{"id":32079,"date":"2024-09-18T08:00:43","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T12:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=32079"},"modified":"2024-09-18T08:14:49","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T12:14:49","slug":"the-stomach-jew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2024\/09\/18\/the-stomach-jew\/","title":{"rendered":"THE STOMACH JEW"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\nEnglish novelist <\/strong><\/span>Howard Jacobson described himself as a \u201cstomach Jew” in an interview. He\u2019s a bagel-and lox\u00a0guy. He doesn\u2019t go to synagogue. He’s a stomach Jew. How about a lung Jew? A vein Jew?<\/p>\n

I bumped into Jacobson in London.\u00a0Former Yidd-Cupper Irwin Weinberger\u00a0and I ran into him on the street. Irwin and I were over in Londres in 2016. Irwin feigned a British accent while we busked. We did “When I’m 64.” Nothing much happened when we played it. London is big; people ignore you.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Howard Jacobson<\/p><\/div>\n

I recognized<\/strong><\/span> Jacobson’s punim from his book dust- jacket head shots. He won the Booker Prize in 2010. I said to him, \u201cAre you the English Philip Roth?\u201d I couldn’t remember his actual name when I bumped into him. Jacobson acknowledged he was, in fact, the English Philip Roth. Some American book reviewers call him that.<\/p>\n

Irwin and I told him we play klezmer and some Catskill’s comedy tunes, and Jacobson said, \u201cLike ‘Bar Mitzvah Ranch?’\u201d (Mickey Katz used to dress up as a Bar Mitzvah rancher in cowboy boots and chaps.) Katz, the musician, was from Cleveland. Jacobson said, \u201cYou play for ranchers?\u201d Ohio is ranches.<\/p>\n

Goodbye. Jacobson had places to go. A half hour later we ran into him again. What are the chances of that in London? He was with his wife. I should have asked about the “stomach Jew” quote. In America we say \u201cdeli Jew.\u201d My dad, Toby, was the king of deli Jews — borscht, halvah, corned beef. He grew up in a deli.<\/p>\n

I was once a bagel Jew. I’d go to Bialy\u2019s in University Heights, buy 15 bagels, eat two bagels right away, and drive to my mother\u2019s and give her three, and take home 10.\u00a0I was more than a bagel Jew. I was a bagel. Next time I run into Jacobson we’ll talk bagels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  English novelist Howard Jacobson described himself as a \u201cstomach Jew” in an interview. He\u2019s a bagel-and lox\u00a0guy. He doesn\u2019t go to synagogue. He’s a stomach Jew. How about a lung Jew? A vein Jew? I bumped into Jacobson in London.\u00a0Former Yidd-Cupper Irwin Weinberger\u00a0and I ran into him on the street. Irwin and I were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32079"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32235,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32079\/revisions\/32235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}