One day in the early 1950s, Sadie received a call in New York City that her sister Greta, who was in Miami Beach for winter, had a stroke and was in the hospital. Sadie took the first available flight to Miami and after landing went straight to the hospital. When visiting hours ended, she took a cab to the nearest hotel, which unbeknownst to her did not welcome Jewish guests.
Sadie, who looked like an old Jewish lady and had a thick Yiddish accent, went up to the counter and asked for a “chroom fir denight.”
The desk agent said, “I have no rooms available.”
Sadie explained her emergency situation. Tomorrow she could find another hotel, but tonight she was exhausted and needed a room. The hotel employee responded, “I am sorry ma’am, this is a restricted hotel, and we don’t welcome Jews.”
Sadie said, “Djews, Djews! I am not a Djew but a Catolic from de alt country.” He laughed skeptically. She said, “I am a Catolic. Why don’t you test me?”
So the hotelier said, “Who was Jesus’ mother?”
Sadie replied, “Of course, Mary the wife of Joseph.”
“Even a Jew might know that answer,” he responded. “Let’s try something harder: Where was baby Jesus born?”
Sadie replied, “In a manger, because some antisemite like you wouldn’t chrent a chroom to a Djew!”
Just a generation or two ago some US hotels, resorts, and country clubs excluded Jewish patrons. This joke explores what, from the Jewish viewpoint, is the inanity of Christian antisemitism. Christians worship Jesus, who was born, lived, and died a Jew. Yet many of these same Christians shun and maltreat Jesus’ own people. Of course there are explanations for this fact, most especially the way the church blamed the whole Jewish people for Jesus’ execution, an idea that reaches back to the Gospels. But Christian antisemitism remains enigmatic to many Jews.
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Editor's note:
I could never understand how the holocaust occurred in Christian countries in the cradle of Western Civilization until I read Daniel Goldhagen's book, Hitler's Willing Executioners. Reading this book was an epiphany when I learned about the endemic existence of Christian anti-Semitism. So when I read this joke I laughed, but then I cried.
