Editorial: It’s Greek to us

Issue of August 13, 2010/  3 Elul 5770

In this tough economy, workers with transferable skills hold a certain advantage over people with more specialized training and experience. That’s why it was such a relief to see that after 60-plus years as the designated scapegoat for the ills of the Arab world, we Jews have not been permanently typecast as Middle East villains, but are still flexible and versatile enough to be a scapegoat for Greece as it tumbles down an economic cliff.

We refer to a television commercial, viewable online, for Greece’s Jumbo toy store chain that featured marionettes derived from that country’s tradition of shadow puppet theater. One of the characters is Karagiozis, embodying the Greek people; the other a stereotypically uncouth, ill-spoken and usurious Jew.

This translation appeared on the Abravanel blog, promising coverage of “Jewish life and not only in Greece”:

[lurid loanshark] Jew: Ahoy, what are the news — the German will lend? German is good.

Karagiozis: Nein, German no lend.

[lurid loanshark] Jew: Hey, then me lend! But to lend must make plenty.

Karagiozis: How much make plenty?

[lurid loanshark] Jew: Forty percent make plenty.

Karagiozis: You haven’t convinced me; I’m going to Jumbo to find a solution for me.

It’s bad enough that the character of the Jew as presented here is a regular feature of this aspect of traditional Greek culture. More disturbing however, is that a company traded on the Athens stock exchange sees nothing wrong with airing something so patently offensive in order to hawk toys.

But that’s where the scapegoat comes in, of course.

Greece is in deep financial trouble. It owes more than its annual gross domestic product. A few months ago the Greek economy teetered on the verge of total collapse.

A European bailout was secured only after Greece imposed austerity measures that led to demonstrations and street violence.

Years of living beyond its means are the root cause of Greece’s troubles, economics agree. But the economic insolvency is exacerbated by tax evasion on a massive scale.

One news report last spring described tax collectors chartering a helicopter to eyeball backyard swimming pools in Athens. Taxpayers in their official filings admitted to perhaps half a dozen; aerial reconnaissance showed thousands of swimming pools for which no taxes were paid.

Greece enjoys a champagne lifestyle on a beer budget, doesn’t pay its taxes and was embarrassed a few months back to have its problems become international common knowledge. Good thing they’ve got the Jews. Of course, it’s all the Jews’ fault.

The words from Maos Tzur seem to echo as this is typed: ‘Yevanim Nikbetzu Alai, Greeks gathered against me.’ But there’s some delicious irony as well.

Greeks famously wreaked havoc in Jerusalem some time ago, as we all know. We recall the occasion every Chanukah. But now Jerusalem is a modern, thriving metropolis, if you’ll forgive the Greek term, while Athens is in danger of being repossessed.

On Wednesday afternoon the toy chain’s marketing department responded to complaints about the ad with an apology and a promise that the ad would never air again. That’s nice; it was the right thing to do, and made good business sense besides.

But to a certain extent any damage the ad could do in a country with rising anti-Jewish violence has already been done.

And if worse comes to worst, and Greece actually goes bankrupt or descends into anarchy, the Greek people should know they will have no one to blame but themselves.