Reactions to anti-Semitic cartoon in the Daily Cal

Last week, an anti-semitic cartoon featuring a caricature of civil rights attorney Alan Dershowitz appeared in UC Berkeley's student newspaper, the Daily Cal.

Today, Carol Christ, Chancellor of the university responded, writing

Your recent editorial cartoon targeting Alan Dershowitz was offensive, appalling and deeply disappointing. I condemn its publication. Are you aware that its anti-Semitic imagery connects directly to the centuries-old “blood libel” that falsely accused Jews of engaging in ritual murder? I cannot recall anything similar in The Daily Californian, and I call on the paper’s editors to reflect on whether they would sanction a similar assault on other ethnic or religious groups. We cannot build a campus community where everyone feels safe, respected and welcome if hatred and the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes become an acceptable part of our discourse.

Adam Naftalin Kelmen, director of Berkeley Hillel also weighed in

To see The Daily Californian’s anti-Semitic cartoon online depicting Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz was a reminder that as a Jew living in our open society, we are still plagued by undertones of historical anti-Semitism. There should be no excuse or rationalization for why this cartoon is “simply” a critique of Israeli policy or the speaker’s opinion. Like any bigoted cartoon, it should be called out, and the leadership of The Daily Californian needs to take responsibility for its actions. Jewish students on campus have every right to be included, practice their beliefs and express their passion for and love of Israel — their Jewish homeland — without experiencing anti-Semitism.

There has been no comment from the staff at the Daily Cal, or Joel Mayorga, the illustrator of the cartoon

Anti-Semitic Cartoon appears in the UC Berkeley Daily Cal

Joel Mayorga, political cartoonist for UC Berkeley's student newspaper, the Daily Cal has hit the daily double of anti-Semitism. Mayorga has managed to squeeze both blood libel and conspiracy tropes into this cartoon commemorating Alan Dershowitz's talk at Cal.

This cartoon appeared days after an op-ed in the same paper alleging "suppression" of Palestinian activism on campus.

The Daily Wire has an exclusive interview with Alan Dershowitz regarding the cartoon.  His reaction:

My first reaction was surprise that the official student newspaper of a major state university would publish a Dur Sturmer-type cartoon which would have fit comfortably into any Nazi publication.

My second reaction is what I’ve always believed, and that is, there is very little difference between the Nazis of the hard Right and the anti-Semites of the hard Left. This obviously was a hard Left neo-Nazi cartoon.

My third reaction is, I’m surprised that it was treated with as little response. Imagine if a comparably anti-black or anti-woman or anti-gay cartoon was ever published in the Berkeley student newspaper. Again, it reflects for me the incredible double standard in tolerance that people have toward anti-Semitism.

UPDATE

Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Berkeley has a post featuring the cartoon on their FaceBook page.  There is not a single comment condemning it.

Papal Contender Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras : anti-Semitic canards

From the Times of Israel:

In a letter to the editor of the Miami Herald, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said that one of the leading candidates to replace Pope Benedict XVI is an anti-Semite.

Responding to a list published last week after the resignation of Benedict, which identified Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras as a possible successor to the current pope, Dershowitz wrote:  "He has blamed the Jews for the scandal surrounding the sexual misconduct of priests toward young parishioners! He has argued that the Jews got even with the Catholic Church for its anti-Israel positions by arranging for the media — which they, of course, control, he said — to give disproportionate attention to the Vatican sex scandal. He then compared the Jewish controlled media with Hitler, because they are 'protagonists of what I do not hesitate to define as a persecution against the church."

Maradiaga, in a May 2002 interview with the Italian-Catholic publication "30 Giorni," claimed Jews influenced the media to exploit the current controversy regarding sexual abuse by Catholic priests in order to divert attention from the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.

From the ADL, written in 2002

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today expressed outrage at comments made by a Honduran Catholic Cardinal that implied an alleged Jewish manipulation of the American media. Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, in a May interview with the Italian-Catholic publication 30 Giorni, claimed Jews influenced the media to exploit the current controversy regarding sexual abuse by Catholic priests in order to divert attention from the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. 

"The Cardinal’s odious anti-Jewish conspiracy theory must be immediately and forcefully condemned by responsible voices in the Catholic Church," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, in a letter sent to Cardinal Walter Kasper, of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with Jews. "We are outraged by Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga’s implication and, as John L. Allen, Jr. states in the July 19th Catholic Reporter, ‘the logic of his comments seems clear: Someone in America doesn’t like the pro-Palestinian tilt of the Catholic Church, and used their media clout to deliver payback. It’s not much of a reach to imagine who Rodriguez might suspect that ‘someone’ to be.’" 

Cardinal Rodrigues Maradiaga stated: "It gave me considerable food for thought that, at a time of total media focus on developments in the Middle East with all the injustices being perpetrated against the Palestinian people, U.S. television and press people were obsessed with sex scandals of 30 or 40 years ago." 

In a later conversation with  ADL national director Abraham Foxman, , Maradiaga apologized and said he did not intend for his remarks to be taken as perpetuating an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about Jewish control of the media.