The Third Exodus (nonfiction)
"The Third Exodus" is an essay by William Safire dated February 12, 1990.
The Butcher Shop Queue joke
The essay opens with a well-known joke:
In Leningrad a few months ago, a Jew who hopes to join the new exodus to Israel told me this poignant joke:
Scene: a state butcher shop in Leningrad. The butcher comes out and says to the long line of customers standing in the cold: There won't be enough meat today to go around. Jews go home. The few rejected Jews trudge away.
Couple hours later, the butcher reappears to say: Meat is coming, but less than we thought. Everybody go home except loyal party members. Most of those shivering on the line leave.
At the end of the day, the butcher comes out and says to the few remaining: Sorry, comrades, all the meat was diverted to the black market, we have none at all. You'll have to go home, too.
One half-frozen Communist turns to the other and says: See? The Jews always get the best deal.
This is one of the few stories to illustrate the historical habit of blaming the victim, a habit being repeated now in connection with the third great exodus to the promised land to escape persecution.