“Mendel’s Exploration”, also known as “Angry Jew”, helped me embrace my legacy

In 2014, three Israeli friend released Angry jew, A game about an angry but cute Jew who travels through time to go back to Russia in 1894 to kick Cossack Tus.at first An android app, The latest iteration is also available In the apple storeThe little hero Mendel is seeking to retrieve the stolen religious books-the sickle-wielding villain punches and kicks and shouts “Goyim!” “Dirk!” “Jewald!” or “Sheigetz!” Strong Yiddish accent, just like I was in a dream.

When Avishai De Vries pitched the game idea to his programming friends Gil Elnekave and Edo Frankel, they found it both funny and crazy. “It’s a perfect gimmick,” Elnekave thought, but “it didn’t have any reason to make money.” Nevertheless, he still believed in the talents of his partners and was looking for a side business, so he jumped on the boat.

The most important aspect of this game is Mendel’s appearance. He shook the shtreimel, the furry round fur hat worn by the Orthodox Jews, with a beard that would make Drake jealous. His hair is jet black and his nose is big. When I was young, I was taught that those characteristics are terrible-people who look like me and come from a similar background are not heroes, we are shy people.

Jews use humor to deal with trauma in juggling, movies, books, and plays.but Angry jewThe creator of hasn’t seen it in video games. “This is another expression of the same speech,” De Vries said. Nibbs fighting back. He explained that non-Jews are the ones who create this stereotype, “so I will take over it.”

In my case, after my parents moved my family from Niskayuna, New York, where there are many Jewish people, to Voorheesville, New York, the stereotype became deeply rooted in my heart, where I was selected as the only Semitic in fifth grade. One of the people-the class. In the 90s (and all other times), children (yes) were very mean. I am very defensive about the normalization of “locker room talk” (I see you are Trump) because I know racism, homosexuality, sexism, Islamophobia, with It is anti-Semitism. When I was in middle school, I tossed a coin at me. Once, I saw a classmate put his thumb and ring finger between a quarter, and then flicked it. The coin was spinning in the hall, sawing into my eyebrows, leaving a scar.

My family is a typical story of Jewish immigrants. My grandfather traveled from Poland to the United States in the early 1900s to escape the Holocaust and the rising anti-Semitism. In New York, he went from selling scraps to owning his own wallpaper shop, which my father took over. After my coming-of-age ceremony, I became a stock boy, dusting paint cans, photographing price tags, and dusting the shelves.

Deitcher’s Wallpaper Outlet ads are occasionally aired on local TV stations. My peers followed me in the high school hallway, mocking my father’s nasal voice in the ad: “Come to Deitcha’s wallpaper store. We will not be underestimated.” I despise children who bully me, but I also detest me. The family questioned how we slyly entered the white Christian America. Although my father works 60 hours a week, I still feel that we have not succeeded.

I tried to fight back, but didn’t know how to hit the punch that my opponent felt. By the 11th grade, I came up with a new way of living: laugh at myself before others. I was charging a few cents in the hall. I call myself Hebrew Hammer (a few years before the movie’s release), Killer Kike, and Jewish Master. All this is very interesting because I am a scrawny string bean.

After graduating from high school, I accepted my tradition. I even studied it in my undergraduate studies-and I binge drinking every night, going in and out to detox. Many Mendels protected me during those years, and many Mendels helped me heal after I was 25 years old and sober. They fed me Sabbath dinner. Learn Torah with me. Teach me to pack tefillin.