God'll Cut You Down Read Online Free PDF Page A

show’s content leaked. People began to keep their distance. Any Jew would recognize the signs: Why was I making trouble?
    My mother kept my scrapbook in better shape when she was alive. I still need to paste in the
Race Relations
clippings from the
Australian Jewish News
.
    SAFRAN CRUCIFIED OVER NEW SHOW
    Comedian John Safran’s new show has caused a public outcry, even though its debut on ABC TV is still a week away. The Australian Family Association last week hit out at the show, describing it as “filth.”
    In episode one of the series, in which Safran explores interracial attraction, the former Yeshivah College student donates sperm at a Palestinian sperm bank, while looking at a picture of US PresidentBarack Obama. In a later episode, Safran is crucified as part of a religious ritual in the Philippines.
    But the scene that will likely generate the most controversy in the Jewish community involves Safran going to his mother’s grave with a shovel and Kabbalah prayer book to discover what she would think of him if he married a non-Jew.
    “Safran’s actions are to be deplored,” the Executive Council of Australian Jewry president told the
Australian Jewish News
. “They are extremely insensitive and not only bring disrepute on the Jewish people, but adversely affect interfaith relationships.”
    —ADAM KAMIEN
    The ABC has shamed itself with the showing of John Safran’s
Race Relations
program. He appears desperate for subject matter, having to resort to underpants stealing and sniffing (stealing is a crime—not a joke) and the degrading deceit of insulting both Jews and Palestinians by substituting each other’s sperm in sperm banks (also a crime—not a joke). The entire subject matter and execution is despicable, and no doubt more bad publicity has been showered on us Jews.
    —NOAH LEVIN, MALVERN, VIC, LETTERS
    Safran’s carnival approach to the Holocaust continued in last week’s episode when he mock-gassed Holocaust denier David Irving. Safran claimed he was following the lead of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. Prior to “luring his prey” for the interview, Safran “rigs” the radio studio by inserting a pipe through the ventilation system so as to convert the room into a “gas chamber.” Taking pause from their chat, Safran walks out, jams the door with a broom, and opens a gas bottle while screaming at Irving through the glass: “You’re locked in a room and it’s filling with gas, and if you try and tell anyone, I’m going to deny it.” Safran not only distorts Wiesenthal’s message ofjustice, instead of revenge, but given that his own grandmother lost her family in the Holocaust, he should have known better.
    —DR. DVIR ABRAMOVICH
And Then One Night
    As well as all of that, the theme blaring through
Race Relations
is that the Australian Jewish community bullies their young to marry Jewish and bullies their non-Jewish partners to back off.
    Not long ago, my Jewish friend Leah was preparing to marry a non-Jew named Ant. One afternoon Ant visited Leah’s family while Leah was out of town. Over an hour, one by one, Leah’s mother, father, and brother floated out of the living room. Ant sat alone, disconcerted. Finally a man Ant had never seen before strolled in.
    The man sat down and looked at Ant.
    “You’ll never be accepted here,” the man said.
    “Why?”
    “Because you’re not Jewish.”
    Then the man stood up and left.
    As well as locking David Irving in a radio studio, in
Race Relations
I ran a yellow highlighter over little events like this. I learned people in small towns don’t like the man with the yellow highlighter pen.
    The afternoon before the first episode aired, I bought hundreds of dollars of food from the supermarket so I wouldn’t have to leave the flat for a while. Good decision. Even now, I try to avoid it. Months ago I gave up walking down the street. If I need to catch up for coffee, I catch up somewhere else. I do my grocery shopping a few suburbs