[Richard]

The word 'kike' came about from the Yiddish word 'keikel' for 'circle.' In Christian Europe, centuries ago, before the time of universal literacy, legal documents were usually signed by 'making your mark' - most commonly an 'x' because it was so similar to the Christian cross. Jews, of course, dissociated themselves from the cross and chose to make a circle - the symbol for eternity. Hence, Jews were disparagingly called 'kikes' for using 'keikels' to make their marks on documents.

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Name : Richard, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 44, City : Philadelphia, State : PA Country : United States, Occupation : Social Worker, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Richard]

There are people who find it rude that a large group of foreigners in splotchy clothing came to their country looking for what wasn't there and continue to walk and drive their streets carrying M-4's & SAWs while calling to each other loudly in English. Americans should stop being the world's policeman & get out of Iraq!

User Detail :  

Name : Richard, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 44, City : Philadelphia, State : PA Country : United States, Occupation : Social Worker, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Richard]

In Christian Europe, the Jews were apersecuted minority. When illiterate Christians were asked to 'sign' a document after it was explained to them, they made their 'mark': a cross, or an 'X.' Similarly, when illiterate Jews were asked to make their mark, they opted for a circle rather than a cross, or 'X.' 'Keikel' is the Yiddish word for 'circle.' Hence the pejorative term for a Jew became 'kike' from 'keikel.'

User Detail :  

Name : Richard, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 44, City : Philadelphia, State : PA Country : United States, Occupation : Social Worker, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Richard]

During the time when Europeans immigrated to the United States in great numbers at the turn of the 19th & 20th centuries, even some Jews were illiterate. The standard practice of an illiterate person signing a document was for them to 'make a mark.' Since most Europeans were Christians, they made their 'mark' with an 'X' because it resembled 'The Holy Cross.' When Jews were asked to sign with an 'X,' they refused on religious grounds and suggested that they be allowed to sign with a 'keikel' - Yiddish for 'circle.' Due to their insistence, and because of anti-Semitic feelings, 'keikel' was perverted into the word 'kike' which became the pejorative for 'Jew.'

User Detail :  

Name : Richard, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 44, City : Philadelphia, State : PA Country : United States, Occupation : Social Worker, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Richard]

In Christian Europe, until the time when the literacy rate began to rise rapidly, people would 'make their mark' - a cross, or an 'X' - on legal documents in lieu of a signature which they could not provide due to their inability to even sign their own name. This, of course, had to be witnessed by a literate person who had a writing job such as a scribe, or notary. When Jews were asked to make their marks, they refused to make anything resembling the sign of the cross because they were, at the time, labeled by the Church as Christ killers. Therefore, they opted to make a 'keikel' - Yiddish for 'circle.' The same was true at Ellis Island during the great Jewish immigration from Central & Eastern Europe to the United States. When the illiterate among them insisted on making their mark with a 'keikel,' they were labeled with the epithet of 'kike.'

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Name : Richard, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 44, City : Philadelphia, State : PA Country : United States, Occupation : Social Worker, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Richard]

Andrew, please do realize that ours is a country of immigrants, children of immigrants, grandchildren of immigrants, etc. Therefore, despite the wishes of the power-hungry WASPs and their poorer, ignorant, and, sometimes bloodthirsty brethren - the rednecks - that this country is to be a 'melting pot,' it remains, healthily, a 'salad bowl' or 'smorgasbord table,' where we're together as Americans, yet we remember our traditions because some of us still keep in touch with our cousins and other distant relatives in the 'Old Countries.' That, my friend is good for America because we are the bridges between the U.S. and the world; we are little ambassadors. We also tend to be more open-minded and educated than you inbred lot of chauvinists who have, like Dubya, created the animosity that the world has for America. I am a Polish-American and proud of who I am and what my people contributed to America. Also, I, unlike you, do not have issues with any other person because of his/her nationality or ethnicity because all cultures are unique and beautiful. Would you rather have a garden full of only one type of flower? Or, wouldn't you say that a variety of flowers is what makes the eyes and the soul happy? Think about it! Besides hyphenated Americans are not disloyal Americans because what comes before the hyphen does not diminish or obscure 'American' - it only enhances it. As for treason, even 'real Americans' can be traitors because of a personal character flaw that is only their own. Peace and Best Regards!!! Enjoy the diversity of this country!

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Name : Richard, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 44, City : Philadelphia, State : PA Country : United States, Occupation : Social Worker, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Richard]

If you think one or a few gold teeth are odd, how about the following story? In 1990, after Poland cast off the yoke of communism, I was a Polish-American student at the University of Warsaw. I was riding a tram (trolley) when a Russian woman in her early 30's addressed me and asked if I could direct her to the Central Railway Station since she was returning home from her visit. When I told her her how to get there, she gave me a broad smile and I was able to see that every one of her perfectly aligned teeth was gold-capped. She was very well dressed and since it was still winter, she was dressed in a very elegant fur coat with matching hat. I asked some friends who had travelled to the Soviet Union in the past and was told that 18 karat gold teeth were a status symbol and form of investment since there was not much very much investment opportunity in anything else available at the time. Besides the furs, I noticed that this woman also had a few pieces of gold jewelry which she was wearing. This was more than what the normal Russian woman tourist would be wearing, so she must have been wealthier than most. Maybe this is the same mentality among the African-Americans? A little bling-bling today - a little cha-ching, if necessary, tomorrow.

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Name : Richard, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 44, City : Philadelphia, State : PA Country : United States, Occupation : Social Worker, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Richard]

My father, Eugeniusz, his brothers, Zygmunt, Tadeusz and Jozef, and my grandmother, Marianna, were all slave laborers abducted from their home village, Gasiorow Maly, in Poland, on May 5, 1942, and forcibly deported by the Germans to Wiesmoor bei Wittmund (between Emden and Wilhelmshaven in Northwest Germany), where they were held against their will and forced to work as peat diggers and haulers until their liberation on May 5, 1945. Their daily ration was 'not enough to live on and just enough to keep them from death.' My paternal grandfather, Jozef, was a POW since the Germans' September 1939 campaign against Poland, and he was then forced into slave labor on a farm near Leipzig. My mother's family, on the other hand, Jan, Bronislawa, Franciszek, Zofia and Stefania (my mother), were forced to quarter German troops in their home while they staged their attack against the Soviet Union in 1941. During the German occupation, and especially during the period preceding Operation Barbarossa, rural Polish households were heavily taxed in kind, i.e. milk (even if a family had only one cow) had to be surrendered to the Germans for separation into cream, butter and whole milk. Millstones were confiscated so that grain could not be independently ground into flour. Grain was confiscated for grinding by the Germans and what came back was half sawdust. Because of the effects of 'Hitler's Spa' at Wiesmoor, my father's family died out before reaching ages 57. My mother has been ill with various conditions since she was age 35 and has been disabled since age 45.

Thank you, Germany, for sickening and prematurely decimating my family and stealing them from me in my youth. Your country is now the richest in Europe due to help from the United States after the war. The Jews and Israel received their measly reparations for your crimes. Where are my sister's, my cousins', and mine?

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Name : Richard, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 44, City : Philadelphia, State : PA Country : United States, Occupation : Social Worker, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Richard]

The thing that also gets me is when I need to flip a clothing tag over to the other side in order to finally get laundering instructions in English because the first instructions on the front of the tag are in Spanish and, sometimes, French. The product is being sold in the United States, a 280 million person market. I'm of Polish extraction and maintain the language in my home, however, I would think it arrogant to demand and expect laundering instructions in Polish. When my parents immigrated, they learned the language in order to function here. They speak/spoke with accents and their English was/is not perfect but they did not ask for a language catering service. Latinos!!! Drop your machismo. This is the United States and our common, official language here is English. Learn it and keep your Spanish at home like I keep my Polish.

User Detail :  

Name : Richard, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 44, City : Philadelphia, State : PA Country : United States, Occupation : Social Worker, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Richard]

I know that it is the premier port of Belgium and that the city was terribly destroyed during World War II. I also know that besides Amsterdam & Rotterdam, it was also the home of Flemish art and was particularly well known for its skilled tapestry weavers. I have seen fine examples of these tapestries called 'gobelins' displayed at Wawel Castle in Krakow, Poland.

User Detail :  

Name : Richard, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 44, City : Philadelphia, State : PA Country : United States, Occupation : Social Worker, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Richard]

Wow!!! This just confirms my long-standing opinion that we are not the 'United' States that the world might think we are. We are no 'melting pot.' Instead we are a 'soup pot' of individual, very discernible ingredients!!! Except for Native Americans of the surviving nations/tribes, who is a 'real American,' anyway?

User Detail :  

Name : Richard, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 44, City : Philadelphia, State : PA Country : United States, Occupation : Social Worker, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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