So I was hip to the Harry Potter Shabbat crisis (actually my GeekHeeb colleague was and I poached). Gawker‘s super-hipness regarding Harry manifested itself last week in the from of age-old anti-Semitism.
The post—dealing with the same story that though Israeli bookstores were legally barred from selling “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” when it came out Saturday, some would anyway—said “Head Heebs in the Holy Land are trying to keep bookstores closed.” That’s harmless enough, but then it went on. colleague was and I poached). But I wasn’t aware that
Some stores are planning to open anywayâthese are Jews, let’s remember, and a buck’s a buckâwhich has resulted in predictable outrage from the more Adonai-adoring elements of Israeli society.
“They didnât just go there, did they?” Mark Caro asked on his Pop Machine blog for the Chicago Tribune. “What, is it Fun with Ages-Old Slanderous Stereotypes Week?”
The piece then quotes someone from the United Torah Judaism Party (by way of an Associated Press story) slamming the Potter booksâ âdefective messagesâ and their subculture before the Gawker writer fires back: â[I]sn’t this exactly how some of us feel about, you know, the Bible and its subculture of weird, tallis-wearing followers?â
Hee hee—Orthodox Jews and other Bible readers sure are a bunch of weirdos!
This reminds me a bit of Tommy Thompson’s gaffe about Jews and their love of money while trying to court the Jewish vote. Sheesh.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.