Dear Phil,
After leaving you and Kathy I have gone back to my family, and when I think back, I can’t say how much I appreciated the work you have done for the Jewish people. Indeed, just as you experienced, my racial identity has a lot of effects on my other as well. An example you saw yourself could be the time when I was insulted by that guy in the restaurant: his dislike toward officers, if there was such dislike, was exacerbated into hatred just because I was a Jew. I experienced this again when I was in the grocery store the other day when they said I have “lost credit” in their store. This was odd at first because I have never visited them before, but they insisted, and initially I thought they might have mistaken me with some other guy who has had a bad record at their place; it turned out, as I thought about it, however, that it is because they realized that I am Jewish which led them to associate me with an unreliable record in their imagination. Another time I felt such humiliation was when soldiers try to become officers in their careers, I hardly see any Jewish soldier becoming officers, while their white counterparts who are less capable are often promoted as officers over Jewish soldiers. When I think about such things, I have a lot of questions in mind. Is it really accurate to call it humiliation? I wouldn’t say it is accurate, but I think it is a form of injustice. Could I choose to pass as white? I guess I could if that’s what I tell everyone; but in the meantime, I feel if I do, I am accepting the truth that there is something bad about being Jewish. Even if it is as Kathy said being white would have white privileges is a fact, it is not a fact that being “Jewish” ought to be looked down upon. I decided after leaving you guys that I will not hide my Jewish identity under any circumstance, so to show all the Kathys around the world that there is nothing wrong with being Jewish. I hope young Tommy won’t have such sentiments against being Jewish from what he experienced during your eight weeks of being Jewish, and again, I appreciated all the work you had done.
Best
Dave
After leaving you and Kathy I have gone back to my family, and when I think back, I can’t say how much I appreciated the work you have done for the Jewish people. Indeed, just as you experienced, my racial identity has a lot of effects on my other as well. An example you saw yourself could be the time when I was insulted by that guy in the restaurant: his dislike toward officers, if there was such dislike, was exacerbated into hatred just because I was a Jew. I experienced this again when I was in the grocery store the other day when they said I have “lost credit” in their store. This was odd at first because I have never visited them before, but they insisted, and initially I thought they might have mistaken me with some other guy who has had a bad record at their place; it turned out, as I thought about it, however, that it is because they realized that I am Jewish which led them to associate me with an unreliable record in their imagination. Another time I felt such humiliation was when soldiers try to become officers in their careers, I hardly see any Jewish soldier becoming officers, while their white counterparts who are less capable are often promoted as officers over Jewish soldiers. When I think about such things, I have a lot of questions in mind. Is it really accurate to call it humiliation? I wouldn’t say it is accurate, but I think it is a form of injustice. Could I choose to pass as white? I guess I could if that’s what I tell everyone; but in the meantime, I feel if I do, I am accepting the truth that there is something bad about being Jewish. Even if it is as Kathy said being white would have white privileges is a fact, it is not a fact that being “Jewish” ought to be looked down upon. I decided after leaving you guys that I will not hide my Jewish identity under any circumstance, so to show all the Kathys around the world that there is nothing wrong with being Jewish. I hope young Tommy won’t have such sentiments against being Jewish from what he experienced during your eight weeks of being Jewish, and again, I appreciated all the work you had done.
Best
Dave