Brazilian Jewish groups slam German comedian for Holocaust joke
Lea Maria Jahn Image by facebook
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Brazilian Jewish groups slammed a German standup comedian who made a Holocaust joke followed by a Nazi salute during a performance in Sao Paulo in February.
“On Christmas, we ask for a friend as a gift. Once I got it, but it only lasted a day. He escaped. He was Jewish. I said he escaped, not that he died. He was very fast. You know, if I do this joke in Germany, I’ll be arrested. Letting a Jew escape like this?” Lea Maria Jahn said on stage.
“Who here thinks that Germans are Nazis? Please raise your hand,” she continued, raising her own hand in a Nazi salute.
The performance was uploaded to YouTube in February, where it has garnered nearly 1 million views. But it gained additional attention on Tuesday, when the Organized Jewish Youth organization criticized it.
“This is 2020 and a German woman makes jokes against Jews in Brazil,” the group wrote on Facebook. “Does this ‘comedian’ have an exact idea of how dangerous the words that she considers a joke are?”
The Brazilian Israelite Confederation demanded an apology on Thursday.
“When referring to her German origin and to anti-Semitism in an inappropriate and vulgar way, she brought up sad situations from the Holocaust era as the topic of jokes, which can hurt the victims,” the confederation said.
Marcos Susskind, a popular Brazilian Israeli political analyst, said Jahn had crossed the line.
“You call it humor, I call it horror,” he wrote in an open letter.
The post Brazilian Jewish groups slam German comedian for Holocaust joke appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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
