It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the passing of the musician-comedian Kinky Friedman. I appreciate his riotous take on anti-Semitism. According to The Forward, he died June 26th at the age of 79.
Another song, “They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore,” recounts how a barroom antisemite is trounced by a Jewish cowboy. The song would delight fans like Joanne Greenberg, author of the 1963 novel The King’s Persons about the medieval massacre of the Jewish population of York, the United Kingdom.
It’s very difficult to make racism or anti-Semitism funny. Kinky Friedman managed to do that, in so doing helped to bring awareness of the stupidity of racism to those who might not have gotten that message. He will be missed.
This article was brought to my attention by Stephen Koenigsberg.