September 2011 - Jewish Federation of New Mexico

6 The New Mexico Jewish Link A Se rv i c e o f t h e Je w i s h Fe d e r at i o n o f Ne w Me x i c o September 2011
The Self-Hating Jew
By Peter Fisk, Ph.D.
During my days as a graduate
student in psychology, I can recall,
in great detail, being invited to lunch
over at my best friend’s house. He
wanted me to meet his 80-year-old
grandmother who had miraculously
survived five years in Dachau.
Betty had a soft, beautiful voice.
We had just been introduced and,
almost with nonchalance, she started
speaking about her experiences
in that terrible place. She talked
about a man named Gabriel, a Jew,
who had become a “kapo” (a Jew,
recruited by the Germans, to do
their dirty work on fellow Jewish
inmates). Betty recalled, with tears
in her eyes, how Gabriel would
beat any man, woman or child for
the slightest infraction, committed.
When doing this, she noted that his
face radiated a great glee and satisfaction.
Betty’s question to me was simple:
what makes a man like Gabriel
not only detest his fellow Jews, but
seemingly revel in a perverted euphoria
in causing them as much
pain as possible?
I could not answer Betty right
ISRAEL . . from page 5
Salaries
In Israel, the average salary is
about $2,572 per month, and the
average income for a family with
two wage earners is approximately
$3,428 per month, according to Israel’s
Central Bureau of Statistics.
Teachers and nurses earn abound
$1,666 a month, making Israeli
teachers’ salaries among the lowest
in the world, according to a recent
report by the international Organization
for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD).
Business managers, computer
engineers and lawyers have some of
the highest median salaries in Israel.
A lawyer with five years’ experience
can make $5,500 to $6,500
per month, and top associates earn
about $8,571 per month, according
to Dudi Zalmanovitsh, who runs
the Tel Aviv law consulting firm
GlawBAL. Technology professionals
are some of the highest paid in Israel,
with technical writers and software
engineers earning between $2,500
and $3,500 a month, and managers
making upward of $10,000 a
month.
Doctors, most of whom work at
clinics and hospitals, earn $6,000
to $7,000 a month, unless they also
away. I did some research, but also
thought her story through, for understanding
apparent insanity requires
patience and, for a moment,
becoming that person. As I began to
understand Betty’s story, I noticed
two separate elements to Gabriel’s
behavior. The human being can
and will resort to virtually anything
to survive if that drive is powerful
enough. Clearly, this was a motivation
for Gabriel, but, in my mind,
that did not explain his perceived
enjoyment of attacking his fellow
Jews.
Was Gabriel a self-hating Jew?
Can conversion to another religion
or culture be, in part, a manifestation
of self-hatred? The answer to
this question is complex.
Unfortunately, I believe that the
answer is an absolute yes. People
who are born into a religion, culture,
society or group that has
known bigotry and prejudice incorporates
this reality into their psyche,
their perception of themselves, and
the world. It can be overwhelming
to accept being subjected to lifelong
pain and suffering simply for
being born into a socially undesirable
group.
have a private practice.
Transportation
With a tax rate of 78 percent on
new cars, a lack of competition in
the import market and high auto
insurance costs - not to mention
the price of gas - owning a car can
be one of the most expensive things
for an Israeli.
A Honda Civic, which has a
sticker price of approximately
$16,000 in the United States, costs
$33,000 in Israel. Gas costs more
than $8 per gallon.
As most Israelis earn about onethird
of their American counterparts,
Israelis may spend more than
six times as much of their monthly
salaries on car ownership as the
average American.
The alternative - public transportation
- is cheap by comparison in
Israel, though the network of mass
transit is much less developed here
than in America or Europe.
A small but growing number of
Israelis commute by train, but most
need to take a bus to complete their
commute. Buses are subsidized and
therefore relatively cheap. Within
cities, bus fare costs about $1.51 per
ride or $65 for a monthly pass.
Health care
At this point, there is something
of a psychological fork in the road.
Most of us come to terms with ourselves
and the group or culture into
which we were born. We identify
with that group!
But others of us embrace two
Freudian defense mechanisms
known as introjection and identification
with the aggressor. The essence
of these defense mechanisms
unconsciously affords a person the
ability to assume the behavior of
their perceived tormentors in the
belief that “if we become like those
who hate us, there will be nothing
for them to hate and we can escape
having been born into an undesirable
part of human society.”
Psychologically, this would explain
the reason that self-hating Jews
exist. But a deeper question must be
asked as well, and that is, whether
a self-hating Jew hates himself only
because he is Jewish.
In order to understand a person
like Gabriel and his actions,
one must comprehend that he did
not only hate himself because he
was Jewish. He hated himself as a
human being. He may have even
hated having been born. We all
know that life is filled with hardship,
uncertainty, pain, disappointment
and disillusionment. For some
people, this is unbearable. There is
Israel’s socialized health care
system is considered among the
world’s best, and taxes pay the lion’s
share of costs. Based on figures from
the National Insurance Institute, the
health care costs deducted from
the average paycheck are between
3 percent and 5.5 percent, estimates
Dr. Michael Cohen, who
runs an HMO in the coastal city of
Netanya.
With a system of universal
health care run by private corporations,
all citizens are entitled to
the same uniform package. Whether
self-employed or employed by a
company, every citizen pays a basic
health insurance rate to one of the
four HMOs, which are heavily regulated
by the government and subsidized.
For Israelis who need to visit the
doctor, require fertility treatment or
visit the emergency room, the extra
costs are minimal. Medications are
cheaper in Israel than in the United
States because they are subsidized
by the HMOs.
Many Israelis choose to expand
their coverage with private health
insurance that offers more access
to private care or more comprehensive
coverage. Private insurance
only so much hatred a person can
turn inward. Eventually, it has to be
externalized. To such a person anything
he perceives as being part of
himself is hated!
If we loathe ourselves, will we
not project, outwardly, that hatred
toward someone who represents
that which we despise in ourselves?
A Jew who hates his Jewishness has
identified with his oppressors and
their stereotypes, and that is where
safety lies. These individuals do not
have the ability to love themselves
despite the external negative forces.
Another possible depiction of
Jewish self-hatred is in the anti-
Israel activism of some members of
the Jewish faith. Remembering the
earlier parts of this article, it was
noted that self-hating Jews, in extreme
cases, despise anything that
is remotely Jewish in nature or by
association. One does not have to
dig deeply to understand that taking
a stand against Israel is a logical
behavioral manifestation of a selfhating
Jew’s mindset. However, a
distinction must be made as to the
essence of such anti-Israel activism.
If one is simply going to become
involved in such activism just because
of prejudice (yes, Jews hating
other Jews or anything Jewish, is a
form of prejudice) then this is like
costs a fraction of what it costs in
the States.
“The working poor are much
better off here because if someone
gets sick, they still get full hospital
treatment for what would be
very expensive in the U.S.,” Cohen
said.
Taxes
Israel is more like Europe than
America on taxes. The top rate of
income tax is 45 percent (it was
50 percent until 2003). The value
added tax, or VAT, which amounts
to a sales tax, is 16 percent. That’s
considered regressive because rich
and poor pay the same rate.
The average Israeli pays an
income tax rate of 20.5 percent. The
top 1 percent of salaried workers,
who earn an average of $19,000 per
month, pays a 40 percent income
tax rate. The top 1 percent of the
self-employed - the super-rich who
gross an average of $121,000 per
month - pay 26 percent in income
tax.
Education
Education is one area in which
Israelis pay considerably less than
Americans.
Tuition at Israel’s renowned
public universities is about $2,714
per year, thanks in large part to government
subsidies. At Israel’s lesserknown
private colleges, tuition costs
about $8,571 each year. Compared
with other developed countries,
Israel ranks eighth out of the OECD’s
26 countries for tuition rates.
Those paying tuition for Jewish
day school in America would save
a bundle in Israel. Public schools
- whether secular, Modern Orthodox
or Haredi Orthodox - are free.
However, parents must pay service
fees for field trips and special events,
are responsible for busing costs and
must pay for books.
The growing number of semi-private
schools that offer special pluralistic,
democratic or religious curricula
charge annual tuitions ranging
from $800 to $1,600, and boarding
a child saying he is not going to do
as his mother or father has asked
simply because his parent asked the
question. The message itself is irrelevant.
It is the source alone that has
meaning. I believe this is the same
dynamic in self-hating Jews’ attitude
toward Israel. They are likely not to
find equal culpability with Palestinians
and extremist Arabs.
In all fairness, there are a number
of Jews who deplore what
can be defined as Israel’s military
might and occasional posturing.
Such people also place appropriate
blame on the Palestinians and
Arab extremists for perpetuating
the ongoing carnage in the Middle
East. Such Jews are not self-hating,
but rather may object to certain
Israeli policies on a moral plane.
Here, the message is relevant. Put
succinctly, the self-hating Jew opposes
Israeli actions out of a kneejerk,
emotional reaction whereas
the Jew who opposes Israeli policy
on moral grounds does so out of
rational thinking, mixed with a
personal definition of right and
wrong.
Like all biased people, the selfhating
Jew hates the entire group,
not what they stand for or who
they are as individuals.
Peter Fisk is an Albuquerque
psychologist and writer
schools charge $3,000 to $5,000
per year.
Because the traditional Israeli
primary school day is short, often
ending before 2 p.m., many parents
shell out money for afternoon childcare
programs or afterschool activities.
The most expensive part of child
rearing may be day care for the
under-3 set. Some day care centers
cost $630 a month for private toddler
day care. Once children turn 3, they
can take advantage of the public
school system and day care centers
that charge as little as $257 a month
for a six-day, six-hour program.
Food
Israel’s social protest movement
began with an investigative
report by the Globes business daily
on food prices. Globes found that
prices for basic food products were
two to three times higher in Israeli
stores than in other Western countries.
An 8-ounce container of cottage
cheese costs $1.68; a pound of
hummus costs $4.54; 2 liters of
orange juice -- in a country that
exports oranges -- costs $6.54; 2
pounds of rice costs $1.94; and a
13-ounce container of Israeli Osem
soup nuts costs $4.54 -- more than it
costs in American stores that import
the soup nuts from Israel. A 6-ounce
can of Israeli-made sunscreen spray
can cost approximately $40.
“Prices have gone above what
the middle class and weaker classes
can afford,” said Rami Levy, who
owns 22 supermarkets nationwide.
He attributed the rise to Israeli
supermarket chains that collude to
set prices.
“I started my business with
the goal of selling to my customers
at wholesale prices,” said Levy,
who started with a stall in Jerusalem’s
open-air Machane Yehudah
market. “I wanted them to be able
to buy what they needed and still
have money left at the end of the
month.”
La Shana Tovah to
our community
Betty & Keith Harvie & family
Shanah
Tovah
From Al Clarfield and Venia Stanley
Our best wishes
for a healthy & sweet
new year!
Lisa Sellers & John Friedman,
Shea & Kayla Fallick
Showers of blessings to
the Stanleys and staff at
Casa de Shalom for their
nurturing care.
The Wunder Lights
Happy and Healthy
New Year to All
from Temple Beth
El of Carlsbad