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Romanian TV Airs Christmas Carol About Burning Jews

We’re pretty sure Jews didn’t write this one

by
Yair Rosenberg
December 11, 2013

This past Thursday, viewers in Romania were treated to a celebration of holiday cheer in the form of a Christmas music special on state television. Or at least, that was the plan. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, one of the songs on the playlist turned out to be a carol venerating the Holocaust: “The kikes, damn kikes, Holy God would not leave the kike alive, neither in heaven nor on earth, only in the chimney as smoke, this is what the kike is good for, to make kike smoke through the chimney on the street.” And so on.

JTA reports that the channel defended itself by explaining that “it did not select the carol but only broadcast songs that were chosen and compiled by the Center for Preservation and Promotion of Traditional Culture.” Reassuringly, this suggests that anti-Semitic Christmas carols are merely the Romanian equivalent of Fiddler on the Roof.

The surreal episode has since inspired its own hashtag, #AntiSemiticXmasCarols, yielding such gems as “O Holy Night of Broken Glass” and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Except the Jews. Who Are Not Gentlemen.” Feel free to add your own in the comments, and watch a video excerpt of the performance for yourself below:

Yair Rosenberg is a senior writer at Tablet. Subscribe to his newsletter, listen to his music, and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.