Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Elder of Ziyon
NBC's "Nurses" program aired an episode that is antisemitic. There is no other way to view it: it characterizes religious Jews as:
* Being against any modern medical procedures
* Being against grafting bone or tissue from non-Jews
* Being against having women's organs or bones placed in men
* Jewish men not directly addressing female nurses
* Saying that prayer and medicine are incompatible
The inaccuracies about how religious Jews are would be laughable if it didn't just teach millions of viewers that they are uncaring monsters who reject women and medicine.
A Hasidic Jewish youth named Israel (of course, in case the point wasn't made) who skipped "temple" to play basketball gets hit by a car and needs an operation to fix his leg and walk normally again. His rabbi father is aghast that doctors suggest a bone graft, which could come from "a dead goyim leg" - from "an Arab, a woman."
Of course, Judaism has no such restrictions. But funny looking Jews with sidecurls are an irresistible target for modern entertainment.
Notice also that the nurse sarcastically makes fun what the rabbi is saying, normalizing the idea that Jewish beliefs can be lampooned on TV. Even though the show is claiming that Jews believe something that is diametrically opposed to Jewish law, the message that gets through from this show is that nurses must be respectful to all people - except Dark Age Jews.
Later, the nurse tries to make a Biblical argument to the son that one can break (nonexistent) Jewish laws to save one's life. The father refuses to acknowledge the nurse is even there, because, of course, she's a woman.
Then the father says that his son getting a bone graft would jeopardize his eternal soul, and that the choice is between trusting medicine or prayer.
In the end, the nurse is frustrated that she couldn't convince the backwards Jews what was best for them.
This entire episode is the Jewish equivalent of having a Black character eating watermelon with fried chicken and saying "Yessa Massa!" It is not only a thoroughly offensive stereotype, but it is a stereotype that has no relationship with reality.
At a time when identifiable Jews are being beaten in the streets simply because of how they look, NBC is contributing to the idea that Jews are not just like anyone else - but that they are fundamentally different, completely wrong and deserve to be treated with contempt.
This requires an immediate and abject apology.
