George Orwell: Antisemitism in Britain

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It is interesting to compare the “Jew joke” with that other stand-by of the
music halls, the “Scotch joke”, which superficially it resembles. Occasionally a
story is told (e.g. the Jew and the Scotsman who went into a pub together and
both died of thirst) which puts both races on an equality, but in general the
Jew is credited merely with cunning and avarice while the Scotsman is
credited with physical hardihood as well. This is seen, for example, in the
story of the Jew and the Scotsman who go together to a meeting which has been
advertised as free. Unexpectedly there is a collection, and to avoid this the
Jew faints and the Scotsman carries him out. Here the Scotsman performs the
athletic feat of carrying the other. It would seem vaguely wrong if it were the
other way about.

Comments

[ovg.livejournal.com]

1) it is perhaps worth remembering that from his childhood Eric Blair hated all things Scottish. He only changed this attitude after having lived on a scottish island (Jura) for a while (this was in late 40ies, i.e. just a few years before his death of TB in 1950.

2) George Orwell was often accused of being antisemitic. Here is what he had written in a letter to a friend (Julian Symmons) in 1948:

"One has to draw a distinction between what was said before and what after 1934. Of course all these nationalistic prejudices are ridiculous, but disliking Jews isn't intrinsically worse than disliking Negroes, or Americans, or any other block of people. In the early twenties, Elliot's anti-Semitic remarks were about on a par with the automatic sneer one casts at Anglo-Indian colonels in boarding houses. On the other hand if they had been written after the persecutions began they would have meant something quite different... Some people go round smelling after anti-Semitism all the time. I have no doubt Fyvel thinks I am anti-Semitic. More rubbish is written about this subject than any other I can think of."