"Jew(ish) lightning"

Fri Mar 4 19:50:00 UTC 2011

At 3/4/2011 01:21 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>The phrase didn't make it into HDAS because, way back when, only a single
>cite was available. No earlier than '74, though.

And apparently still not earlier than '74, with now 2 cites or
perhaps 3 (Bill and I, plus one if the HDAS find is different).  And
probably more than a few later.

Joel

>JL
>
>On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 12:33 PM, George Thompson
><george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: "Jew(ish) lightning"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > JGreen's Dict of Slang has the expression from 1986-87, citing Maledicta.
> >
> > In 2000 I posted a long screed on the expression "successful fire" which
> > contained an oral occurrence of "Jewish lightning".  (He doesn't seem to
> > have "successful fire".)
> >
> > The screed, somewhat edited:
> >
> > Some months ago I walked down Broadway heading for the NYCity
> > Archives.  I crossed Canal St. just as the fire dept. was stowing its
> > gear after putting out a fire in a low and rather ratty looking
> > builidng that's somewhat of a landmark in the area, since it housed
> > "Pearl River", a Chinese department store.  Later that day I
> > overheard a couple of guys talking who had heard a news report on the
> > fire and were speculating as to where exactly it had been.  I told
> > them what I had seen, and they placed the building immediately.  Then
> > I said, "It looked like a pretty successful fire."  They both smiled
> > and nodded and added a few similar pleasantries, showing that they
> > were New Yorkers of the old breed.  My father never passed a burned
> > building without giving it a connoisseur's eye and pronouncing it "a
> > successful fire" or otherwise.
> >
> > In the next few days I did a random but unscientific sampling of
> > friends.  The general results were that the young people I know
> > didn't know the phrase, and the non-New Yorkers didn't know it
> > either.  My wife, who's my age but was born to respectable parents in
> > southwestern Pennsylvania, tells me that she had never heard it until
> > she came to the big city and began consorting with low company, such
> > as me and my father.  Actually, I only asked two New Yorkers of my
> > own age.  One, when I asked him if he used or recognized the phrase,
> > immediately said "The old Jewish lightning, eh?"  He was born and
> > raised in the Bronx, and is as Irish as Paddy's pig.(1)  I was
> > surprised that the other, born and raised in Brooklyn, I believe, and
> > Jewish, didn't know it.  Does any one out there use it?
> > [The answer to this, in 2000, was no, much to my surprise.  It seems that
> > "successful fire" is limited to the NY Irish?  My father was one
> of the last
> > of the old-time Brooklyn Irishmen.]
> >
> > [Back to the screed:]  Whether RHHDAS, vol. 3, will have "successful fire"
> > is hidden in the
> > mists of time. [Alas!]   It does not have "Jewish lightning" among its
> > phrases beginning with the word "Jewish".
> >
> > I have been sitting on this note until I could get my hands on Jenna
> > Weissman Joselit's book "Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York
> > Jewish Community," (Bloomington: Indiana U. Pr., 1983,) since I
> > thought I remembered that she had reproduced a relevant cartoon.  Her
> > discussion of arson as a tool of Jewish business management is on pp.
> > 36-39.
> >  It begins "Of all the offenses commonly associated with New York
> > Jews, arson, or "Jewish lightning," as it was popularly called,
> > received the most attention."  (pp. 36-37)  She does not give a
> > printed contemporary source for "Jewish lightning".  The cartoon
> > turned out to be from Puck and undated, and not directly relevant
> > with regards the expression.  It had been captioned "Adding Insult to
> > Injury"; frame #1 showed members of a volunteer fire company in a
> > businessman's office, asking him to contribute toward the purchase of
> > a new fire engine.  In frame #2, the businessman, ("Mr. Burnupski")
> > throws an inkwell and a bottle at the fleeing firemen.  The caption
> > is: "Mr. Burnupski (excitedly)  So hellup me Fadder Abram!  Asks me
> > to hellup dem puy a new undt more bowerful engine ven der oldt von
> > put oudt four fires in mein store in der last six months!"
> >
> > For the benefit of those of you who are young, or respectable, or not
> > New Yorkers, I will explain that the expression carries a cynical
> > imputation that the fire had been started on purpose, in order to
> > collect on the fire insurance.  The more completely the building was
> > destroyed, the more "successful" the fire.
> >
> > (1)  I admit to never having heard spoken the expression "as Irish as
> > Paddy's pig", and to having seen it only once, in a book from the
> > late 1920s about low life in NYC.  A very major gambler and criminal
> > power-broker and financier named Arnold Rothstein had been murdered.
> > An Irish-born cleaning woman who worked in the hotel where Rothstein
> > was last alive said that she had seen him talking to a man she
> > described as "a big feller, and as Irish as Paddy's pig".  The cops,
> > reasoning shrewdly, thought that the description was not
> > inappropriate for George McManus, who was considerably taller than 6
> > feet and who was on poor terms with Rothstein.  Nothing came of this.
> >  Rothstein's murder generated a lot of heat but even more pressure to
> > cover it up, and covered up it was.
> >
> > GAT
> >
> > George A. Thompson
> > Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> > Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.  Working on a new
> edition, though.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Date: Friday, March 4, 2011 11:35 am
> > Subject: "Jew(ish) lightning"
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> > > Not in the OED, nor had I in my sheltered upbringing heard it
> > > before.  Urban Dictionary says "To set your house or business on fire
> > > on purpose to get the insurance money."
> > >
> > > For "Jewish lightning", about 13,000 Google hits.   For "Jewish
> > > lightning", 230 Gbooks hits.  For "Jew lightning", perhaps 3 genuine
> > > of 8 GBooks hits.
> > >
> > > A.  Jewish lightning, before 1980.
> > >
> > > 1)  1974.  Black Mafia; ethnic succession in organized crime, by
> > > Francis A. J. Ianni.  Allegedly page 133.
> > >
> > > "You mean it wasn't no Jewish lightning." "Nah, not any neighborhood
> > > lightning either. Who around here wants to burn down a bar?" "Hey
> > > right." Manchu said softly, "If it ain't been axed to death, I hear
> > > there's plenty of whiskey in that ...
> > >
> > > Snippet, but "From inside the book" for a reason unknown to me shows
> > > entirely different text.
> > >
> > > 2)  1975 alleged.  Jewish spectator: Volumes 40-41.  Page 10.  Snippet.
> > >
> > > Put them all together and they spell Jewish Lightning, a novel which
> > > proves that Robert Klane is to books what Mel Brooks is to movies.
> > >
> > > [Meaning unclear.  I did not find a book with this title in WorldCat.]
> > >
> > > 3)  1978.  In Espy, "O thou improper, thou uncommon noun".
> > >
> > > B.  Jew lightning.
> > >
> > > 1992, Blood of Our Fathers, by Sonny Girard.  Snippet.
> > >
> > > "As you get closer to the holidays, we'll keep selling off your extra
> > > stuff to our people, an' you'll keep filling in. Then in January,
> > > before your biggest bills come due . . ." He snapped his fingers.
> > > "Whap! Jew's lightning. ...
> > >
> > > Page alleged to be 223.  But again the display "From inside the book"
> > > is a completely different excerpt.
> > >
> > > [Two other allegations, but they do not reveal any surrounding text.]
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
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> >
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> >
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>
>
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