For literally thousands of years up to the foundations of the United States of America, Jews have been the target of enslavement, murder and torture by countless civilizations of people, ranging from the ancient Egyptians to the tyrants of Hitler’s Germany. In coming to America, Jews may have thought that they had found the Promised Land that their forefathers spent their lives trying to find.
Sadly, the reality is that aside from the extremities of death and enslavement, Jewish Americans have in many cases not been spared the indignities that were bore by their ancestors. In this essay, several different facets of the Jewish American experience will be discussed in an effort to show how the learning experience of Jewish Americans has been formed by a variety of influences. The Learning Process of Jewish Americans Jewish Americans have had to learn how to overcome prejudices in a free society in order to be able to prosper despite efforts to marginalize them.
Admittedly, Jewish Americans have never been discriminated against as a matter of public policy or law like African Americans have, but all the same, stereotypes and myths about them have led Jewish Americans to be forced to learn not only the traditional techniques of success in America, but also to develop defense mechanisms and support systems to be able to gain progress and lose the stigmas that they regularly face (Diner, 2003).
Stereotypes and the Fight against Them Strangely, for all of the claims that the United States of America makes in regard to being a place where diverse peoples are guaranteed freedom from unfair treatment, it would seem that in the case of Jewish Americans, for some reason, it is permissible at least and encouraged at worst for prejudicial stereotypes to be launched against them (Rockaway, 2001).
Americans criticize the way that Jews look, making fun of the long noses that “ all Jews” have, if one believes the narrow minded critics. The success of Jewish Americans in the endeavors of business and finance lead to slurs which allege that “ all Jews” are cheap, miserly, and only worried about their own wealth at the expense of others. Additionally, their religious and dietary traditions are criticized as weird, or worse.
The reality is that these stereotypes are the creation of people who are more than likely just jealous of the work ethic of Jewish Americans, acquired by generations of deprivation and inspired by the promise of the American dream. Considering that these are in fact inaccurate stereotypes, there is a possibility that teaching strategies can be employed to combat the underlying prejudice rather than forcing Jewish Americans-the victims- to have to constantly be on the defensive. If, in fact, non-Jewish Americans were educated and informed about exactly how much has been endured on the way to present day achievements, many of these barriers could in fact be crushed.
Conclusion As has been seen in this essay, Jewish Americans have had to unfairly face many prejudices in their journey to equality in a free nation. As such, it would seem that the key to future tranquility for them is not more defense on their part, but less offense on the part of others.
