When Ben Bernanke Dealt With Questions About Jewish 'Horns'

With no Jewish holidays coming up immediately, we bring you profiles of some well known and some not so well known Jews. Enjoy.

by Ron Kampeas for The Jewish Daily Forward

(JTA) — Ben Bernanke dealt with prejudice as a Jew crowing up in South Carolina — including being asked if he had horns — according to his new memoir.

Several times, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve writes, elementary school classmates asked “quite innocently, I believe” whether he had horns.

“Growing up in Dillon [in South Carolina], the son of the town’s druggist, Bernanke describes himself as “bookish and shy and often on my own.” As a Jew, Bernanke says he was something of an outsider.

But the real prejudice in town, he says, was directed at African-Americans.

Bernanke’s 600-page memoir, “The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath,” also includes plenty of juicy tidbits about “too big to fail” moments during the 2008 crisis.

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