Three Israeli friends created Angry Jew in 2014. It is a game about a furious but cuteJew who travels back to 1894 Russia to kick Cossack tuchus. The original version was an Android app. However, the most recent version is now available in the Apple Store. Mendel, a tiny hero, is on a quest for stolen religious bookspunching, spin-kicking sickle-wielding villains while shouting "Goyim!" "Dreck!" "Gevald!" Or Sheigetz! With a thick Yiddish accent just like me in my dreams.Avishai de Vries presented the game idea to Gil Elnekave, and Edo Frankel. They found it funny and crazy. Elnekave thought it was a great gimmick but it doesn't have any prospects of making money. He still believed in his friends talent so he joined the project.Mendel's appearance is the most important aspect. Mendel wears a shtreimel, the round, fuzzy fur hat that Orthodox Jews wear, and has a beard so impressive it would make Drake jealous. His hair is dark and his nose is large. These were the characteristics I was taught as a child. People who looked like me and came from similar backgrounds weren't heroes. We were shysters.Jewish people used humor to cope with trauma in theater, film, books and vaudeville. However, Angry Jews creators had never seen it in videogames. De Vries stated that it's yet another example of the same spiel. The nebbish who feigns resistance. He said that non-Jews created this stereotype. I will therefore take control of it.My parents made me believe the stereotype after I moved from Niskayuna (New York), where there were many Jews, to Voorheesville (New York), where I was the only Semite in my fifth grade-class. In the 90s and every other era, kids were (are) very mean. Because I know how homophobic and sexist it is, I find it very offensive that locker room talk has been normalized (I see Trump). In middle school, pennies were thrown at me. One time, a classmate placed a quarter between his thumb & ring finger. He then flicked it. I was left with a scarred eyebrow from the way the coin spun down the hall.My family is typical of Jewish immigrants. My grandfather, who was Polish in origin, fled pogroms and rising antisemitism to come to America from Poland in early 1900s. He went from selling scrap to opening his own wallpaper shop in New York. My father then took over. After my bar mitzvah I was the stock boy. I carried paint cans and slapped down price stickers.Local TV stations aired occasional Deitchers Wallpaper Outlet commercials. My high school peers followed me through the halls mocking my father's nasally voice. We won't be undersold. My peers mocked me in the high school hallways, while I also detested my family, wondering how they managed to get into white, Christian America. My father worked 60 hours a week, but I felt like we didn't deserve our success.I tried to fight back but couldn't figure out how my opponent felt. In 11th grade, I found a way to survive. I mocked myself before anyone else. I ran for pennies in the hall. I called myself the Hebrew Hammer, the Killer Kike and the Jewish Juggernaut years before the movie. It was all hilarious because I was a string bean.After high school graduation, I realized I was tied to my heritage. It was something I studied in undergrad while I binged drank every night and tried detox. Many Mendels protected me during those years and helped me heal when I was sober at the age of 25. They provided me with shabbat meals. They taught me Torah. Teach me how to wrap tefillin.
