Roseanne Barr’s television show Roseanne was canceled last week following a racist tweet which Roseanne posted about Valerie Jarrett, a former aide to President Barack Obama. Roseanne Barr grew up in Salt Lake City, where her family was a part of the very small Jewish community. Though there was a lot of anti-Semitism among the Mormon community at that time, why did Roseanne’s family have positive feelings about the Mormons?
Roseanne Hard Rock Cafe by Leah Mark is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
A. Roseanne’s father owned a dry goods store in Salt Lake City, and her mother worked there three days a week. On those days, Roseanne and her siblings were watched by a neighbor who was Mormon. The neighbor was accepting and caring, serving as a reminder to the Barr family that they should not stereotype all Mormons just as Mormons should not stereotype all Jews.
B. When she was 3 years old, Roseanne suffered from Bell’s palsy, which affected the left side of her face. Her mother had their rabbi pray for her to no avail, but when she then asked a Mormon preacher to pray for Roseanne, her palsy went away.
C. Roseanne and her family attended Mormon Church on Sunday in an effort to hide their Judaism from their Mormon neighbors. Roseanne’s first public speaking came when she was 6 years old as she spoke about the Mormon faith at a number of local Mormon churches, and she was eventually elected president of a Mormon youth group.
D. While Roseanne’s parents were both Jewish, her paternal grandfather was a Mormon, so the family had regular interactions with members of the Mormon community, where they were always made to feel welcome, despite the general anti-Semitic atmosphere that existed.
E. Despite the fact that she had a terrible, screechy singing voice, at age 11 Roseanne joined the Mormon Tabernacle Youth Choir, where she made many friends and did not experience the anti-Semitism that was generally faced by Jews in Salt Lake City. (This changed, however, when the choir performed the National Anthem before a Salt Lake City Bees minor league baseball game. To the shock and dismay of all in attendance, at the end of the song, Roseanne grabbed her crotch and ran off the stage.)