Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hmmm....

I usually find it best, not to be offended by such stupidity. Being the bigger man sometimes is showing restraint.

So instead of me advising you on the correct way to strike someone to knock them out in one punch a la UFC. I suggest combating weak racial stereotype humor with biting sarcasm and antagonization about how little said person has accomplished in life.

OR

Do nothing... and then 4 months later make a crack about his mother in front of an even larger group of people.

Either way... keep cool, keep calm and maintain your wits.

You want to know our feelings, or you want to know what you should've done? I can't tell you the latter, but for the former:

I find it laugh-worthy. The Jews I know -- and I know a lot, being as how I live in a very Jew-heavy area of a very Jew-heavy city -- tend to be strict with their expenditures. Why?

1. Because we're obligated to give ten percent to tzedakah (charity/justice) and live on the other 90%, and because we tend to give even more than what's strictly required by the Torah.

2. Because we've got to leave certain lights on, plus the oven and stovetop, all during Shabbat and Yom Tov, thus spending more on our electric bills -- and nearly double in summertime, when we have to run the AC just to combat all the extra heat of leaving those things on.

3. Because we send our children to Jewish schools instead of public schools, which costs us many thousands of dollars per child, per year. Because we make anywhere from two to two hundred gift boxes as mishloach manot, food gifts, for the holiday of Purim.

4. Because in order to find skirts that are long enough, without slits in them, we often have to buy two skirts instead of one at a time: one to wear, the other to cut up and use to put extra fabric beneath slits in fashionable skirts.

5. Because every single week, for Shabbat, we cook a feast and serve it to our immediate families, plus any visitors that may show up -- and yes, most of us tend to get at least one or two visitors every Shabbat. This feast is lavish enough to give Thanksgiving a run for its money. Believe me, the costs add up.

6. Because we buy the best candlesticks, menorot, wine cups, prayer shawls, and other religious paraphernalia that we can afford. It's the mitzvah of "hidur mitzvah," beautifying the sacred obligation. If you're going to do something as a mitzvah, the Talmud says that you should do it in the most beautiful way that you can reasonably afford, in order that both you and others should see mitzvot as an attractive part of life.

Yes, we're thrifty. But stingy? No. Moneygrubbing? No. We just have priorities that aren't the same as those of mainstream folks.

It's fun because sometimes I run into a evangelical atheist who believes that all religion is bunk and goes about bashing everyone's religion in the name of freedom of speech.

Which I support. (The freedom of speech that is)

I usually get the "mmm bacon... bacon is so good... NOM NOM NOM" argument from this character.

I chuckle it off... and then mention that my religion opens me up to deep and meaningful self reflection and concepts of what I do in life and how it relates to the rest of the world.

Then I mention that the only thing deep and meaningful he's ever done is score a perfect 100% on "Through the Fire and the Flames" on Expert.

Those who Play Guitar Hero 3 will get that joke.

Here in Australia people are really ignorant when it comes to Jews. I think this mainly has something to do with the fact that 80% of Jewish children go to private Jewish schools and thus there's little interaction between Australian Jews and Gentiles. I think people are surprised to find out I'm Jewish because I don't dress like a Hasid (not that they'd know what a Hasid is stare )

So yeah, I used to get "cheap Jew" and "why don't you wear a Jew hat?" quite often.