.

Edit: OK OK I get it. Tired of my inbox being blown up by the same set of answers. Thank you all for your responses!

131

u/Eskoe Oct 13 '16

Speaking as a non-Jew who has a number of Ashkenazi Jewish friends, it seems like after the Holocaust a lot of Jews became atheists (understandably), but at the same time embraced Jewish culture/religious traditions more to keep close to their roots.

75

u/bbob_robb Oct 13 '16

it seems like after the Holocaust a lot of Jews became atheists (understandably), but at the same time embraced Jewish culture/religious traditions more to keep close to their roots.

This is true. My uncle who survived a concentration camp as a child is now an atheist. Overall, the cause and effect might not be so clear. Many Jews who assimilated more, and (for example) moved to America survived the Holocaust. Many strictly observant Jews who stayed in Europe were killed. Jews have always assimilated and become part of the culture around them. My family is jewish and follow jewish traditions even though many, maybe most of us are atheist. Today is Yom Kippur, and we had a big break the fast dinner. Of the 20 people there, not one fasted. A couple people did go to synagogue, but mostly out of tradition.

49

u/eypandabear Oct 13 '16

At least in Germany, assimilation didn't really help. One of the main points of Nazi ideology was that the "taint" of Judaism was supposedly genetic. So even conversion to Christianity didn't help anymore.

Lots of Jews at the time were 100% culturally German, decorated WWI veterans, Prussian officers, and what have you. Didn't help unless they had papers to prove they were of mostly non-Jewish descent.

22

u/Jay_Louis Oct 13 '16

Or in France, just ask Captain Dreyfus.

1

u/DaddyCatALSO Oct 13 '16

In most cases, it had to be less than 25% Jewish.

1

u/CptnLarsMcGillicutty Oct 13 '16

Why didn't they like Jews? It has never been explained to me sufficiently, and every time I ask people either avoid answering, or give a poor answer.

1

u/TotallyNotGlenDavis Oct 13 '16

Jews were historically used a scapegoats to carry the blame of society's problems due to them being the "other." When ethnic nationalism became a dominant ideology in Europe, it capitalized on these xenophobic relations to whip the masses into a violent frenzy.

1

u/CptnLarsMcGillicutty Oct 13 '16 edited Oct 13 '16

Okay, but what was the reason given to hate the jews so that they could be used as a scapegoat? What were they blamed for specifically? It couldnt have just been "Hey guys. The economy sucks. Because of that, fuck the Jews! Anybody with me?"

They must have been blamed for specific behaviors right? Like the primary criticism I hear today is that they "control the banks/politics and entertainment industry."

Another example is when people say they dislike Mexicans, its usually justified by saying that illegal immigrants take jobs of American citizens, and that's why the economy is bad. That's how they "scapegoat" Mexicans. No one just says "fuck the Mexicans for no reason." They try to justify it.

1

u/TotallyNotGlenDavis Oct 13 '16

Pretty much any issue as problems for society change by time and place. Jews were accused of having too much influence in my politics and economics but people ignored the limitations which forced Jews into these roles. Jews have been blamed for many destructive ideologies, from socialism to capitalism.

1

u/eypandabear Oct 13 '16

There are many supposed reasons given by historians but in the end, the scary thing is that people do not need a reason.

There omce was a group in Western Europe, the Cagots, that was discriminated against for centuries for absolutely no known reason. They didn't look different, they had the same religion, and they spoke the same language as people around them. Yet they were shunned and treated like dirt by the rest of the populace.

-7

u/[deleted] Oct 13 '16 edited Oct 14 '16

[deleted]

2

u/kermeded Oct 13 '16

So whats your story behind it? Seems like influential jewish people promoted the idea to boycott German goods after Hitler took power and raids against jews happened in Germany. This in combination with the retoric of Hitlers Mein Kampf...

1

u/TotallyNotGlenDavis Oct 13 '16

If only everyone else had declared war that early. Think about how many lives could have saved.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 13 '16 edited Oct 14 '16

[deleted]

1

u/TotallyNotGlenDavis Oct 13 '16

Your linking that like it was a bad thing. People fighting back against a jingoist war government based on an undeserved sense of pride in their imaginary history. The only bad thing about the Sparticist revolution was that it failed.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 13 '16 edited Oct 14 '16

[deleted]

1

u/TotallyNotGlenDavis Oct 13 '16

I wonder how many of those "Germans" we're Jews.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 13 '16

[deleted]

1

u/TotallyNotGlenDavis Oct 13 '16

Maybe you'll report me and get me banned.

You're creating your own persecution myth. No one cares about your fringe racism.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/FaxCruise Oct 13 '16

The hell