ADL head calls NY Times cartoon ‘vile anti-Semitic propaganda’

WASHINGTON — Anti-Defamation League chief Jonathan Greenblatt excoriated The New York Times over the weekend for publishing a cartoon that depicted anti-Semitic tropes.

“I thought the cartoon was disgusting,” he told The Times of Israel on Saturday night, during an interview in which he also addressed a deadly shooting at a California synagogue. “I thought it was despicable.”

The paper acknowledged on Saturday that a cartoon it published in its international edition “included anti-Semitic tropes” and called its running the image an “error of judgment.” The Times did not explicitly apologize for carrying the cartoon.

The graphic, which was in Thursday’s international print edition, showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a guide dog wearing a Star of David on his collar, leading a blind US President Donald Trump, seen wearing a skullcap and Hasidic garb.

A caricature of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump published in the New York Times’ international edition on April 25, 2019, which the paper later acknowledged “included anti-Semitic tropes.” (Courtesy)

“It was provided by The New York Times News Service and Syndicate, which has since deleted it,” said the paper’s statement, which was tweeted through its Opinion section’s account.

“I wouldn’t even credit it as a cartoon,” Greenblatt said. “It was anti-Semitic propaganda of the most vile sort. Not only does it not belong in The New York Times, but it in any credible news outlet. It was unconscionable.”

Greenblatt said the ADL would “be in touch” with the newspaper about the drawing.