A float at Belgium’s Aalst carnival on March 3 has been denounced by several organizations for its anti-Semitic portrayal of Jews, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The float, featured two giant puppets representing Orthodox Jews and had them wearing side locks and shtreimels, hats favored by some Orthodox Jews, in pink suits. Gobs of money and gold coins were beneath them while one of the puppets had a rat on his shoulder.
According to the BBC, the group who created the float, De Vismooil’n, claimed that the float was meant in jest.
“We found it comical to have pink Jews in the procession with a safe to keep the money we saved,” the group told HLN (Het Laatste Nieuws), a Belgian media outlet. “You can have a laugh with other religions too.”
Christopher D’Haese, the mayor of Aalst, told HLN that De VIsmooil’n didn’t create the float out of malice and that it wasn’t his place as mayor to prevent it from being displayed at the carnival.
The European Commission condemned the float.
“We Europeans do not have the luxury of taking this lightly… because we have the sad privilege of having experience how this ends,” Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told the BBC. “In the last century, we saw it once and we know how this film ends – and nobody wants to see this film replayed.”
Anti-Defamation League senior vice president for international affairs Sharon Nazarian tweeted that the “Jews-and-money trope is deadly, not for jest.”
The anti-Semitic Jews-and-money trope is deadly, not for jest. Ilan Halimi was kidnapped for ransom and murdered bc "All Jews are rich." Others have been raped and beaten during targeted home robberies. #AalstCarnaval https://t.co/IRYpFosKuj
— Sharon S. Nazarian (@sharon_nazarian) March 4, 2019
The American Jewish Committee tweeted, “We are disgusted by this abhorrent use of anti-Semitic (sic) imagery in Belgium. It boggles the mind that anyone thinks this is acceptable in 2019.”
We are disgusted by this abhorrent use of antisemitic imagery in Belgium. It boggles the mind that anyone thinks this is acceptable in 2019. https://t.co/dASjVHxSKl
— American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) March 5, 2019
