Sunday, July 14, 2019
Elder of Ziyon
This Disney video from 1929, called The Opry House, includes Mickey Mouse performing on stage as both an Arab (with the Muslim star and crescent in the background, 3:30) and a Hasidic Jew (short piece at 4:29) dancing to the old Klezmer-style Mazel Tov tune:
On a quote different note, Teresa on Twitter pointed me to this poignant thread about a Jew who was sent to a Vichy camp before being forced to Auschwitz. He made a cartoon about how the ever optimistic Mickey Mouse would fare in his internment camp in Gurs.
The plot is simple: Mickey is arrested while strolling through Vichy France, and sent to Gurs, where he is detained. His response is bafflement rather than anger.
Yet if Mickey is bemused by the camp, it is likewise unable to get a read on him. In one panel the clerk tries to work out if Mickey is a Jew or a communist - but of course he is neither, unable to be dehumanised because he is already non-human.
At the end of the strip, Mickey decides that whatever Gurs is, it is not for him. And so he erases himself out of the strip altogether. 'And so, because I’m nothing more than a drawing, I rubbed myself out with a stroke of the eraser… and… ta-da…!!!'
(h/t The Jewish Press for The Opry House)
