They can be hilarious, vulgar, sometimes inconceivable but always carrying a sub-textual message as revealing, often more so, than the message itself. Viral emails – missives containing salaciously alluring information or images that practically force recipients to forward copies along to their acquaintances – very often derive their epidemiological power (that need they inspire to infect others) by exploiting shared fears, vulnerabilities, or desires in the human mind. Sometimes those fears are shared universally – a very, very viral email – while most of the time the message is tailored to exploit the fears and desires of a particular group or community. Which brings us to one particular ethnic variant of the viral email, the Jewish viral email. Most of the time, they’re an expression of the community's lowest common denominator, and invariably, fall into one of three categories: 1) This or that person or organization is secretly (or openly!) trying to destroy the Jews! 2) Holy shit we're awesome! Did you know 99% of all Nobel prize winners are Jewish, or that so-and-so celebrity's half brother's mom is a full-blooded yid?!?!? 3) Some crude, often funny, joke insinuating that all gentiles are morons, or, when it comes to Muslims, that they're all vicious animals. These are the cloacal evils lurking in the deepest, darkest recesses of our collective bowels, flushed out by a cyber-enema of dashed off emails. Each episode of this form of communal colonic is fraught with meaning, revealing the fin-de-millennium anxieties on the forefront of our minds. Basically, they are great fodder for conversation. So send us your virals! Send us them as you get them and we'll highlight the best of them here weekly. Simply forward them to info@jewcy.com. This week, I received this impolitic forward from a fellow who, how shall I say it, leans to the right. Its subject line is entitled “Muslim Pussy….”
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