"Queen of the Jews"

* disclaimer * The title and most of the post is in quotes primarily because I don't want to be offensive to anyone of Jewish ehtnicity.  My five year old is just learning about the world - that's all.

Yesterday Gianna was packing up half her toys to give away to 'poor kids' (without my knowlege) and she happened upon this little dancing skirt.  I told her that when I was little I used to put them on my head to pretend I had different hair.

 

I put it on her in the same fashion and as she gazed upon her new look in the mirror she exclaimed, "Look, I'm Jewish!"

"Oh," I said, "Do you mean Egyptian?"

"Yeah, Egyptian." Except, that's not what she meant.  She meant Jewish. She only used the term Jewish from then on.

 

She said, "I'm Queen of the Jews!"

"Well, I'm pretty sure there's no such thing." bursting her bubble.

 

"Oooh - I'm going to dress Max (our dog) up as a Jew." she announced.

"Oh, please don't do that, Gianna.  That's not very nice."

"What? The Jews are bad?"

"No! Of course not. I mean not nice to dress Max up.  Gianna - Jesus was Jewish."

"Oh, so the Jews are nice."

"Of course. Do you remember that Ms. Ellen and Sarah are Jewish."

"Oh yeah.  Were they born in Jew Land?"

"They were born in the U.S."

"Well, I cannot believe that they had to do so much work."

"What does that mean?"

"That they had to be Jew slaves and do all the King's work.  I'm going to go to Jew Land and talk to that King and tell him to do his own work."

"Gianna, Ms Ellen and Sarah are not Jew slaves. Are you talking about the Pharoh? That's not happening any more, but it's nice of you to care about that.  And by the way, there is no place called Jew Land."

 

As I insisted she help me organize all the things she pulled out to donate to the poor, I heard her say under her breath,  "...I sure wish you wouldn't make me work like a Jew slave."

 

Yikes.  I'm a little nervous about the conversation that's bound to happen the next time we see our Jewish friends.