I already posted this to the "Secularianism" thread, but it belongs here:

As one of the introductees on that occasion, I can only say that either my memory of Frank's is a little off--it was, after all, over a half-century ago. I recall "three Jewish boys from New York." And while I was (and still am) a bit dense , I was no more offended than I had been a few days earlier when someone, admiringly, said "You can pick that banjo like a nigger."
    Attitudes about race, religion and ethnicity were largely institutional, not personal (I know, that really doesn't excuse them, but If you want to attack someone, attack the culture, not the man.) Jews were a mysterious novelty to many folks in North Carolina back then. I recall another member of my little group bristling when some folks in the next campsite asked if we were Jews--and then subsiding when we learned that they wished to offer us some home-canned vegetables, and were worried that we'd be upset by the fact that they were cooked with ham.