Re: Jews, Gypsies and Cliches

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

Judith Cohen wrote:

> Re Josh, Francesca and Paul's comments:(and by the way, I'm fine using the 
> term "Gypsies" - are we tacitly agreeing to use that instead of "Rom"?)

Josh wrote:

I wouldn't be caught dead or drunk calling my Gypsy friends 
*Roma.* They wouldn't understand why I was being so anal all of a
sudden.
 
> I can't say what did or
> didn't happen between Gypsies and Jews in medieval Spain, and imagine that
> at least some of the story of who knew/helped/didn't help whom has to do
> with socio-economic classes. But the cliche has taken off and developed a
> very sturdy life of its own.

Sounds vaguely similar to stories of Kellerjuden (cellar Jews) here.
Years ago I stopped counting the amount of times I heard people telling
stories about the Jews they hid in cellars during the war here. During
the so-called *denazification* of Austria it seemed that everyone
suddenly had a story about how valiantly their family hid Jews in their
cellars. Today I'm convinced that the number of Kellerjuden told about
now dwarfs the world population count.

Good luck on your lectures, concerts and (cold) field work, Judith...
Josh

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