for the Christians, it is a sacrament."

I can't remember who to attribute that quote to, but I'm pretty sure it was a Jew.

Jews are disproportionately represented in the banking and finance industries for historical reasons. For centuries, Jews were forbidden to own land, join guilds, participate in many professions, and were forced to gravitate to ways of earning a living that Christians (and Muslims) refused to get involved in for religious reasons, particularly moneylending.

They also developed a reputation for being tough businessmen, but scrupulously honest ones, often policing their own ranks rigorously to prevent Gentiles from having an excuse to persecute them as a group. This, plus their tradition of community solidarity, strong sense of family committment, and devotion to scholarship and learning, made them ideal for participation in these professions. It also led them to dominate other, much less controversial fields, too, like gem cutting and gold- and silversmithing.

Like all forms of bigotry, anti-semitism must be taught. My mother was raised in a Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx, she even spoke English with a New York Jewish accent. She went to Jewish schools, patronized Jewish merchants, went to mostly-Jewish public schools, and had Jewish girl and boy friends.

As a Latin, she did not detect personal racism from them the way she experienced it from the Gentile community, particularly the Anglo-Saxons and Irish, who she felt were the worst. (To her, the two were indistinguishable, she could never understand why they were always at war). I was fortunate to inherit my respect and admiration for the Jewish people from her. One of my best friends in high school was Jewish, although there were very few Jews in the part of Florida I grew up in.

As my mother used to put it, "I like the Jews, they remind me a lot of Cubans."