It was downright robbery. That's what I call it. Well,
have you sold a lot of them?" And he gave me a merry wink that
cut me as with a knife
One of the things about which he often made fun of me was my
Talmud gesticulations, a habit that worried me like a physical
defect. It was so distressingly un-American. I struggled hard
against it. I had made efforts to speak with my hands in my
pockets; I had devised other means for keeping them from
participating in my speech. All of no avail. I still gesticulate a
great deal, though much less than I used to
One afternoon, on a west-bound train, Loeb entertained a group of
passengers of which I was one with worn-out stories of
gesticulating Russian Jews. He told of a man who never opened
his mouth when he was out of doors and it was too cold for him to
expose his hands; of another man who never spoke when it was so
dark that his hands could not be seen. I laughed with the others,
but I felt like a cripple who is forced to make fun of his own
deformity. It seemed to me as though Loeb, who was a Jew, was
holding up our whole race to the ridicule of Gentiles.
Pages:
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520