Is Maureen Dowd an Anti-Semite?I think the headline goes a bit over the top and I don't think there's any question that Ms. Dowd is not an anti-Semite. Nor is criticism of Goldman Sachs out of line. But it wouldn't hurt for her to rein in some of her images and comparisons.
Thursday November 12, 2009
Categories: Judaism, News, Politics, Pop Culture, Religion
The short answer is almost certainly not. But after yesterday's column in the New York Times, many people are asking, and not without some justification. In writing about Goldman Sachs, the famously/infamously successful investment bank, Dowd dredged up ancient and dangerous motifs which have inspired hatred of Jews for two thousand years.
Comparing the employees of Goldman Sachs to "the same self-interested sorts Jesus threw out of the temple", and also linking blood lust and GS bankers' lust for money, Ms. Dowd stepped over a very important line -- one which when crossed in the past cost thousands, if not millions of lives. At the very least she demonstrated how deeply the metaphors of hate are rooted even in the lives of some well meaning people, and that alone is deeply disturbing.
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I see that Robert G. Sugarman, the National Chairman of the Anti-Defamation League, has raised the same issue in a letter to the NYT. I can find no other references to it through Google News or Technorati.
UPDATE (18 November): More here.