Scenes From a Jewish Restaurant
Billy Joel tells Germans about being Jewish
September 07, 2011
Billy Joel last year.(Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)
A video has for the first time surfaced of Billy Joel discussing his Jewishness in 1995 before an audience in, of all places, Nuremberg, Germany (his brother translated the question). It’s below. Some highlights, from the balladeer who I always gathered wanted us to think he was Italian, while not actually fooling anyone:
• “I grew up in a place called Levittown.”
• “I had no Jewish upbringing.”
• “I got the snip—I had nothing to say about that. I’m still a little pissed off about that, actually. They should’ve asked first.”
• “Most of my friends were Italians.”
• Quoting a little girl he knew as a child: “You’re going to grow up and have horns on your head!” [Cue awkward laughter from German audience.]
• “We all looked like Orthodox Jews in the Sixties.”
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.
