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From: avi@pegasus.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d,net.movies
Subject: Re: Jewish Draculas
Message-ID: <924@pegasus.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 11-Feb-84 23:31:29 EST
Article-I.D.: pegasus.924
Posted: Sat Feb 11 23:31:29 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 15-Feb-84 04:34:44 EST
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Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Lincroft NJ
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Lew Mammel asks about why Bela Lugosi (playing Dracula) wore something that
looked like a Star of David.

To start with, I have no idea. As it happens, I am Jewish AND I was born
(but not raised) in Transylvania. (Seriously, it is a part of modern
Romania, and I was born there). The original Dracula is (well) known to have
been modeled after V'lad Tepes -- who was definitely not Jewish (although I
seem to remember hearing that Bela Lugosi may have been).

Lew, are you sure it was not a five-pointed star? A pentagram would make
more sense in this context. Even if it was six-pointed, that does not
(necessarily) make it a Jewish Symbol. The Star-of-David has been used by
others in the past, and I often see people of non-Jewish origin wearing it
today. Dracula violated too many Jewish laws - including murder and drinking
blood - to have been viewed as a practising Jew.

In any case, I assume that the producer/director/whoever of the movie is the
likely source of the pendant the actor wore. It may be that they were
exhibiting bigoted attitudes, or just trying to use some symbolism. One of
the favorite Christian pre-occupations in medieval Europe was to use the
(in)famous "blood libel" against the Jews. This fits in well with equating
Dracula with them. Needless to say, Dracula is a myth, and the blood-libel
claims were unfounded.

P.S. I consider myself thoroughly American. My accent is from "Brooklyn".
-- 
-=> Avi E. Gross @ AT&T Information Systems Laboratories (201) 576-6241
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