Wednesday, November 18, 2009

MAUREEN DOWD gets more flack for her recent comments on Goldman Sachs:
Maureen Dowd mines an anti-Semitic theme
The New York Times columnist crosses a line in her condemnation of Goldman Sachs.



by Menachem Z. Rosensaft and Jason H. Dolinsky

November 13, 2009 (New Jersey Jewish News)

We do not believe New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd to be an anti-Semite. Nor is she either stupid or unaware of the potential impact of her words. Thus, the blatantly anti-Semitic insinuations in her column of November 11 about the profiteering of what she refers to as “blood-sucking banks” are especially appalling.

[...]

Blankfein is living refutation of another stereotype that all Jews or investment bankers are smart. Still, his insensitive, bordering on moronic, comments do not give Ms. Dowd the right to revive and recirculate a number of vicious and dangerous anti-Semitic stereotypes. She contrasts the “cycle of greed and concupiscence” of what she calls “Goldmine Sachs” (hint, hint) with the “virtuous” Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism. And just to be certain that no one should miss her point, she concludes by emphasizing that “the bankers who took government money and then gave out obscene bonuses are the same self-interested sorts Jesus threw out of the temple.”

[...]
Background here.