There was a large Jewish Community in Phoenix. Does anyone here now what it was like in Phoenix in the ‘50s &’60s in general and for the a Jewish community there?
shareI wondered this too.
They moved to CA in 1964.
A generation of post war kids at high school, and he immediately ran into violent antisemites.
I grew up in the 80s (my grandpa fought in the war) and it was clear to me that the Nazis were both the bad guys and terrible antisemites. Antisemitism and Nazism were equivalent. Seems like that should have been even more clear to the kids of WW2 soldiers, but I certainly don't know.
There was no antisemitism in Phoenix but there was in CA? Why? Everyone was tall and golden in CA... cuz it was closer to the beach? And all of those Adonises made 5 foot nothing Fableman stick out more? I don't know.
Maybe...
The movie shows two raging antisemites and maybe it's not trying to say that was CA vs AZ... But I thought that was what it was trying to say.
Maybe it was actually just a more affluent area- people too rich and too tall and broad of shoulder to be nice?
I don't doubt that Spielberg experienced something like this in CA. I'm just trying to understand if he's saying it was a cultural difference between AZ and CA or not. Or just a few bad eggs that he had the misfortune to fall in with, and that happened to be in CA.