Magazines

Apparently Jews don’t read The National Review

By Rachel on August 19, 2005 11:40 AM

Schumer.gifThis is interesting – this issue of The National Review has been out for quite some time, but The Forward is only getting wind of it now (well, yesterday, to be exact). Still, it’s not hard to see why Jews would be upset – Schumer has been nastily caricaturized as a guy so evil he’s been spoofed about it by Mel Brooks, who knows from evil spoof-subjects.

NR editor Richard Lowry scoffs: “To come up with the interpretation that some people have, you really have to be straining to find offense.”

Those straining to find offense include:

  • Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center: “At a time when antisemitism in Europe is at an unprecedented level it’s certainly not the right time to make Senator Schumer the Inquisitor and to give him a nose that would make [Nazi propagandist] Julius Streicher proud.”
  • Alex Balk at TMFTML: “Leaving aside the obvious irony, what do you suppose the folks at National Review are trying to suggest about Senator Schumer here?… That’s he’s a big matzah-eating giant-proboscis-sporting Christian-baby-blood-drinking Heeb? Yeah, probably that last one. Good job, art department!”
  • NYT op-ed lion/scion Frank Rich: “At a time when anyone who says the mildest critical word about John Roberts is being baselessly attacked by the right-wing p.c. police as ‘anti-Catholic,’ it was revealing to find Chuck Schumer caricatured on the cover of a conservative magazine as if he were the love child of Shylock and Fagin.*

    This is a serious issue, to be sure. But is it wrong of us to have been excited that Frank Rich mentioned Fagin? A showtune reference…and, blowing my mind, yet another example of BLOG SYNCHRONICITY – because in my very last post I linked to a sound clip of “Be Back Soon” from “Oliver!” – sung to Fagin! In reviewing the situaion, I think that’s very cool.

    Senator Painted As Inquisitor In Roberts Fight [The Forward]
    It’s Better To Lose Your Skullcap Than Your Skull [TMFTML]
    No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition Caricature [Gawker]

    *NB: The Anti-Defamation League actually did not think it was a big deal. Per associate national director Ken Jacobson: “This is a picture of a senator. It’s not a Jew.” Jacobson went on to point out that guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

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