‘Ignorant’ cartoon has no place in newspaper

Dear Editors of the Red and Black,

As a member of the Jewish community here at UGA I was appalled by the editorial cartoon in today’s edition of the Red and Black (Thursday, November 12). Although the editorials page is the most obvious forum for personal thoughts and beliefs, it shocks me as a member of this academic institution that such overtly anti-Semitic commentary would be published in our university’s newspaper.

I am a strong believer in the first amendment’s guarantees of free speech, even if that speech is sometimes controversial. But the clearly tasteless cartoon which you have published today hardly seems justified. While ostensibly about the war between the Palestinians and Israelis, the Jewish guard’s comment of, “and to think we got all this stuff on clearance” reeks of a thoughtless stereotype.

Tomorrow will you run a cartoon of an overall-donning, buck-toothed sporting, straw-chewing, barefoot “redneck” as he burns a cross? Probably not. Just because Jewish people are in the minority here on UGA’s campus does not mean that we will allow for the publication of insensitive cartoons encouraging any form of anti-Semitic thought, no matter how subtle the reference may be.

Furthermore, before your “artist” decides to include foreign words in his next cartoon, please make sure he understands exactly what those words me.
“Chaim” (the supposed “name” of this checkpoint) is the derivative of the Hebrew word for “life”, a celebratory word exclaimed for toasts or as a blessing among friends. Your “artist’s” clear lack of understanding is evident in this abuse of the word.

It is insulting to see Hebrew words, Jewish stars and other religious symbols misappropriated in this way.

I encourage all students to make a statement against the war between Palestine and Israel. Furthermore, we must all question the implications this religious war has on each of us.

But this does not give anyone, regardless of position, race, religion, gender or ethnicity the right to negatively portray others or play into popular, and often unfounded, stereotypes.

My disgust upon seeing this cartoon was overwhelming, and after further dissecting it here in this letter I hope you too will be as appalled, incensed and surprised as I was to find this in our university’s newspaper.

For an institution of higher learning, the publication of this cartoon only encourages ignorant mindsets that allow stereotypes such as this one to persist among our community.

Kayte Granick
Senior, Savannah

‘Immediate recourse’ needed for cartoon

This is blatant anti-Semitism. It is NOT mere criticism of a nation and its policies, it is specifically targeted at Jews.

To critique foreign policy is one thing, but when you incorporate strictly JEWISH words such as “CHAIM,” place a Star of David on the center of military garb, which denotes the Jewish religion and is distinguished from the Israeli flag, and play into age-old stereotypes regarding Jews and money–getting “GREAT STUFF ON CLEARANCE”– it’s clear what your intent is.

There should be immediate recourse to remove the staff members, artistic and otherwise, who propagated this hatemongering.

Kaylee Simon
Freshman, Atlanta
Social work

Cartoon does not portray beliefs of student body

As an elected leader of the student body at UGA, I feel that students as a whole would not find this cartoon defensible in any way. It does not promote peace. It does not facilitate a feeling of goodwill.

It is not representative of the Student Body’s beliefs at UGA, but by appearing in the student newspaper it inevitably and unfortunately leaves that impression.

Katie Barlow
President,
Student Government Association

Adams’ support of study abroad essential

Dear editors:

As the recently appointed Associate Provost for International Education at University of Georgia, I was distressed to read “A Tale of Two Trips” in the Red and Black which criticizes President Adams for international travel related to the work of the University of Georgia.

It is particularly ironic that your article appears the week before nationwide International Education Week, and before the Institute of International Education (IIE) releases its annual Open Doors report on Study Abroad, a report which has placed UGA among the top ten U.S. universities for study abroad participation for six years in a row.

The University’s Oxford and Cortona programs provide extraordinary opportunities for UGA’s students to gain global competency and become competitive in the international market for talent. Students in these programs speak highly of their experiences overseas.

These programs depend on our nurturing long term relationships with the University of Oxford and the local community in Cortona.

That UGA is taken seriously in Oxford as an academic partner, for instance, is due, in no small measure, to the high-level interactions between President Adams and faculty and administrators at the University of Oxford.

We are now in a very strong position to expand our presence and links in Africa, and here too the visit of President Adams provides a strong impetus to developing broader overseas opportunities for our students and faculty.

Another important reason for President Adams’s trip to Oxford and Cortona was to help increase the scholarship funds for these programs. In the case of UGA at Oxford, several donors and members of the Oxford Development Board (which incidentally includes Mary Adams) had travelled to be part of the anniversary celebrations.

At such occasions, the presence and participation of the President is a powerful signal of the importance of the program to the University of Georgia and encourages further support.

That international experiences are vital to a student’s learning and ability to succeed in today’s world is something on which all of us can agree.

UGA has done an extraordinary job of broadening such opportunities for our students through efforts of faculty and administrators at all levels to the President.

As UGA’s senior international officer, I hope we can all celebrate the national recognition that UGA has received for its internationalization and work collectively to advance the university to the next level of distinction.

Kavita Pandi
UGA Associate Provost for International Education

Is it justified calling someone a ‘true follower?’

In response to Marc McAfee’s piece, I question his calling Yasmin Yonis a “true follower of Islam.” Does a true Muslim believe that non-Muslims are “the worst of creatures” (Qur’an 98:6) or wish to “slay the Pagans wherever ye find them” (Qur’an 9:5).

Does a true Muslim believe “that the share of the male be twice of the female,” (Sura 4:11) or that “men are a degree above” women in status (Sura 2:223)?

I doubt Yonis or any moderate Muslim does, and I’m certainly relieved.

I may be accused of “picking and choosing” verses, but that is no different than what moderates do, finding verses that support their views, which align with the current secular morality.

But the fact, Mr. McAfee, is that the Qur’an is the “Word of God” (it must all be true, yes?) and claiming that those who use it justify murder are not “true” Muslims is absurd.

The same can be said of all religions. (Read the Old Testament sometime; the Abrahamic God is quite genocidal).

Alan Reese
Junior, Savannah
Music performance and music theory

The following letters ran online only

I am writing in regards to today’s cartoon. I am not only outraged and furious, but I am also extremely disappointed. Depicting an Israeli soldier as a cheap Jew is clearly an anti-Semitic stereotype. It is not just the joke that bothers me particularly, but it is the fact that the Red and Black made it acceptable for university students to make fun of a minority. This kind of cartoon is one that too closely resembles the propaganda used during the Holocaust.

The reason the Nazis were allowed to kill and torture over six million innocent Jews was that it became acceptable to ridicule the Jewish people. I also find it hard to believe that this cartoon was displayed directly above Marc McAfee’s article on religious tolerance. The Red and Black’s hypocrisy disturbs me to the core. A university newspaper should not be spewing this uneducated and ignorant stereotype. We, as a student body, deserve better.

Pamela Chaliff
Junior, Atlanta
Finance and accounting

[To editorial cartoonist Bill Richards],
Looking through your portfolio at your website, it seems like you’re a well-intentioned, even talented guy. However, today’s cartoon about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict goes over the line of anti-Israeli advocacy and into the realm of anti-semitism. I’m sure you’re already well aware of the controversy that is brewing and upset that this mistake will forever brand you as a cartoonist and a person. To be clear, the issue isn’t that you created a cartoon that compares the Israel/Palestine wall to the Berlin Wall.

Although we can argue about the accuracy of the comparison and the necessity of the wall, the discussion between the Israeli soldiers about “getting this stuff on clearance” plays on hurtful, derisive Jewish stereotypes.

It is important to understand that Jewish groups have long been arguing that anti-Israeli sentiment is linked to and/or stems from anti-semitic feelings. This cartoon is a concrete demonstration of the conflation of the two. The comment on clearance has nothing to do with the national state of Israel or the feelings of its soldiers and everything to do with common stereotypes about Jews being cheap.

It’s offensive, adds little to the editorial position of the article, and is not particularly funny, clever, or creative.

The Red & Black should be more careful about what cartoons and articles they publish. Obviously, cartoonists are editorial writers and are entitled to take controversial stands, but I hope that the paper would not allow a cartoon or article that is facially racist, or in the case, anti-semitic. Every cartoonist and editor makes mistakes in judgment and everyone is entitled to their opinions. I just hope that in the future this kind of anti-semitic stereotyping can stay off the pages of the Red & Black.

Jeffrey Fisher
Grad. Student, Marietta
Law

I am a UGA parent and a pretty liberal Jew. I can take a joke and I like to dish them out too. But this is a dumb nonsensical one that can only make anyone with anti-Semitic tendencies feel more strongly about why they don’t like Jews.

Show some discretion please. There is a strong Jewish community now in Georgia and at UGA. Show a bit of respect and decency.

Eric Hyman
Acworth

This is very anti Semitic. How your newspaper could print this garbage is beyond me. Shame on the Red and Black for pushing such filth. I am embarrassed I give money to support UGA when the school newspaper prints something like this!

Todd A. Warshaw
Alumni, Atlanta

I was appalled by the distasteful cartoon run in Thursday’s paper. Not only did the cartoon offend UGA’s Jewish population, but it also propagated an unfair stereotype. I can’t decide which part of the cartoon was more inappropriate: the strong anti-Israel sentiment or the blatant anti-semitism. The Red&Black should be ashamed.

Shayna Pollock
Sophomore, Atlanta
Environmental Economics and Management & Political Science

I am appalled by the anti-semitic cartoon published in today’s paper. Whether created with or without intentional malice, the cartoon is nothing more than a hurtful misrepresentation of the current situation in Israel. I am surprised that the Red & Black decided to publish this cartoon, especially after running articles this week about Kristallnacht, the massive destruction of Jewish establishments often considered to be the beginning of the Holocaust. I hope that next time the creator and editors take into consideration the message conveyed at the expense of a cheap laugh.

Abby Boorstin
Senior, Dunwoody
Environmental Health

What a shameful thing your newspaper recently did when you decided that publishing blatant anti-Semitic cartoons was considered part of decent journalism. I am ashamed that I ever read your newspaper. To all Jewish students who feel offended, you are absolutely right. What a disgrace that the “newspaper” would even allow this sort of obvious bigotry to be disseminated.

Darren Tobin
Alumni, Atlanta
Law

I found the editorial cartoon published in Thursday’s Red & Black to be offensive and anti-Semitic. The comment “we got it all on clearance” was inappropriate and should not have been published. The cartoon took a very one-sided and negative view of Israel’s fight for democracy and peace.
While I understand the point of the editorial section, I believe that the content published should be monitored to ensure that it will not be offensive to the readership. I hope in the future more care will be taken to ensure a cartoon like this is not published again.

Emily Weinstein
Sophomore, Roswell
Accounting

To the Editor: Re the Red & Black’s cartoon of Nov. 12:

When I was a little boy, my grandmother told me not to be upset by anti-Semitism, because it exposed the level of hate that Jews have to deal with. Then, as a professionl journalist, I spent decades supporting the right of even the most hateful speech to be aired as part of the national dialogue, because it shows right-thinking people what they’re up against. So I support your right to publish this cartoon. What troubles me about it is not its blatant anti-Semitism — perhaps that will touch off a worthwhile campus discussion — but the cold sarcasm within which it’s couched. Bigotry I can deal with, but narrow-mindedness that masquerades as sarcastic humor, that is just plain chilling.

Paul Kaplan
Roswell

I am shocked and apalled by yesterday’s editorial cartoon by Mr.Bill Richards. It uses a dated stereotype of Jews as a cheap joke. This editorial seems to have no content outside of it’s clearly antisemitic one-liner. I believe that the Red and Black, as a progressive student paper, should not stand by or support tasteless cartoons such as this one.

Jason Chaliff
Senior, Sandy Springs
Real Estate

Shame on the editor for allowing Bill Richards to such an anti-semitic cartoon to be published and carried online in the “Red & Black” on 11/11/09. His intolerence is showing…

Ted Marcus
Alumni, Atlanta

Although this is not the first time I have been upset with what I’ve found within the Red and Black, this is the first time that I’ve felt personally insulted by something in its pages.

To start with, Bill Richards’s attempted comparison between the West Bank Wall to the Berlin Wall is extremely flawed. The Berlin wall separated one group of people (Germans). The West Bank wall is a security measure necessary to protect Israel’s citizens from external terrorist attacks, something it has done very effectively. If Mexican terrorists started launching rockets into Texas pizza parlors and malls, wouldn’t you expect your country to take defensive action? The only reason Israel comes under such attack for its defensive measures has to be something more sinister, something that also reared its ugly head in Mr. Richards’s cartoon.

The thing I am referring to is none other than that constant scourge, anti-Semitism. It is something my people have faced for mellinia, but nonetheless, I would hope that I could avoid it in my own school newspaper. In his cartoon, Mr. Richards depicts a Jewish soldier making a comment about getting the wall “on clearance.” To make a statement about Israel is one thing, but to make an underhanded jab referencing the old “cheap jew” stereotype is quite another. Shame on Mr. Richards for resorting to this, and shame on the Red and Black for allowing it.

Philip Siegelman
Junior, Marietta
Management

I rarely agree with articles that the Red & Black puts out. Being in a fraternity, I know that the Greek community has long been under fire by the independent newspaper. This difference in opinion rarely bothers me to the extent that I feel I must speak out against it. Nevertheless, I found the editorial cartoon of November 12 to be exceptionally derogatory towards Israel and the Jewish community and knew that, as a Jew myself, I had to say something.

To think that the Jews received the state of Israel under conditions that were exceptionally easy is not only wrong, it is an insult to us as a people. Besides practicing the oldest religion worldwide, Jews have been among the most oppressed people in history, from being enslaved in Babylonia and Egypt before the Common Era to having a third of our people massacred in the Holocaust just 60 years ago. The State of Israel was established so we could have a haven where we would not be persecuted for our beliefs and traditions. It was not received “on clearance,” as Bill Richards’ cartoon makes it out to be.

The recent conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has shed a new light on this issue, primarily among those who sympathize with the Palestinians. While Israel has used force in taking care of this problem, these actions should not be misconstrued against them as if to say that they are being ruthless and not allowing themselves to coexist with Palestinians. Rather, we are protecting our homeland against those who would take it from us without regard for law (the British legally designated Israel as a Jewish State when they mandated the matter in 1948) nor life. The West Bank may be a small region to accomodate all Palestinians, but designating it that way was a very generous step that Israel took. For those who believe that Arabs deserved Israel more than Jews as they had religious sites in the state, Jews have had a history for living and ruling that area for centuries (read the Old Testament if you don’t believe me). Moreover, we have just as many, if not more, religious sites there as anyone else has.

Israel was not received “on clearance.” Far from it, in fact. The Jews had suffered for millenia before the state was established for us. Think about the scientific and technological advancements Israel has made to the world (numerous contributions to theoretical physics, electrical engineering, military technology, and medicine) before you create an anti-Israel and anti-semitic cartoon, let alone publish it. This cartoon was in rather poor taste and I sincerely hope to not have to see another cartoon drawn in its stance in the Red & Black while I remain a student at the University of Georgia.

Jason Axelrod
Sophomore, Atlanta
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