Berlusconi’s Jewish Joke Draws Rebuke From Vatican
Crossposted from Haaretz
The Vatican journal and the Italian bishops’ daily newsletter yesterday condemned a “Jewish joke” told by Italian Prime Minister Sylvio Berlusconi on his birthday last week.
Berlusconi, who turned 74, jocularly told well wishers a joke about about a Jew that charged another Jew 3,000 euros a day to hide him during the Holocaust. “The Jew says, the question now is whether we should tell him Hitler is dead and the war is over,” Berlusconi recounted as the punchline.
The joke, which was recorded on video, was quickly distributed on the Internet by major daily La Repubblica.
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.
