Uh ...Japan Today reported that the Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging Lawsons, a Japanese retail chain, to pull an anti-Semitic book from its stores. The book called “Yudaya No Seikousha Ga Oshieru Ookanemochi Ni Naru Hito No Houteishiki” – A Successful Jew Teaches the Method for Becoming Fabulously Rich, has been condemned by the Japanese Jewish community as an anti-Semtic fraud. Anyone in Japan care to translate some passages for us? This might actually be interesting. Or funny. Who knows. Anyone?

And how come these forgeries are never about Jews doing fun things? It’s always World Domination this and Learned Elders that. Why are there never any forgeries with titles like “Secret Sex Mysteries of the Mosaic Persuasion,” or “Shlomo Shows You Surfing in 7 Simple Lessons.” Just sayin’ is all …

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ck

Founder and Publisher of Jewlicious, David Abitbol lives in Jerusalem with his wife, newborn daughter and toddler son. Blogging as "ck" he's been blocked on twitter by the right and the left, so he's doing something right.

17 Comments

  • You guys at Jewlicious should band together and write those two suggested titles. I’m sure the former especially would be a NY Times bestseller ;o)

  • I think these ancient secrets of becoming fabulously rich somehow skipped a few generations in my family. I do, however, know how to surf quite well, and would be glad to teach anyone.

  • I had a lovely flatmate this year who was Japanese. She was fascinated by all religions, when she found i was Jewish she wanted to know all about my customs/traditions – she was quite ignorant about Judaism. She would tell me, from time to time, that her father told her that Jews are really smart and good businessmen – which made me cringe and smile at the same time.
    This also reminds me of an old joke about a Jewish guy reading an Arab newspaper.

  • Yay, Petitedov’s here! Plus, I don’t know if anyone’s heard of the Makuya, but it’s a minority sect (or denomination, or whatever they call themselves) of Japanese Christians who are extremely enamored with Judaism and with Israel–to the point that my ulpan at Hebrew U was two-fifths Japanese. And one of the guys from that class was at JTS in NY pursuing a Masters or PhD in Bible, I forget which. They love Jews, Judaism, Israel, the Bible and Hebrew…very interesting.

  • and they are often seen parading around Jerusalem in impromptu I Love Israel parades. Very endearing yes, but uh… somewhat odd.

  • I remember reading that a few years ago, Fuji film in Japan had an OU hechsher on the outer packaging. I think there’s probably a joke here about shooting kosher, tsnius photos on 35 mm film and saving the racier stuff for your Polaroid Instamatic… They thought it was a good luck symbol, but the OU made them take it off the boxes, thereby causing digital photography to totally decimate the traditional film market. I wonder: if they’d switched to Ko-Jel and kept the hechsher, would we still have camera phones?

  • Damn! The last couple of posts have been off-the-chain funny! What happened? Just kidding. Jewlicious is always great but you all are definitely stepping it up.

  • The DiGiTaL is really 3rd order Commander in domination army. He follows the prime directors of the Elders of Zion, his job is to promote recycling, keep the black man down, and make sure Hamster are sold at inflated prices at Pet stores…..

  • wow upon viewing my last post, it is filled with bad grammar, for shame on you DiGiTaL, for Shame!!

  • I wouldn’t mind a jew or anyone teaching me how to be rich.

    I wonder if a jap can teach me how to be technologicaly advanced or how to build a really good car.

    Hey, while we’re all sharing our success secrets, right?

  • I’d like to point out that the big title near the top of the picture says:

    Yudaya Porotokôru

    i.e., “Jewish Protocol(s)”

  • Further to “Cringing and Smiling” at the same time….

    I have both Jewish and Christian relatives, and although I am not religious, I try to understand the cultural differences between people of different religions.

    Where does anthropology end and prejudice begin?

    My partner is Jewish and HE recently said to me:

    Goyim are not very smart….and usually NOT good in business…. they have drinks at their Clubs and think their buddies will take care of them……

    Should I take offense to that?

  • Stereotypes are stereotypes for the same reason that cliches become cliches…because there’s some element of truth involved. Personally, I’m bad with money, so I’m in no danger of controlling the world’s banks. (The world media is another issue.)

    William, sounds like your partner was playing with the cliches and stereotypes…but if what he said to you bothered you, and he wasn’t joking, then you might want to address the issue as something more substantive.

  • Uh, William, you should get a new partner, yours doesn’t sound very clever. Let’s hope that at least the sex is good for you both. 😉

  • William, dude– As a gentile, I gotta find me one of these all-goyim clubs!

    All these years, and I haven’t had to pick up ONE tab? Are you kidding me???

    Next time I’m out, here’s what I do. Run up a bill, pull the bartender aside, and ask him, sotto voce: ‘hey bud, you’re not, uh… Jewish, are you?’ (You can’t always tell, after all.)

    If he’s, like, Norwegian, or a British soccer hooligan or something, I’m off the hook!