JCRC
All Stupid Students, Please Stand.
Nobody Stood—Except The Teacher!
OX
News Channel president Roger Ailes said, "I’m a boy from
Ohio, really a goy from Ohio, who’s introducing an African
American woman for a Jewish award."
Ailes introduced H. Mitsy Wilson,
senior vice president of diversity development at the News
Corporation, who accepted the corporate leader award from
Janice
Shorenstein, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council
at a dinner at the Pierre Hotel.
Mitsy was a Catholic schoolgirl in
Bronx, Aisles related. One day her teacher was so frustrated in
class that she called everybody stupid.
"If you’re stupid, stand up," she
said.
Nobody stood, except Mitsy.
"Are you saying you’re stupid?" the
teacher said.
"No," Mitsy said, "but I didn’t think
you should be standing alone."
More than 550 guests were amused,
including former Manhattan District Attorney Robert
Morgenthau, UJA-Federation executive vice president John
Ruskay, Israeli Consul General Asaf Shariv, New York
City Comptroller John Liu, incoming JCRC president
Alan Jaffe, Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch, and
HarperCollins Publishers president/CEO Brian Murray.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
described how "in America we hyphenate our nationality—Jewish
Americans, Irish Americans, Spanish Americans, African Americans
or whatever. We live as a mosaic of different parts, rather than
a mixture. People of all ethnic backgrounds walk the streets of
New York together."
Shorenstein, retiring after three
years as president, announced that the dinner raised $1.3
million. "We help to build and secure communities in New York."
William Rapfogel, CEO of the
Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, credited dedicated
volunteers as the backbone of the success for a charity.
"It took one volunteer to build the
ark — and thousands of professionals to build the Titanic."
Shorenstein presented awards to real
estate builders Jeffrey E. Levine and son Benjamin,
Deutsche Bank managing director Jacques Brand, and
BlackRock vice chairman Bennett Golub.
Ailes, who regaled the crowd with his
vast repertory of stories, retold the one about O’Brian who had
fish every Friday. He was annoyed at the odor of barbecued steak
wafting in from next door.
Finally O’Brian took his neighbor to
church where the priest sprinkled water on his head and
pronounced, "You were born a Jew, raised a Jew, now you’re a
Catholic."
Next Friday O’Brian was stunned to see
his neighbor again barbecuing a steak. The man was sprinkling
and saying, "You were born a cow, raised a steak, now you’re a
fish."
