Book Reviews

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If you were a Jew in the
first century, what would
you think upon hearing
that only a Samaritan leper
returned to thank Jesus
for the healing
miracle?*
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"Why didn't the author
just write.. 'YID',
there,
Lord?"

[PATIENT SILENCE.]

"Yid,
YID!"

[SILENCE.]

"YID:
Ya know;
the word they used to
put on the gold armband...
with the Star of David, on it..
the one, that the NAZIS made all the
Jewish people WEAR?
Before, they were led off
to the OVENS?"

"Yes,
child."

"So?
Why didn't this guy
just put 'Yid'?"

[QUIET VOICE.]
"No one would
have understood it,
child."

"Why NOT?"

[PATIENT PAUSE.]
"Because,
they don't have
your history."

"Well......WHY didn't
this WRITER....do
his HOMEWORK?"

"He thought
that he did,
child."

(Sigh.)
"Yeah;
just enough to get
his cute little book
published, huh?"

[PATIENT SILENCE.]

"Throughout the whole
book, is 'Jew-this',
and 'Jew-that';
it made my blood BOIL."

"Why didn't you
say something,
child?"

(Squirm!)
"I DID!
A COUPLE 'a TIMES!
But....the others
just don't GET it!
They always say
'You're being too sensitive',
Or... ''Angry at God',
Or...'Taking it all too
personally'!"

[NODDING.]

"What if that question
said 'If you were a Mexican...?',
Or 'If you were an African-American'?,
Or, 'If you were an Italian'?,
Or, 'If you were a Native American'?
Or, 'If you were a Moslem'?
Or, 'If you were a Mormon'?
Or...'If you were a Homosexual'?
(Glance up.)
"WELL?
Ya think somebody would'a
heard about....THAT?"

[PATIENT SILENCE.]

"You BET!"

[SORROWFUL GAZE
UPON CHILD.]
[SIGH.]

(Squirm.)
"He's even got a PICTURE,
in this chapter; it's of
some sort of background,
in Israel. The caption says:

'Ruins of Mount Gerizim
Temple in Samaria,
destroyed by the Jews.'**

And, on the same page:

'The hostility between
the Jews and Samaritans
was bitter and widespread.'

It was written in a big gray
block of writing."

[PATIENT NOD.]

"Maybe...next to that
picture of those temple
ruins, he should have put
a black and white photo
of Jews, just after they
were released from the
Nazi Death Camps, in 1945.
What d'Ya think?"

"That would not have
part of this Story,
child."

(Level gaze,
up at the ceiling plaster.)
"Oh?
OH?
REALLY?"

[PATIENT SILENCE.]

"WHY?
...'Would have been too...
CONTRAVERSIAL,
Lord?"

[NOD.]

"Yeah;
You're right."

[SILENCE.]

"I just think.....that,
being a religious historian
and all....or, so this guy
says he is...You would'a
thought, he might have done
a little more homework: about
the Jewish people."

[SILENT GAZE.]

"What the word, "JEW"
means, and all. In the singular,
it's very offensive. Very."

"Yes,
child."
[TENDER VOICE.]
"I understand."
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*Page 118. 'The Miracles
of Jesus'; Matt Williams.
2007. Zondervan Publishers.
**Page 115.

_________________
To Mom.

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