Down with the crucifix and up with the bonnet

«The radio was playing 'Easter Parade' and I thought, But this is Jewish genius on a par with the Ten Commandments. God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and then He gave to Irving Berlin 'Easter Parade' and 'White Christmas.' The two holidays that celebrate the divinity of Christ -- the divinity that's the very heart of the Jewish rejection of Christianity -- and what does Irving Berlin brilliantly do? He de-Christs them both! Easter he turns into a fashion show and Christmas into a holiday about snow. Gone is the gore and the murder of Christ -- down with the crucifix and up with the bonnet! He turns their religion into schlock. But nicely! Nicely! So nicely the goyim don't even know what hit 'em. They love it. Everybody loves it. The Jews especially. Jews loathe Jesus. People always tell me Jesus is Jewish. I never believe them. It's like when people used to tell me Cary Grant was Jewish. . . . Jews don't want to hear about Jesus. And can you blame them? So -- Bing Crosby replaces Jesus as the beloved Son of God, and the Jews, the Jews, go around whistling about Easter! And is that so disgraceful a means of defusing the enmity of centuries? Is anyone really dishonored by this? If schlockified Christianity is Christianity cleansed of Jew hatred, then three cheers for schlock. If supplanting Jesus Christ with snow can enable my people to cozy up to Christmas, then let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!»

-Philip Roth, Operation Shylock.

(Dos tempos em que Roth fazia a melhor sitting-down-stand-up-comedy do planeta. Porque isto provavelmente não merece um post à parte, permitam-me um curto desabafo: as tardias grinaldas críticas que choveram sobre Philip Roth depois da chamada "Trilogia Americana" foram inteiramente merecidas. Mas parece-me tão óbvio que as suas obras-primas são Sabbath's Theater, este Operation Shylock e sobretudo The Counterlife, que chego a pensar que os que preferem as mais sisudas e solenes Pastorais e Manchas Humanas são um pouco como os fãs de Dylan que acham que «Lay, Lady Lay» é a sua melhor canção. O que, convenhamos, é perceber o homem ao contrário. Pronto, era só isto.)