Thursday, February 1, 2007

Chapter 8 (Part 2)

Part 2
Here is more of Chapter 8 of Monnara Iunnara (먼나라 이웃나라) Volume 10, dealing with the Jews. On page 225, author Rhie Won-bok was discussing the depredations that the Jews underwent, including prohibition from owning land and engaging in commerce or industry.

To top it all, They were forced to wear a badge indicating they were Jews. The Nazi oppression we've seen in movies had been going on since long before. They were forbidden from owning land and building farms.

I had not been aware that this practice had such a long history.

What could the Jews, forbidden from commerce and industry, do for a living? Eventually there was nothing left for them to do except usurious lending and finance. (결국은 돈장사, 즉 금융업이나 고리대금업밖에 없었지.)
(Graphic shows an angry Jew behind a counter, next to a sign that says "High interest service - Mortgages, Shylock Loan Service")
This was because Christians thought loaning money to their coreligionists for interest was a sin. It was the dirtiest profession and they would not touch it. So naturally Jews became the high interest lenders (고리대금업자), and again the hatred against Jews increased. The Jews earning money with money, lent money to kings and monarchs and gained all sorts of concessions. The nobility and the ruling class's hatred and wariness of Jews reached new peaks in the end of the 19th century. Antisemitism (반유대주의) grew stronger, eventually leading to Hitler's massacre of the Jews.
This is how Jewish history came to be stained with bitter tears (lit. tears of blood). Heated steel gains strength the longer you pound it. So the Jews grew more united and stronger the bigger their trials and pains. Our people (i.e. Koreans) experienced the pain of invasion several thousand times. We developed a strong and indomitable tenacity and mental strength. And yet still our land was stolen from us for more than 35 years [clear from the cartoon that he is referring to the Japanese colonial period].
But for 2000 years the Jews wandered, facing all kinds of want and oppression. They banded together with their religion. They helped each other and tightened their community with their Jewish mentality (유대의식). They were as strong as it was difficult for other peoples to defeat them, The Jewish religion is a mental rope that binds them together as a people. That is the true nature of the Jews.
(Graphic shows a Jew)
Jew: "Your blood line is not important. If someone believes in Judaism, that person is a Jew." ("핏줄이 중요한 게 아니다. 유대교를 믿으면 그가 곧 유대인이다!")
Is this, strictly speaking, true?


j_matto said...

Megaprops Joe,

What you're putting out is interesting and highly informative.

I hope your readership, of this translation-especially, grows quickliy.

sine qua non

usinkorea said...

I bitterly admire your Korean ability. I wish I could learn the language that well. I spent as much time in Korea and have taken college level Korean courses up to the 4th year level, but I still suck...

I run the site that seeks to pull cultural artifacts like this (primarily the news media) to explain what I view as Korea's anti-US/USFK habit.

I wish I could access Korean language sources as well as you.

Here is a book you might want to check out:


Someone mailed it to me a few years ago when they found my site. I have used bits and pieces of it before, but it takes me forever to translate even those small parts.

The guy who sent it to me said it seemed to be pretty popular judging by the number of people who paused to check it out at Kyobo Bookstore where it was displayed. I've tried to find info on the number of copies sold to date with not luck.

Anyway, fascinating stuff you are putting out. And this is a comic book! Geezzzz...

Joseph said...

This book excerpt discusses conversion and Israeli citizenship. My step-father is a non-practicing reform Jew who married my mother, a gentile. There was discussion and disagreement within his family about the status of his marriage, particularly because my mother did not convert. These members expressed disappointment that there would be no Jewish children produced from the union. So, as I understand it and as this excerpt makes clear, it is not easy to convert to Orthodoxy or Conservative Judaism, and families generally consider Judaism as a tradition extending over the generations. So, there is a strong awareness of Us vs. Them, and then also assimilationist vs. exclusionists. For instance, my step-father likes to celebrate Xmas but not Hanukkah, and we only celebrated Hanukkah with the older members of his family. However, he did not celebrate Easter, but preferred Passover. We did not celebrate New Year's, and my stepfather never took a day off for Jewish holidays.

This author's view of Judaism is a crude caricature, and doesn't do justice to all these issues, of which I can only scratch the surface.

Joseph said...


Joe Mondello said...

Keep in mind I chose this book to translate partly because it is a comic book, intended for children and relatively easy to read and thus translate. I don't think you'll be disappointed, there's plenty in this book other than chapter 8

Thanks for your link, it is quite interesting. You are right, like most of the contents of this book, the chapter on Jews is a crude caricature. Unlike most of the other crude caricatures, there is a lot of anger behind it.

Anonymous said...

It's great to know that Korean kids are learning what American Jews'slaves are forbidden to learn.