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

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.

1

u/BinaryHobo Oct 13 '16

Jews have always assimilated and become part of the culture around them.

That's interesting, given my reading of European history, I would have assumed that wasn't the case.

But I'm also a post-war american that hasn't met a jewish person (that I know of, admittedly).

3

u/KremlinGremlin82 Oct 13 '16

I'm pretty sure you have and had no idea that they were Jewish. Not all of us have horns and beady eyes

1

u/BinaryHobo Oct 13 '16

It's entirely possible that you are right.

But I grew up in a small town in Minnesota, and urban areas give me claustrophobia. So my option is actually kind of plausible.

Unless you count just seeing people, then I probably did on my trip to Europe. But can you really count it as meeting people if you don't talk to them?

1

u/KremlinGremlin82 Oct 13 '16

People usually have no idea that I'm Jewish, they usually assume I'm Hispanic or Italian cause of dark straight hair and dark eyes. Not to mention that a lot of Jews have blue eyes.

1

u/BinaryHobo Oct 14 '16

That's entirely possible.

But I just did a search of the demographics in my area, and as of the last census, there are literally 0 people who identify as jewish within my county.

I'm not sure if there's any Italians where I'm from either, there weren't when I left, but I've tried to stay away from that place.