The Language of PC Gretel Beer Pi4
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AJR Information Volume XLVIII No. 7 July 1993 £3 (to non-members) Don't miss . Reflections on political correctness Educational experience p3 Cooking with The language of PC Gretel Beer pi4 Austrian pensions n 'interesting' incident occurred at an Ameri advocates of PC have demanded the dropping of such pl6 can university recently. An Israeli student DWEMs as Aristotle, Dante and Shakespeare from Atrying to finish an essay around midnight university study courses, and substituting authors yelled at some noisy black girl students outside his more relevant to the concerns of female and ethnic dormitory block: 'Get away from here, you water students. The wider PC hit list also includes Thomas The AJR at Work, buffaloes; there's a zoo a mile away!' Jefferson (who kept slaves), Emily Bronte (whose page 8, contains A major row involving a university disciplinary Wuthering Heights glosses over slavery in the West a full report of hearing ensued. The black students complained that Indies) and Joseph Conrad (for whom Central Africa the 1993 Annual the term 'water buffalo' was a racist slur aimed at was the 'heart of darkness'). General Meeting. their African ancestry. The Israeli insisted that he had Then there is the term chair instead of 'gender- simply used the closest English equivalent to the specific' chairman (parodied in the placename Person- Hebrew term behemoth which came into his head. (In chester), not to mention vertically challenged for addition his defence counsel pointed out water small and follically challenged for bald. buffaloes are not native to Africa, but to South-East The Paris Presented in this manner it might appear that the Asia.) The case continues, with reverberations reach insistence on politically correct language is an eccen shooting ing into the U.S. Senate itself. tric foible — but things are not as simple as all that. The Interestingly enough, this account of pohtically Jewish experience has shown that some words carry he carrying incorrect language could itself be faulted as politically undertones that don't merely make them pejorative, out of the - incorrect. The term 'black' has followed 'coloured' but criminally libellous; it is only a matter of years Tlong overdue and 'Negro' into the litter bin of PC; the kosher word since the verb 'to jew' as a synonym for cheating - 'death sentence' in politically correct U.S.-speak is 'Afro-American'. disappeared from some English dictionaries. The on Rene Bousquet No less interesting is the acronym DWEM which sublimal association between the term 'Jew' and Judas by a maverick stands for Dead White European Males. Some has been the subject both of a learned study and a - gunman was a somewhat meretricious — recent TV feature. twofold mercy Some weeks ago Stoke-on-Trent radio tried to killing. It was an extract humorous antisemitic mileage from a script act of mercy to AN IMPORTANT DATE FOR YOUR DIARY featuring a Jewish milkman named Tight Gitenberg. Bousquet who no (The offending programme has since been dropped.) longer has to In a rather higher sphere of entertainment Arnold answer for his AJR Wesker has laboured mightily — and, not surprisingly, sickening crimes & in vain - to detoxify* Shakespeare's Merchant of before an earthly Self Aid Venice and produce a sanitized Shylock shorn of his court - as well misanthropic attributes. as for an 46TH What pains Wesker is the age-old association ANNUAL CHARITY CONCERT Establishment between the Jew and the insistence on the 'pound of which connived at Sunday October 17th, 1993 at 3.00 pm at the Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road flesh' perpetuated in the Bard's version. But there may his postwar be brand-new negative stereotypes that we need to be comeback. Alas, Guest artists: ERICH GRUENBERG & ANTHONY GOLDSTONE more concerned about. The 'Zionism shall not pass' this form of banner recently carried in Moscow by anti-Yeltsin euthanasia also Programme: SCHUBERT, CHOPIN, KREISLER, BEETHOVEN demonstrators infers that Russian Jews are exploiting puts to sleep the current misery in the country in the interest of consciences that Ticket application forms will appear in the August issue. Israel. This is a rehash of the sentiments once might otherwise poisonously expressed in Der Stiirmer-and wouldn't have been stirred Regrettably, the R.A.M. has no facilities for we (and the civilised world) have been glad if the by their country's wheelchair users. constraints of PC had applied in the days of the wartime shame. D Weimar Republic? D AJR INFORMATION JULY 1993 Compensation for DDR Profile claimants Reports have been received that the German dered her career prospects. Having for Government proposes to charge a levy of From shadowland to several years been involved in setting up 33^% on compensation paid under the Shadchanut informal groups of people in their twenties 1990 legislation to DDR Claimants for and thirties — one with the charming name property expropriated by the Nazis. The of 'The Gregarians' - she hit on the idea of purpose of this levy is to fund any compen opening a marriage bureau. sation paid by the Government to indi Her initial office was a room in her own viduals and Jewish communities. suburban house; later she acquired We understand that the Conference on premises, first in Beauchamp Place, and Jewish Material Claims against Germany, then Camden Town. In her 25 years in the Inc, which negotiates with the German matchmaking business she has brought Government on all matters concerning com together 5,000 clients — though she hesitates pensation to Nazi victims has taken up this to claim they all lived happily ever after. matter and is making every effort to What sets Hedi's agency apart from others persuade the German Government not to is the cross-channel nature of her oper charge this levy. D ations. She has interviewed U.K.-oriented potential marriage partners in Milan, Symbol of the city Zurich, Diisseldorf, Paris, Brussels and Antwerp. (The last deserves a special men rs Katharina Ziebura, the officer in tion because Jews make up a sizeable part of charge of the programme for invit her clientele). ing Jewish former Berliners to their M Hedi Fisher Photo: private. Hedi hardly approximates to the prover place of birth (a scheme which has been in bial Hungarian — who follows one into the operation for 24 years) was honoured with edi Fisher was born a rabbi's revolving door and comes out in front — but a reception held by the Association of daughter in provincial Hungary nor does she let grass grow under her feet. Jewish Ex-Berliners. The reception took under the Horthy regime. She had Only this year she launched out on two new place in Willesden Synagogue in the H just turned a teenager when the Germans, ventures — briefly as an agony aunt on presence of 107 members ofthe association abetted by local Nazis, took over the Breakfast TV, and, more permanently, as and their spouses, many of whom had country and completed the Final Solution. the author of Matchmaker, Matchmaker. In travelled great distances to attend. Her parents and brother were sent to multi-cultural Britain, where many ethnic In her address, Mrs Ziebura spoke of the Auschwitz, the parents never to return. subgroups 'believe' in arranged marriages events of the first Heinrich Stahl Day (April She initially escaped the roundup with the her book should do well. 22) when a ceremony had been arranged to aid of forged papers. Discovered, she was D R.G. celebrate the affixing of a plaque to the wall sent, with the surviving inmates of the of the house where Stahl was born. The Debreczin ghetto, in a sealed cattle truck to owner of the house had given verbal per Austria to perform slave labour. She ended mission to place the memorial plate, but up at a camp attached to the Siemens and Israel's withdrew it at the last moment. The cere Schuckert works near Tulln. When the Very finest Wines mony had to be reconvened to a more Third Reich collapsed an Austrian factory receptive site further down the road. A foreman with a daughter of Hedi's age hid SHIPPED BY street in Dahlem has been named after Stahl her from the SS coralling the camp inmates in remembrance of his life and work. for a death march. (He also saved her from At the close of the reception Mrs Ziebura rape by the liberating Russians). HOUSE OF presented the Association with a porcelain Repatriated to Hungary she met up with bear - the symbol of the cit>' of Berlin - she, her brother, a survivor of Auschwitz and HALLGARTEN in turn was presented with a medallion Mauthausen, and together they joined an made from an antique bronze coin from the uncle in London. Here Hedi finished her year 68 AD. The meeting was conducted by schooling and soon went to work, but YARDEN and GAMLA the Chairman of the Association of Ex- found no satisfactory employment. She Berliners, Mr Martin Teich-Birken. D attended evening classes and acquired secre AVAILABLE NOW tarial skills as well as a diploma in soci ology. In the midst of all this she got Please write or phone for BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE married to another orphaned Hungarian full information 51 Belsize Square, London, N.W.3 survivor. The marriage failed because, in Our communal hall is available Hedi's words, 'he was looking for a mother DALLOW ROAD for cultural and I for a father'. LUTON BEDS and social functions. LU11UR For details apply to: The uncle died and she found life for a Secretary, Synagogue Office. divorcee with a small daughter hard. She 0582 22538 Tel: 071-794 3949 worked in the social services, but realised that discrimination against females hin- ! ^.—I—i^ 2 - I ^^^smssm^m^sm AJR INFORMATION JL/Ly 1993 silence.