‘Elmo’ Booted From Central Park for Anti-Semitic Rant
Image by getty images
A man in an Elmo costume was ejected from Central Park and hospitalized after going on an anti-Semitic rant in the middle of the New York landmark.
While the man’s name was not released because he was not arrested, police said that Monday’s incident was not the first time he had dressed as the Sesame Street character and gone on a racial rant.
Videos of the costumed Elmo’s anti-Semitic comments began to circulate Sunday and show him directing bystanders to read “The International Jew” by Henry Ford, the automobile manufacturer who was known for his anti-Semitic views.
“I’m not making money because the Jewish costume company is harassing me,” said the man, caught on video. “That’s why I’m doing it and that’s why I want people to read ‘The International Jew,’ because if you start your business in this city, Jews will harass you.”
The man also complained that he wasn’t making any money because of “Jewish cops and company.”
A spokesman for the Sesame Street Workshop, the nonprofit group that produces “Sesame Street,” released a statement on Monday saying that “The ‘Sesame Street’ Muppets are known the world over, and we do not condone unauthorized representations of our characters.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
