Harry Potter Franchise Accused Of ‘Antisemitism’ As Jon Stewart Questions Why There Isn’t More Outrage
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Former Daily Show host Jon Stewart has questioned why crowds were not more shocked when watching Harry Potter as he accused JK Rowling of antisemitism.
Stewart shared his thoughts on the much-loved magical franchise during a recent episode of his podcast, The Problem with Jon Stewart, in which he drew attention to the creatures who run Gringotts Wizarding Bank.
The comedian, who is Jewish, claimed the goblins who run the bank resemble antisemitic caricatures but that many people fail to acknowledge it.
The creatures are depicted in the Harry Potter films with pointy ears and hooked noises, while the Harry Potter wiki describes them as having ‘long fingers and feet’ as well as ‘skills with money and finances’.
Discussing the goblins, Stewart said: ‘Here’s how you know Jews are still where they are.’
The host said the goblins are based on antisemitic caricatures of Jewish people from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, mimicking an exchange with a fan as he said: ‘I just want to show you a caricature. And they’re like, ‘Oh, look at that, that’s from Harry Potter!’ And you’re like, ‘No, that’s a caricature of a Jew from an antisemitic piece of literature.”
He made reference to far-fetched and fantastical aspects of Harry Potter as he noted that people can ‘ride dragons and have pet owls’ in the Wizarding World, but questioned: ‘Who should run the bank? Jews.’
Stewart continued: ‘It was one of those things where I saw it on the screen and I was expecting the crowd to be like ‘Holy sh*t.’ She did not in a Wizarding World just throw Jews in there to run the f*cking underground bank.’
The host is not the only person to accuse Rowling of being antisemitic through the characters, with some social media users pointing out that the shape of the Star of David can be seen on the floor of Gringotts Bank in the Harry Potter films.
Responding to an image of the star, one person wrote: ‘JK Rowling is an anti-Semite, and the Gringotts Goblins were archetypes of Jews, playing into a medieval caricature of Jews as long-nosed, ugly, dirty, lying, thieving, money-obsessed creatures. Our holy symbol on the floor of the Gringotts bank? That’s not an accident.’
Another tweet reads: ‘The bankers at Gringotts were obviously jews. Sorry, think about it. JK Rowling was anti semitic. Just sayin”.
Rowling does not appear to have commented on the accusations at the time of writing, January 4.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact Stop Hate UK by visiting their website www.stophateuk.org/talk
Topics: Film and TV, Jewish, JK Rowling
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