Jewish Dwarves?

[Insidious Rex]

Originally Posted by Midge

But stereotypes don't pop up out of nowhere. They may not apply to every single person in a group, but they must be true for at least a portion, or else they would not be associated with that group.

Good grief you dont need to try to justify terrible stereotypes (especially with the logic of it must be true if its a stereotype...). Its totally legitimate to make the comparison and say Tolkien may have been influenced by the stereotype (right or wrong. I would also mention the beards and the noses for what its worth...) without defending it as a truth. These books were written during a period of real turbulence for European jews after all so its not far fetched that there would indeed be a parallel. But careful with the whole "those greedy penny pinching Dwarves" approach and then trying to defend it just based on the logic that its such a widely held stereotype. With that same logic are "shiftless lazy" blacks a defendable stereotype as well? Who knows where Tolkien got the inspiration for his spear chucking swarthy Haradrim after all...