Episode
Good Goy, Bad Goy: The Portrayal of Gentiles in Sketches from the London Yiddish Press
- Podcast
- New Books in Religion
- Published
- Jul 1, 2026
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK7518846403.mp3
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-religion-42803/episodes/good-goy-bad-goy-the-portrayal-of-gentiles-in-sketches-from-the-london-yiddish-press/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-religion-42803/good-goy-bad-goy-the-portrayal-of-gentiles-in-sketches-from-the-london-yiddish-press.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Gentiles often appeared in the news sections of the London Yiddish press, and sometimes they also appeared in the regular “feuilleton” section in character sketches and fiction, stories and scenes from immigrant East-End Jewish life. Many of these portrayals were humorous local scenarios and imagined tales. This talk will look at a broad section of how and where Gentile characters appear and their relationship to the Jewish immigrant. Gentiles fix cars and do physical chores for the hapless immigrant. The wily immigrant hoodwinks the Gentile recruiting officers during the First World War. The stern Gentile gatekeeper of British government politics, refuses access to the naïve immigrant wanting to help. The paternalistic English police officer gives directions to parts of London never before visited by an East-End immigrant. A proud fascist blackshirt is confused when he sees his respected Jewish neighbors in a strident communist counter-demonstration. Yet the word goy is also used by Jews describing each other: skipping the bus fare, not sharing their Yiddish newspaper, or being rude to their neighbor. This lecture originally took place on January 26, 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion