DC: You had written in your book about being bullied as a boy for being Jewish and overweight. Can you touch on this for a moment? How has life gotten better for you?
LJ: I had a great childhood and lived in a middle class neighborhood in Long Beach where there was, I would say, the average amount of bullying of kids. This stuff happened as a little kid when I was about seven or eight years old. Some of the uneducated parents were anti-Semitic and that translated to their kids who called kids like me "Dirty Jew. I remember one kid saying, "Hitler should have finished the job." But that doesn't mean all of the kids (or I should say, parents) felt that way. There was a golf country club in the area that didn't allow Jews and so that's the place we used to go at night and ride ice blocks down their beautiful green lawns. LOL I was also pushed around and laughed at for being chubby. I must have been a good diplomat though, because I only really remember being in one fight as a kid. LOL Does it get better? OH YEAH. I'm still Jewish and I'm still a bit chubby, and I'm gay, but I don't get laughed at or teased anymore. The story in the book you refer to is when we were being bullied and it ended because Ken and I both stood up and said, "No, we're not going to be bullied by you...Get off of our boat!" And look at me, a successful businessman, a great relationship, and I've joined one of the most elite clubs in the world--circumnavigators. So I'd say it gets WAY better...I'm a living example of that, and I want kids to see how great life can be.
From: An interview with Larry Jacobson, Author of The Boy Behind the Gate.
Interview by Dorothy's Closet
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