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Word Matters

Discussing the recent burst of celebrity anti-Semitism—and whether it really matters—with Abraham Foxman, Jeffrey Goldberg, Emily Nussbaum, and Matthew Hiltzik

By Vox Tablet|March 4, 2011 7:00 AM|5comments
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John Galliano arriving at a Paris police station, February 28.(Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images)

When John Galliano was fired earlier this week as the chief designer for Christian Dior because of his stunning anti-Semitic outburst, some saw the start of a trend. Charlie Sheen had taunted the creator of his CBS sitcom, Two and a Half Men, Chuck Lorre, by calling him Chaim Levine. And Julian Assange, of Wikileaks, allegedly accused a group of journalists of being part of a Jewish conspiracy to smear his organization.

But does it matter if a celebrity gets drunk and utters something offensive? Might it be counterproductive to call attention to every stupid remark? Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry asked Anti-Defamation League chief Abraham Foxman, Atlantic national correspondent and blogger Jeffrey Goldberg, New York magazine cultural critic Emily Nussbaum, and public-relations guru Matthew Hiltzik. [Running time: 16:05.] 

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  • Bijoou

    Are we being naive? The anti-semitic feelings – the jealousies, the hatreds, the fears and the inferiority complexes – have always been there hovering, waiting for the trigger moment to burst forth. Why is everyone so surprised?

  • Fabio Popowski

    Not even in thousand years would I have known who this person Galliano is, wasn’t it fot the “press” he had received nowadays.

  • Dorothy Wachsstock

    This is how it started in Germany and we have family from the concentration camps who tell us that.

    Look back at the Posters in Germany and the sayings of Hitler and Goebles and take a look at your children and think if you want this to be overlooked until it gets worse or do we hold these people accountable now.

    It is now blatant as it started then..take a look at what is said by our enemies in the Middle East who are coming to this country. Listen to what professors are teaching your children to march against Israel and think!.

    Jealousy always started it because the Jews start at the bottom and work hard to get to the top. Nobody notices Jews when they are poor..so why are these wealthy Jews always helping others but not their own to be called names and have to deal with anti-semitism?

    Wake up and go into your own poor neighborhoods and help the poor Jewish people climb the ladder as it once was.

    Start thinking how Jews climbed the ladder when they came to this country and help those that others helped jewish immigrants in the 1900′s.

  • Shalom Freedman

    The focus here is on the anti- Semitic remarks of individual celebrities. It is commendable that these remarks are widely condemned and now considered not acceptable in civilized discourse.
    But what these individuals are and have said pales in comparison to the anti- Semitism which is present in the media of almost all Arab and Islamic nations, which commonly reigns in the discourse of the U.N. How ironic and disturbing that the collective public national anti- Semitism is largely ignored, while the remarks of the ‘celebrities’ are given maximum attention.

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Word Matters

Discussing the recent burst of celebrity anti-Semitism—and whether it really matters—with Abraham Foxman, Jeffrey Goldberg, Emily Nussbaum, and Matthew Hiltzik