Bobby Fischer is Dead

Jewish chess champion and rabid anti-Semite, Bobby Fischer, died yesterday. Nobody lit a yahrzeit candle for him.

As a young boy, Bobby Fischer was a very famous chess king. By the end of his life he had faded and become a pawn of the anti-Semites. (Chess pun, BAM!) Fischer became my arch-nemesis along the way. I despised him. He was a real live Shabbatai Zvi for me, minus the charisma. He was a symbol of something. For me, both Fischer and Zvi symbolized the heights a little Jewish boy could reach and the sting of betrayal.

Bobby Fischer is dead. This is a time to rejoice. But it brings up an interesting question on anti-Semitism. I postulated with my gentile friend, but he couldn't respond because that would anti-Semitic. How is my friend to feel? He can't be happy that Bobby Fischer died, because he's a Jew and that would make my friend an anti-Semite. He can't be sad that Bobby Fischer died because he was a rabid anti-Semite and that would make my friend the same. If my friend was indifferent, you best believe that would be anti-Semitic. It's a real quandary.

My brother and I had just started making jokes about Bobby Fischer last weekend. Perhaps, we're responsible for his death. A man can dream.

Bobby Fischer's death has got me thinking about other Jews I wish were dead. For starters, William Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, Jonah Goldberg, Joe Lieberman, and that rabbi from Dateline caught on To Catch A Predator.