Agudath Israel Protests Bigoted Rockland Journal News Imagery

Agudath Israel of America viewed with alarm an incendiary promotional advertisement published Monday for an upcoming article in Journal News (Lohud), a popular newspaper in Rockland County.

The caption, “Rabbi holds the strings on $76M for East Ramapo School District… Coming Feb. 9,” appears above a puppet master using pencils and string to manipulate what appears to be children atop a pile of cash.

While the article, or even the identity of the “rabbi” (as though his “rabbihood” is somehow germane) are unknown, the caricature evokes the worst antisemitic tropes, and is categorically unacceptable. The concept of the Jew as a conspiratorial puppet master, covertly manipulating the world economy and events, harks back to at least the 1700s, as further amplified upon in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Its imagery and underlying implications have stoked pogroms for hundreds of years, and was employed as recently as by the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, who killed 11 worshippers in the largest modern mass shooting against Jews in America, at Tree of Life in 2018. We wonder how any article which emerges from an editorial board that approved such a hateful cartoon can pretend to be free from bias.

Agudath Israel calls for a full apology, and actionable commitment by Lohud to avoid bigoted imagery and coverage of the Jewish community in Rockland County in the future.