Controversy over Buffalo News cartoon using Star of David to criticize Israel

A view of buildings illuminated before sunrise in Buffalo. Photo by iStock

By Beth Harpaz December 28, 2023

Jewish leaders in Buffalo, New York, are upset over a cartoon in The Buffalo News depicting skulls dripping from a sink with faucet handles shaped like Stars of David.

The cartoon, titled “Leaky Faucet,” and published Tuesday, was created by the News’ Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Adam Zyglis. Zyglis posted the image on his social media accounts. On Instagram, he added the hashtags #gaza, #gazadeathtoll, #civilians, #israel, #war, #palestine, #hamas and #joebiden. 

The cartoon also depicts President Biden lying in bed, in striped pajamas, paying no attention to the bloody drips from the faucet.

The paper’s editorial board said in a story published Thursday that the cartoon “prompted an avalanche of response from readers. Many of the readers who responded saw the cartoon as an antisemitic attack.” 

The board defended the cartoon as “a pointed commentary, meant as a political/social/military observation, and not intended to be antisemitic in any way.”

Zyglis, along with the paper’s managing editor, editorial page editor and marketing director, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Anti-Zionism vs. antisemitism

Rabbi Mendy Labkowski, who runs the Chabad Center for Jewish Life in Buffalo, told the Forward that his phone “blew up” with messages from people who were “deeply hurt and deeply offended” by the cartoon. 

“The Jewish community was really enraged,” Labkowski said, adding that he’d written to Zyglis and that he’d like to see the paper apologize.

In an interview with WGRZ, a local TV station, Labkowski pointed out that the cartoonist “could’ve used the flag of Israel” instead of the Star of David, a Jewish symbol, to criticize the government.

The paper’s editorial board acknowledged that cartoons can “have a sharp edge” and that “it is not uncommon for them to draw protests. Only rarely, though, do they elicit the kind of response that Tuesday’s cartoon did — passionate, hurt and with its own sharp edges. We didn’t fail to notice.”

The board invited readers to respond before noon on Friday, and said Sunday’s letters page would be devoted to those responses. 

Israel invaded Gaza and undertook a massive bombing campaign there after Hamas murdered 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages in surprise attacks in Israel on Oct. 7. The New York Times on Thursday published a detailed investigation showing that Hamas’ assaults included a campaign of rape and sexual atrocities. Meanwhile, Gaza officials say Israel’s war there has resulted in 20,000 deaths, including Hamas terrorists. 

Federation plans a meeting

The Buffalo Jewish Federation said on Facebook that the organization had been “in conversation with many members of our Jewish community and are equally as offended by the antisemitic cartoon that appeared in The Buffalo News.” The Federation said it planned to meet with Zyglis and an editor. 

In his Facebook post, Labkowski wrote that the cartoon’s “use of the Star of David, a symbol of Judaism, transforms this depiction into an antisemitic attack rather than a critique of the Jewish State of Israel. This incident is not isolated, as Mr. Zyglis has a history of publishing antisemitic and anti-Israel cartoons. The Jewish community perceives today’s cartoon as a continuation of that trend but also reminiscent of historical propaganda from the 1930s.”

In a phone interview, Labkowski added: “Our enemies always cloak their antisemitic ideas as anti-Israel. That’s the way they do it.”

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