Introduction
Notes Introduction 1. Although throughout this book, the identification of a Jewish "race" is associ ated with an anti-Semitic impulse, Jewish usage of "racial" terminology indi cates a certain ambivalence. See Harriet D. Lyons and Andrew P. Lyons, "A Race or Not a Race: The Question of Jewish Identity in the Year of the First Universal Races Congress;' in Ethnicity, Identity, and History, ed. Joseph B. Maier and Chaim I. Waxman, 499-518 (New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1983). Even today, many Jews use the term "the Jewish race" with pride. 2. The Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment, which began in late eighteenth century, Germany, was a response to the European Enlightenment. Middle-class Jews, anxious to distance themselves from the ghetto and religious prejudice, sought to modernize Jewish communities by exposing them to secular thought. The Maskilim (the proponents of the Haskalah) believed that Jews were persecuted because they differed from dominant communities in terms of culture, language, education, dress and manners. By modernizing their schools, learning the spo ken language of the country in which they lived, and adapting their manners to those of their neighbors, it was hoped that individual Jews would be treated like any other citizens. 3. Steve Allen, Funny People (New York: Stein and Day, 1981), 11. 4. Most of the women listed here are not discussed further in this book, although I would like to suggest that they could be. Also, this study does not confine itself (at least in its earlier chapters) to comic performance. I present this list self consciously and order it alphabetically as an attempt at organization.
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