My Dinner with the Ambassador from Japan

by Elke Reva Sudin

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There is a certain magic that happens with this project. One minute, I am explaining this idea I have about conceptualizing the future of Asian-Jewish crossover, the next minute, I get an invitation to the private residence of the Consul-General of Japan in New York! The event was a private dinner and discussion hosted by the Global Round Table, a group of Jewish professionals whose goal is to put a human face on global affairs with round table discussions and meetings such as this.
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U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Gets Acronym For ‘Jewish-American Princess’ Pulled From Bravo

By Alyssa Rosenberg

In a fascinating bit of cross-cultural misalignment, Michael Yaki, a former San Francisco supervisor and now a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, got Bravo to cut the use of the acronym “JAP,” which is colloquially used, often in a self-referential way, to stand for “Jewish-American Princess,” from its promos for and episodes of a new show, Princesses: Long Island, about privilege young women from the New York area. The San Francisco Chronicle explains:

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Why are Jews so smart, ponders retired Chinese official

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Jews, why are they so smart? Why are those people, those Jew people, so damned smart? What particularly is it about them, apart from their Jew-ness, that makes them smart? Answers to these questions and more can be found in former top Chinese official Wu Guanzheng’s new book.

Wu’s book, thrillingly titled ‘A Collection of Works Written During Leisure Time’, contains a series of reminiscences on his time in office – as China’s top anti-corruption official from 2002 to 2007 – including one on a trip he took to Israel. Isaac Stone Fish explains:

Wu notes how Jews “attach extreme importance to study” and how they see scholars “as their spiritual leaders.” Somewhat ironically for the man who was once the seventh-highest-ranking figure in an authoritarian system, Wu also praises Jews’ ability to “speak truth to power” and “freely express different opinions.”Chinese are notoriously philo-Semitic. Jewish visitors are often greeted with the platitude, “Ah, Jews, you so easily make money” (no joke), and there are dozens of Chinese-language books promising insight into Jewish secrets like raising smart children, succeeding in business, or unlocking the moneymaking secrets of the Talmud.

Read the full post in the Shanghiist