The Jewish site Tablet published a piece on Monday that referred to Harvey Weinstein as “a deeply Jewish kind of pervert.” The author of the piece received considerable backlash and has issued an apology on the Tablet Magazine website.
Mark Oppenheimer, an editor-at-large at Tablet, wrote a piece titled “The Specifically Jewy Perviness of Harvey Weinstein” and stated that what differentiated Weinstein from the likes of Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly and Bill Clinton was that he “is a deeply Jewish kind of pervert.”
“These despicable gents [Ailes, O’Reilly] have power and influence, and they aren’t above promising a lucrative gig—or threatening to take it away—to get laid,” wrote Oppenheimer. “In these transactions, women are nothing but objects, and any ‘consent’ is just an illusion.”
Weinstein, on the other hand, sought “unattainable Gentiles” as if it were part of “one big performance piece,” argued Oppenheimer.
“Growing up in Queens, he fantasized of fame and fortune, and, once he got them, he struggled to maintain them by building himself into a larger-than-life figure,” wrote Oppenheimer. “He yelled at employees like he was a studio boss from the 1920s—the only thing missing was a riding crop. He ran Oscars campaigns like they used to in Old Hollywood. And he harassed women not necessarily to use them as instruments of his pleasure, but to use them as instruments of his power.”
Oppenheimer concluded his piece by pointing out that most of the women who have come forward about Weinstein were Gentiles.
The piece received fierce backlash on Twitter:
What @tabletmag has just done…is beyond all reckoning
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) October 10, 2017
Wow, @tabletmag. I have no words. No links, you know what you did.
— Inez Stepman (@InezFeltscher) October 10, 2017
Could the estate of scumbag writers of the Protocols of the Elders of Ziyon sue for plagiarism? If so, I’d call a lawyer, @tabletmag.
— Elliott Hamilton (@ElliottRHams) October 10, 2017
Aside from this piece being championed by the alt-right for its anti-Semitic tropes, it also minimizes what Weinstein did.
— Dvora Meyers (@DvoraMeyers) October 10, 2017
Weinstein isn’t being accused of being a horny guy; he’s being accused of sexual assault, coercion, intimidation, retaliation, silencing.
— Dvora Meyers (@DvoraMeyers) October 10, 2017
This is a revolting bit of prose.
— 🌎Seasonal Scaryname🌎 (@JoshMalina) October 10, 2017
Oppenheimer initially defended the piece, telling The Wrap in an email, “What I was trying to do in this case was examine how common narratives — particularly those transmitted by literature — might influence how people may be processing Weinstein’s Jewish identity in this story.”
However, Oppenheimer eventually wrote an apology on Tablet’s website.
“Yesterday I published a piece on Harvey Weinstein that many found offensive. The analysis I offered was hasty and ill-considered, especially in light of the even graver accusations that were published by the New Yorker this morning,” wrote Oppenheimer. “I take this as a lesson in the importance of knowing as much as one can about a given story, and in taking the time to think and feel things completely through before opining. I apologize for not doing so in this case.”
Not everyone was satisfied with the apology.
The @markopp1 @tabletmag apology is that he didn’t know enough about how bad Weinstein was? What about his own vile anti-Semitism? SHONDEH.
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) October 10, 2017
Good on @markopp1, though I still don’t understand how @tabletmag published the story in the first place. https://t.co/9jKKWqiXjf
— Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) October 10, 2017
Several women have come forward accusing Weinstein of sexual harassment and three women have accused him of rape. Audio has emerged of Weinstein admitting to groping a woman.
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