Anti-Defamation League Accuses Garry Trudeau of 'Maligning Judaism'

By: E&P Staff The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Monday released the text of a letter it sent to cartoonist Garry Trudeau over his May 31, 2009 ?Doonesbury? strip. Several of the comic?s characters, including Sam and Rev. Sloan, are discussing Jesus Christ, and how the one time Christ ?really only snaps once? in the Bible was ?with the moneylenders.?

Which, apparently, was enough to spur the ADL into action. The letter follows:

Dear Mr. Trudeau:

We agree with the numerous people who are contacting us that Sunday's Doonesbury misquotes the Bible, maligns Judaism, and promotes a Christian heresy, all within eight panels. It reinforces age-old stereotypes about Judaism that have been the cause of much suffering and pain over the centuries, and which have been rejected by a variety of Christian denominations over the last decades.

Jesus' concern in the Gospels is with money-changers, not money-lenders. The money-changers converted the coins of the Roman Empire into the currency accepted by the Jerusalem Temple, as money-changers today convert dollars into Euros. To speak of money-lenders harkens back the stereotype of Shylock, when Jews were forced by Christians to engage in usury.

Christian teaching is clear: the God of the Old Testament is the same God as the God of the New Testament. Doonesbury's Reverend Sloan is guilty of promoting anti-Jewish stereotypes and biblical illiteracy. He owes both Jews and Christians an apology.

Founded in 1913, the Anti-Defamation League bills itself as the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

On Tuesday, the Rabbi David Saperstein of the Union for Reform Judaism weighed in on the comments section of Trudeau?s site. ?To be clear, I write as a fan,? he states. ?The strip, we hope and assume unwittingly, perpetuated centuries of anti-Semitic canards about Biblical-era moneylenders -- who were almost uniformly Jewish -- as the enemies of Jesus and the villains of the New Testament. As you know, similar caricatures have been used throughout the years to incite hate against the Jewish community and have cultivated and perpetuated offensive stereotypes.?

Others have weighed in as well. Check out the comments thus far, here.