Shylock-for-‘Jew’ Crossword Clue Spurs Apology Over Money-Grubber Trope
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
A major newspaper company has apologized for using Shylock as a clue for the answer “Jew” in a nationally syndicated crossword puzzle after the Anti-Defamation League said it was insensitive.
Tribune Media Syndicate, which provides content to 4,000 outlets and reaches 10 million readers, said in its apology that appeared in newspapers on Sunday that the puzzle “should not have been distributed with that clue.”
Tribune Media added that it “is very sensitive to racial or cultural references in the content we distribute and regret that this slipped through.”
The ADL had called on the syndicate’s editors to apologize for using the clue after it appeared on Friday in newspapers across the country.
Shylock refers to the Jewish moneylender in the play “The Merchant of Venice” by William Shakespeare.
“Perhaps the puzzle authors were unaware of the use of Shakespeare’s Shylock character throughout the years as a vehicle for anti-Semitism,” ADL National Director Abraham Foxman wrote in a letter to Tribune Media Services.
“Selecting Shylock to elicit the answer ‘Jew’ demonstrates cultural ignorance and an extreme lack of sensitivity. “Even if done inadvertently, such a linkage perpetuates classic anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews as evil and money-hungry.”
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. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
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.
