Top 10 Anti-Semitic Slurs of 2010
Movies, music, books… ‘Tis the season for top 10 lists. And the Simon Wiesenthal Center has jumped in the ring with its own: The “2010 Top Ten Anti-Semitic Slurs.”
Former UPI White House bureau chief Helen Thomas topped the chart with her infamous, on-camera “Jews should get the hell out of Palestine” quote, which ended up tanking her 57-year career. Oliver Stone nabbed the No. 2 spot with deep thoughts about Hitler as “an easy scapegoat throughout history” who “did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people.” And while other familiar faces round out the roster — including former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohammed, German Central Bank exec Thilo Sarrazin, and ex-CNN loudmouth Rick Sanchez — the list is anchored not by a person, but by social networks like Facebook (home of pages like “Kill a Jew Year”), Yahoo! Finance message boards (“Burn all the Jews up”) and Twitter (“Dropping bows on Jew nose, throwin cracks at wetbacks”).
“Oddly, the quotes and labels don’t include the repercussions of the remarks — good or bad,” writes religion reporter Cathy Lynn Grossman on her USA Today Faith and Reason blog. “Since the point of the list is to show anti-Semitism is harmful, and all the Top Ten listed made headlines at the time the comments were made, is it worthwhile to include a followup?”
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.
