Re: I was Jewish For Six Months -- Not sure you know what passing actually is.

Dear Mr. Green,

I recently stumbled across your article “I was Jewish For Six Months” and truly appreciated the level of compassion you showed in giving up your privileges as a Christian in order to illustrate the plight that I face daily. In reading in greater detail however, I became somewhat confused as to how exactly you “passed” as Jewish? The only relevant details I can find is that you began telling people that you were in fact Jewish, which I don’t get, do you look Jewish?

Perhaps I need to give you a little of my story so you will understand, because you see I have had a rather rough go at trying to pass. My father was a cantor, and his father before him, so naturally I was expected to go into the tradition but found my calling as a jazz singer. Of course, nobody would want to see a Jew up on stage, so I put on blackface so everyone would think I was white. That part always gets a little confusing for people, but its really pretty simple, to pass as white and hide my Jewish features I had to pretend to be a white person pretending to be a black person. Its just theatrics I suppose. In the end though, putting on burnt cork was the best thing I could do, because even when everyone found out I was Jewish, no one even thought twice, because at least I wasn’t black.

So you see there’s the rub, I just don’t get how you can just tell people that you’re a Jew and they all believed you, and I had to get up on stage every night in blackface just to have a chance at convincing everyone I was as white as they are? I guess times change, and like you say “What are Jews anyway? They talk about the Jewish race, but never about the Catholic race or the Protestant race.” That’s exactly what I was trying to show everybody, I’m white just like any Semite, I just happen to have a different religion.

So in closing, I really appreciated what you’ve done, showing the whole world that we Jews aren’t so bad, and that really deep down we’re white just like any protestant or catholic. If I could have added just one line to your whole piece, it would have been a neat little commandment I thought up “Do unto others – who could pass for you – as you would have others do unto you – if you could pass for them.” I just thought that sums it all up nicely and solves the messy little problems we’ve got with race. That way we could all get along.

Happy Passing,

The Jazz Singer