The Marxist Monster from Milwaukee
Professor Bertell Ollman
In 2005, as a protest against Israel, Ollman wrote and published a Letter of Resignation from the Jewish People, stating: “Socialist and ex-Jew that I am, I guess I still have too much respect and love for the Jewish tradition I left behind to want the world to view it in the same way as they rightly view and condemn what the ex-Jews who call themselves Zionists are doing in its name. And if changing my status from ex-Jew (current) to non-Jew (projected) stirs even ten good people (God’s minyan) into action against the Zionist hijacking of the Jewish label, then this is a sacrifice I am ready to make.”
This letter earned the professor the scorn of his Tribe, but he retained his position at NYU as he does till this day.
Last winter I was employed by the professor’s loving son to elder care for the Professor at the NYU Bleecker Street professorial dorms. Our days together consist of lunch cooked by Raoul, watching TV, a bowl of ice cream and listen to poetry. We converse about the revolution and the overthrow of the capitalist system surrounded by thousands of books on Marxism, communism, socialism, histories and various fields of thought pertaining to the Struggle, and his hitting the bedroom for his afternoon nap.
Sadly the professor has lost much of his knowledge, but not his humor.
In December I decided to read his 2005 brilliant Letter of Resignation from the Jewish People. One hour at the end of which he nodded his head several times in sublime understanding. I was honored by his attention, but at the end he commented, “I don’t agree with everything you read.”
“But you wrote this, not me.”
“I know that, ” he smiled. “But my thoughts on some of it have changed.”
“So you want to become a Jew again?”
“What? And give up Moo Shu Pork.” We both have a good laugh and I was heartened to aid his quest for the overthrow of Capitalism.
“Workers of the World unite. You have nothing to lose, but your debt.”
To read Professor Bertell Ollman’s Letter of Resignation, please go to this URL
https://facpub.stjohns.edu/~ganterg/sjureview/vol3-1/07Resignation-Ollman.htm
He begins the letter with this quote;
To this I would only add, “Noam Chomsky, Mordechai Vanunu and Edward Said are Jewish. Elie Wiesel is goyish. So, too, all ‘Jewish’ neo-cons. Socialism and communism are Jewish. Sharon and Zionism are very goyish”. And, who knows, if this reading of Judaism were to take hold, I may one day apply for readmission to the Jewish people.
“Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe”. —Elie Wiesel, acceptance speech, Nobel Prize for Peace, December 10, 1986.
The Professor ends the letter with this paragraph.
As far as I’m concerned, the comedian, Lenny Bruce, provided the only good answer to this question when he said, “Dig, I’m Jewish. Count Bassie’s Jewish. Ray Charles is Jewish. Eddie Cantor is goyish… Marine Corps – heavy goyish… If you live in New York or any other big city, you’re Jewish. If you live in Butte, Montana, you’re going to be goyish even if you’re Jewish… Kool-Aid is goyish. Evaporated milk is goyish even if Jews invented it… Pumpernickel is Jewish and, as you know, white bread is very goyish.… Negroes are all Jews… Irishmen who have rejected their religion are Jewish… Baton twirling is very goyish.”
Like his son I love this man.