No Mazel Tov To Management

(My longtime coworkers at this smalltown chain restaurant all know that I’m Jewish. We get a new manager who turns out to be a jerk in many ways, especially to me as an assistant manager, but one thing, in particular, stands out. Over several weeks, he makes a number of remarks about Jews that, without using any outright slurs, give me pause. Having had little direct personal experience with anti-Semitism up to now, I am unsure how to respond, beyond side-eye and raised eyebrows. One day in December, we’re both sitting in the back office when an employee pops in and wishes me a happy Hanukkah. [Manager] is visibly startled.)

Manager: “You… you’re Jewish?!”

Me: “Oh, yes, didn’t you know?”

Manager: “Oh, uh… Well, I hope I haven’t said anything, you know, that might, uh…”

(I turn and look straight at him.)

Me: “Why, [Manager]? Is that the sort of thing you’re likely to say?”

(He turned red, stammered something, and remembered something he had to take care of elsewhere. I was done with that place, anyway, and that guy was the final nail in the coffin. I left a few months later.)