"Jew(ish) lightning"
Douglas G. Wilson
douglas at NB.NET
Sun Mar 6 03:42:27 UTC 2011
I think I first heard "Jewish lightning" (referring to arson for
insurance fraud) in the mid 1960's ... but of course memory is quite
fallible. Surely the expression seemed old-fashioned to me when I first
heard it, and I'm not sure I've heard it in the last 30 years.
In Wendy A. Woloson's recent book _In Hock_ (p.148) (searchable-inside
via Amazon): <<by the turn of the century everyone knew such arson as
"Jewish lightning.">>. There are footnotes but I'm not sure there is one
for this exact assertion. "Turn of the century" apparently means 1900 or so.
-- Doug Wilson
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