Jews are stereotyped as natural mimics who remain Jews precisely by assimilating successfully

Evidence

The Chalfens interact only with those who have “good genes.” And that is, by definition, the Chalfen family, “two scientists, one mathematician, three psychiatrists, and a young man working for the Labour Party.” Success becomes the measure by which intelligence is judged. … From the very moment of civil emancipation in the eighteenth century Jews are seen as having a natural mimicry as part of their difference. They can transform themselves into any nation or people. By doing this they prove that they remain Jews. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 761

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the antisemitic logic of ‘mimicry as inherent Jewish difference’ that runs through assimilation discourse.
• XREF: connects to: Anti-Semites secretly imitate the Jews they claim to despise — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 143