Stereotypes of Jews

Stereotypes of Jews are caricatured and generalized representations of Jews, often of a prejudiced and antisemitic nature. The Jewish diaspora in Europe and the Western hemisphere have been stereotyped for over 2,000 years as scapegoats for a multitude of societal problems.Antisemitism continued throughout the centuries and reached a climax in the Third Reich during World War II. Jews are still stereotyped as greedy, nit-picky, stingy misers and are often depicted in caricatures, comics, and propaganda posters counting money or collecting diamonds. Early films such as Cohen's Advertising Scheme (1904, silent) stereotyped Jews as "scheming merchants".

Common objects, phrases and traditions used to emphasize or ridicule Jewishness include bagels, playing violin, klezmer, undergoing circumcision, haggling and uttering phrases like mazel tov, shalom, and oy vey. Other Jewish stereotypes are the rabbi, the complaining and guilt-inflicting Jewish mother, the spoiled and materialistic Jewish-American princess and the often meek and nerdy nice Jewish boy.

Jewish Princess (song)

"Jewish Princess" is a song by Frank Zappa released on his album Sheik Yerbouti in 1979. The song is a humorous look at the Jewish-American princess stereotype which attracted attention from the Anti-Defamation League, to which Zappa denied an apology, arguing: "Unlike the unicorn, such creatures do exist — and deserve to be 'commemorated' with their own special opus". In an interview with Spin magazine he was almost offended saying, "…as if to say there is no such thing as a Jewish Princess. Like I invented this?" Biographer Barry Miles claimed in his book, Frank Zappa (Atlantic Books of London, 2005), that the ADL asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to ban the record from being played on the air - a symbolic effort given that the song was not being played anyway. This led to the rumor that a legal action had been filed against Zappa, a charge he vehemently denied in a CNN interview on "The Freeman Report" show of October 26, 1981. Zappa claimed that offensive songs such as this are why Sheik Yerbouti became one of his best selling albums of all time. Although it had little play in concert, it was included on Zappa's theme collection Have I Offended Someone?