Limbaugh draws ADL rebuke over remark

Radio talk show host Rush LImbaugh is being criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for remarks on Jews and the banking industry.

During a broadcast Wednesday following Republican Scott Brown’s upset victory in the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts, Limbaugh wondered if Jews—nearly 80 percent of whom backed Barack Obama in 2008—were having second thoughts about the president.

“To some people, ‘banker’ is code word for Jewish; and guess who Obama is assaulting?” Limbaugh said, according to the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters. “He’s assaulting bankers. He’s assaulting money people. And a lot of those people on Wall Street are Jewish. So I wonder if there’s—if there’s starting to be some buyer’s remorse there.”

The comment drew a rebuk from the ADL.

“Limbaugh’s references to Jews and money in a discussion of Massachusetts politics were offensive and inappropriate,” said the ADL’s national director, Abraham Foxman. “While the age-old stereotype about Jews and money has a long and sordid history, it also remains one of the main pillars of anti-Semitism and is widely accepted by many Americans. His notion that Jews vote based on their religion, rather than on their interests as Americans, plays into the hands of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists. When he comes to understand why his words were so offensive and unacceptable, Limbaugh should apologize.”