Welcome to the South Shore!
Growing up one of only a few Jewish kids in Hull, I was no stranger to anti-semitism. There was the time that I walked into the cafeteria in 7th grade with another Jewish kid and got beaned by a handful of pennies. Then, in 9th grade, my English teacher announced a quiz. When I reminded him it was going to be Yom Kippur, he replied, “Phfff!… You Jews and your holidays.” And then, in eleventh grade, I visited concentration camps in Poland and wrote an essay about my experiences. I showed a social studies teacher who commented that he was happy I talked about the 12 million who died as a result of the war (rather than singling out that 6 million of that number were Jews who where friggin’ systematically exterminated). So, I was not surprised to read this blog post and this Patriot Ledger article about a Randolph, MA school board member who went all David Duke on a Jewish school principal that requested 5 days of bereavement leave.
The real money quotes are these:
“It is not the standard in industry,” Silverman quoted Kenney as saying. “Besides, don’t you Jews plant them within 24 hours?”
and…
“I don’t see any side curls on your head, so what the hell do you need five days of bereavement leave for?”