Mocking the "Polish" Grandma: Growing Up with Anti-Diasporic Sentiment

Tal Hever-Chybowski, historian and teacher of Yiddish and director of the Paris Yiddish Center Medem Library, recounts how his Israeli family's anti-Diasporic attitudes found expression in their perceptions of his grandmother as "Polish." This, he explains, meant seeing her as "funny, grotesque, weak," and more. The only talk of Europe and the family's European history pertained to these stereotypes and anti-Semitism -- in short, why Europe is bad.