Wisdom in the Court

of Judge Harold Wright

Legal Eagle Boris Kay pleads a case of anti-Semitic discrimination and resolution involving old Henry Ford.

The three Goldberg brothers, Norman, Hyman, and Max invented and developed the first automobile air-conditioner.

On July 17, 1946, the temperature in Detroit was 97º.   The three brothers walked into old man Henry Ford's office and sweet-talked his secretary into telling him that three gentlemen were there with the most exciting innovation in the auto industry since the 

electric starter.  

Henry was curious and invited them into his office.

They refused and instead asked him to come out to the parking lot and their car. They persuaded him to get into the car, which was about 130º - turned on the air-conditioner and cooled the car off immediately.

The old man got very excited and invited them back to the office, where he offered them three million dollars for the patent.

The brothers refused saying they would settle for two million but they wanted recognition by having a label "The Goldberg Air-Conditioner" on the dashboard of each car that it was installed in.

Now old man Ford was more than just a little bit anti-Semitic, and there was no way he was going to put the Goldberg name on millions of Ford cars.

They haggled back and forth for about another two hours and finally the brothers agreed on four million dollars and that just their first names would be shown.

And so, even to this day, all Ford air-conditioners show on the controls, the names   "Norm, Hi, and Max".

Case rests.

______

But not quite, because there was also the case of the Mexican Jews.

Two Jewish men, "Sid" and "Al," were sitting in a Mexican restaurant. Sid

asked Al, "Are there any people of our faith born and raised in Mexico?"

Al replied, "I don't know, let's ask our waiter."

When the waiter came by, Al asked him, "Are there any Mexican Jews?" and

the waiter said, "I don't know Senor, I'll ask the cooks." He returned

from the kitchen in a few minutes and said "No sir, no Mexican Jews."

Al wasn't really satisfied with that and asked, "Are you absolutely

sure?" The waiter, realizing he was dealing with "Gringos" gave the

expected answer, "I will check again, Senor!" and went back into the

kitchen.

While the waiter was away, Sid said, "I find it hard to believe that

there are no Jews in Mexico. Our people are scattered everywhere."

The waiter returned and said, "Senor, the head cook said there is no

Mexican Jews." "Are you certain?" Al asked once again, "I can't believe

there are no Mexican Jews!"

"Senor, I ask EVERYONE," replied the exasperated waiter. "We have

orange Jews, prune Jews, tomato Jews and grape Jews. But no Mexican Jews."

______

On that note Judge Wright banged his gavel and declared Court adjourned for the day.

______