“Cupid’s Crisis,” our expose of Cleveland’s Jewish dating scene, has elicited some strong opinions from readers. Some people found it incredibly offensive, others thought it spoke for singles all over the East Side.
One anonymous caller was particularly offended by the comment from Sharon Zaidenras, who said she had “never met a normal Jewish man.” In the article, Zaidenras was pictured with her friend, Stephanie Traeger, who happens to be a woman. This was more than our caller could take:
“On page 12, the caption under the picture: ‘I’ve never met a normal Jewish man,’ says Sharon… Well perhaps if she would stop cuddling with women, perhaps maybe she should start cuddling with men. Now, there they are, two women, happily– look at the smile on their faces…gee whiz! Maybe you don’t like men, whether they’re Jewish or gentile. You know it’s interesting, isn’t it. And maybe we’re getting to that crossover point where it’s not religion or ethnicity, it’s just a matter of, you know, women like women, and they don’t want to bother with men.
These women are stupid… He’s got this problem and that problem. When it says, you know, ‘I’ve never met a normal Jewish man.’ That’s interesting. Has he ever met a normal Jewish woman? Never met an old hag who keeps bitching at him to go out and work, you know, and work harder and stay at the shop longer.
You know, the stupidity of this. ‘I’ve never met a normal Jewish guy.’ Gimme a break. That shows stupidity. That’s junior high school crap.
But thank you for listening, and you have a nice day. Bye-bye”
This article appears in Dec 13-19, 2006.
I take deep offense to the insinuation. The wording of this article in my opinion is libelous. The publisher of the original article “mistakenly” left out the positive opinions that I expressed about living in Cleveland and the dating scene. She took Sharon’s quote out of context and used it against the two of us. I would like to be contacted with a written apology.
I also do not appreciate the fact that my name was not mentioned in the original article but happens to be mentioned in this article. What good could it possibly come from mentioning my name now if it was not mentioned in the original article. I believe that more caution needs to be explored by your writers when exploring a topic.