>When the keynote speaker, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, takes the stage, we remove our earpieces as he speaks in English. The Rabbi's words are meant for all, telling all listeners to stand up against anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial whenever and wherever they hear it.
>After the Rabbi's speech, I asked Heyman when he first experienced anti-Semitism in his life. It wasn't in high school or in the clubs he would attend. "It was only when I entered the wrestling world that I experienced my first anti-Semitic remarks," he said.
>Heyman was also quick to point out that he is not a prude, and knows the difference between friendly ribbing and out-and-out racism. "I was always chided that it's against my religion to pick up the tab for lunch or dinner," Heyman said, "but I never took offense to it. There's a difference between joking about a stereotype and blatant bigotry."
>Heyman says his first true encounter with brutal anti-Semitism was an encounter with legendary booker "Cowboy" Bill Watts, who the WWE has chosen to be inducted in its 2009 Hall of Fame, just a few short months after America elected its first African-American President.
>"I'd never met Watts before," Heyman recalled with a terse lip. "The first time I met him was when he became the head of WCW. We weren't two minutes into our conversation when he asked me where my beanie was [referring in an offensive way to a yarmulke]. He then started comparing me to a manager back in the day called Izzy Slapowitz."
>Heyman half-laughed, "I could see we were really going to get along just great!"
>According to Heyman, he says this was the first of numerous anti-Semitic remarks he had to endure while working for Watts.
>"After a televised wrestling show, the ratings came in, and Watts was livid," Heyman remembered. "This was during the storyline with Madusa [Miceli]. Our segment was the highest rated segment of that program … and Watts says – in front of a room full of people – how pissed off it makes him that a Jew and a c— drew the highest rating of the show. He felt it was the downfall of the wrestling business."
>However, others bolieve Heyman's assertions are no longer valid, and that Watts has since recanted all of his controversial views. For example, in Scott E. Williams' detailed and well-written autobiography of Watts' life, The Cowboy and the Cross, it is said that Watts is a changed man, thanks largely to his becoming a born-again Christian.
>On the subject of Watts being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, Heyman himself has an admittedly mixed opinion of his former WCW boss. "On one hand, it's shameful that such a known racist should be rewarded at all!" Heyman stated, slamming some utensils on the table in anger. "In a business where ruthlessness is expected and insensitivity rules, Bill Watts was as contemptible a being as I've ever met."
>"However," Heyman continued, "the Hall of Fame is not about your contributions to humanity. They are about your contributions to the professional wrestling industry, and Watts certainly left his mark. Ty Cobb was a known racist, and he belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame. This is not a testament to his humanity; it's an acknowledgment of his accomplishments in the field of sports entertainment."
>Watts' own words in a SLAM! Wrestling interview earlier this week seem to indicate that he is a humbler man than when Heyman knew him. "Life is like an anvil, we are formed on this anvil of life and it has been an interesting one," mused Watts.
>Yet Heyman is recalcitrant: "Maybe Michael Hayes can script the Cowboy's induction of Mark Henry one day."