I was raised a naive Jewish kid in suburban Georgia. To understand what it's like to be a Jew in the south, I'll turn to David Cross:

All the parents see you as is a Jew; I'm a Jewish kid. I'm like a fucking alien to them, you know, I'm a freak...so If I slept over a friend's house, I'd always have to deal with these questions in the morning, like, you know, Mom coming in going "David, I'm so sorry to have to ask you this, I'm so sorry, um...I'm fixing to make breakfast for everybody and I certainly wanna include you...and I'm just having some questions I was hoping you could answer...do y'alls people eat oatmeal?" What? Yeah. Is there something in the Torah that says we shouldn't eat oatmeal? "No, it's just that I don't know much about y'alls people, that's all, I just don't know--I know y'all hate Jesus! I know y'all hate Jesus, that much I do know...aand, I know y'alls have seven Jew bankers that control the world's money supply, right? In a bunker somewhere about a mile into the earth's core? Is that right? Yeah? And y'all do dances in the woods, y'all wear cloaks and do secret services and burn potions and whatnots, and y'all have horns--that's all I know about y'alls people!" - http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Cross

Yes, it was weird like that.

In high-school I was a bit of an AV-club nerd, and had I partnered up with a friend to help his church produce their yearly Christmas holiday pageant. (It's worth noting that this was a Southern Baptist church, which, for someone with little exposure to 'organized' religion, let alone organized Christianity, was a bit intense.)

I spent many afternoons setting up sound boards, lights, cameras, spot-lights, etc... After several visits, one of the other members of the church was curious why they'd never seen me at one of their sunday services.

Hey Greg, what church do you attend?

Oh, he's confused, I don't go to church, I'm Jewish:

I don't go to church, I'm Jewish.

His response baffled me:

Ah, that's great. You know the greatest person who ever lived was jewish?

I paused for a moment. Is he really talking about who I think he's talking about?

Oh, yeah, I guess you're right, Albert Einstein was Jewish...

EOS