The GOP ‘Discovers’ Anti-Semitism.

When I was a kid, which was just about before everyone reading this column was born, Jews were Democrats and goyim (the Yiddish word for non-Jews) were Republicans, and that was the way things were.

Jews also drank Pepsi because Coca-Cola was run by a bunch of anti-Semites, and for the same reason no self-respecting Jew ever drove a Ford.

It goes without saying, of course, but I’ll say it, that Jews would never be caught in a Volkswagen, which happened to be the only German car imported into the United States after World War II. One day a friend parked his Volkswagen minibus in front of our house and my father told him to move it down the street.

Oh, you also didn’t shop at the A&P. They were also anti-Semites, although God knows where that one came from.

It was also understood that Jews couldn’t live in certain suburbs because that’s where Republicans lived. And of course, if you were Jewish you weren’t about to be invited to join the local country club.

Think I’m making this all up? I’m not. Banks didn’t hire Jews, ditto insurance companies, ditto Wall Street firms. Some of the brokerage houses had one Jewish broker who handled all the investment accounts opened by Jews, but he sat quietly in a corner and kept his mouth shut except when he answered his phone.