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Semitic Representation

For picky people who need lawyers

by
Marc Tracy
October 05, 2010
(David Shulman/Sun-Sentinel)
(David Shulman/Sun-Sentinel)

A new organization called the Jewish American Bar Association (based—where else?—in Boca Raton, Florida) is causing a stir for its forthright marketing. “It implies a Jewish attorney is better than a non-Jewish attorney, and that can’t help the legal community at large,” says a local B’nai B’rith activist. Responds the social worker who started the organization: “If an all-women’s medical group posted an ad ‘Prefer a woman gynecologist?’ would that be offensive?” Which begs the question: If somebody made an analogy that implied that lawyers’ subject matter is inherently Jewish, would that be offensive?

By the way, the pop cultural moment that this most immediately provokes should provide a relief to Boomer readers who tire of my less out-of-date references. Watch the whole thing: I’m going more for what happens in the second half of the clip (starting around 5:09).

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.