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In late October the Financial Times published a report about an interesting pedagogical exercise being perpetrated by creationists in Turkey: “A series of books for primary schoolchildren, describing Charles Darwin as a Jew with a big nose who kept the company of monkeys and other historical figures in anti-Semitic terms, has caused outrage in Turkey amid fears of rising religious intolerance.
This attempt to insult Darwin by categorizing him as Jewish surprised me because I thought everyone always knew Darwin was “a member of the tribe.” I attended Hebrew school in preparation for my bar mitzvah, and the classroom featured pictures of our top-three historical figures: Abraham, Moses and Darwin. (There was also a small photograph of Paul Newman, who was half-Jewish.) We learned how Darwin received a fantastic bar mitzvah gift of a five-year ocean cruise on the HMS Beagle. I got savings bonds.
Though common knowledge in the Jewish community, Darwin's Judaic background seems to be a shock to many non-Jews. I have only just learned, for example, that most readers of Darwin's many publications do not know that the versions with which they are familiar are highly edited. The great evolutionist wrote in a very particular Jewish style, which his Victorian publisher then revised into highbrow 19th-century English.
For example, Darwin's printed autobiography includes these lines about the captain of the Beagle: “Fitzroy's temper was a most unfortunate one. It was usually worst in the early morning, and with his eagle eye he could generally detect something amiss about the ship, and was then unsparing in his blame.” But Darwin's original version, written on cocktail napkins during meetings of the Shrewsbury Beth Israel synagogue's building committee, reads: “Don't get me started on Fitzroy and his meshuggaas. This meshuggener had a bed with only a wrong side because that's what he always woke up on. Always looking for tsuris. What a schmuck.”
The Voyage of the Beagle, Darwin's account of the cruise, includes this passage: “The different islands to a considerable extent are inhabited by a different set of beings. My attention was first called to this fact by the Vice-Governor, Mr. Lawson, declaring that the tortoises differed from the different islands, and that he could with certainty tell from which island any one was brought.” The original writing, scratched out on sheets listing the ship's leisure activities, reads: “I listened to Lawson's whole spiel, and he says if you show him a turtle, abracadabra, he'll tell you its shtetl. I buy it.”
Perhaps the most famous passage in all of Darwinia is at the end of the first edition of On the Origin of Species: “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
In his manuscript for the book, which had been entitled L'Chaim: The Whole Megillah, Darwin concludes: “Such nachas I get when I wander around and look at turtles and birds, let me tell you. It is not a waste of time that could be spent doing something more productive. What, you think I schlepped up mountains in South America glomming insects for my health? And so the planet spins no matter what plans you had for it, big shot. And you start with a few things that are maybe a little mieskeit, but then, be patient. What, you have somewhere to be? So you wait until genug iz genug, and, guess what, you wind up with new things, some of which are really nice, with a shayna punim. Why that should be a problem, I don't know.”
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19 Comments
Add CommentWhat Mr Minsky forgot to mention is that The Origin of Species was originally written in Yiddish and translated into English by the famous Moisele Kingsley MacRabinowitz, the same who translated the American Constitution from its original Yiddish version into the the English text we are still using today. Later on MacRabinowitz became well known for his translations of Playboy, which still is translated every month from Yiddish into English to enable publication.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat the heck??? I thought SA was a reputable magazine. I picked up this issue in a reception room while waiting for an appointment and read this odd article. Is SA trying to be the Onion? I liked the other articles and I was actually considering subscribing, but now I don't know whether to believe anything I read in the magazine. Also, why change the name of the article AFTER publication? It's amateur hour over there I guess...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs this type of article common in SA? I'm really disappointed in them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI guess I don't follow what this turkey is trying to say. Can someone explain?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLighten up!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLoki Point! Mirsky gets a Loki Point!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisActually, what he was trying to say is quite serious. He first reports that in Turkey there has been published a "series of books for primary schoolchildren, describing Charles Darwin as a Jew with a big nose who kept the company of monkeys and other historical figures in anti-Semitic terms." He concludes his attempt at satire by noting "So of course, Darwin was Jewish. Why that fact should in any way diminish the intellectual achievement of his evolution insights is beyond me. His ideas stand on their own merits and would be no less brilliant were he, say, Anglican, or someone who came to hold no religious beliefs at all."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI hope this clears up the matter. I call it an attempt at satire, because if he was successful you would have seen his point directly. What he has to say, however, is unassailable.
By the way, the title is a joke on the formula said by children at Passover "why is this night different from all other nights?"
Enjoyed that, Steve. Don't let the downturned-mouth set who've shown up put you off the humour.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI found your article quite entertaining. However, what some people in Turkey are doing amounts to spoon-feeding their children poison.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm a bit confused. My January issue arrived and it had many fascinating articles and columns but SciAm accidentally published Steve Mirsky's April column instead of the January one.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPLease keep up the great work Mr. Mirsky- I never had such a good laugh and been well informed of an important issue at the same time... and some of these people... Oy vey!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHappy (gentile) New Year!
i'll know this is a serious article only when i see it reprinted in The People's Daily.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo Darwin wasn't really Jewish. Einstein was Jewish. Freud was Jewish. For that matter, a book was written claiming that Columbus was Jewish. But, as far as I know, it hasn't yet been alleged that Copernicus was Jewish.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Jewish people have contributed much more than their share to human progress, including to those scientific discoveries that have been threatening to human vanity. Even without Darwin.
satire is an art which when intended for publication is best left to those who master it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI thought Americans had irony deficiency, now I know better (בְּעֶזְרַת הַשֵּׁם). Never mind using a racial slur, the deeper assertion of the creationists is, don't think, just believe what we tell you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAny day you open SciAm to Mirsky's Anti Gravity Column is April 1st.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll the intricate satire aside, my sister (the biologist) and i (the self-styled satirist) are having a SERIOUS dispute about the *specific* quotes cited in Mirsky's article and whether or not they are real, actual verbatim quotes... Can someone enlighten us/me with your tongue planted firmly between your teeth, not elsewhere, please !?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, my sister says there's no way Darwin's original writings were jotted notes on cocktail napkins, or on sheets of the ships leisure activities, whereas i say funny haha, but still quite possibly true...
Please help us resolve this conflict, as the stakes are high and future of the family, if not the Whole Megillah, weighs in the balance...
This article is in very poor taste.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is not clear if this is satire or a serious essay.
It is also full of racial slurs.
Is the Scientific American changing its name to the Scientific Nazi?
Blurg: It's called self-deprecating humor. It's used all the time by those who don't take themselves too seriously.
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