Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

More Dov Charney Sexism – This Time With a Side of Anti-Semitism

Dov Charney just won’t go away.

Despite having been fired last year, the American Apparel founder and former CEO is pursuing defamation for defamation. In response, AA released a document listing Charney’s many instances of employee abuse, both physical and emotional.

The most frequent and alarming are instances of horrendous sexism.

Unbelievably, Charney retained many explicit emails, texts, videos and photos in which he harassed female employees. Others showed Charney involved in sexually explicit acts with models.

And now, we add anti-Semitism to Charney’s rap sheet.

Former American Apparel employee, Michael Bumblis, who managed an American Apparel store in Malibu, CA, accused Charney of unleashing an anti-Semitic rant. Allegedly Charney screamed at him in the store, “You should have been f-king fired months ago… You’re a f-king Jew! You should know, you are a f-king long hair wanna be Jew. Get your fucking shit together, fag.”

Altogether ironic considering Charney’s Jewish heritage.

As if the verbal abuse wasn’t enough, Charney then grabbed his throat and attempted to strangle Bumblis.

Charney also repeatedly called his Filipino employees, “Filipino pigs.”

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.