By: Fern Sidman
Still justifiably roiled at the controversy swirling around a vehemently anti-Semitic “joke” that was uttered by Saturday Night Live cast member Michael Che during his “Weekend Update” skit, a prominent Brooklyn Jewish leader has now called on like-minded people to express their outrage at SNL at a demonstration scheduled for Saturday night.
In a new YouTube video, Dov Hikind, former Brooklyn Assemblyman and founder of the Americans Against Anti-Semitism activist group said that the protest he is organizing will be held outside of NBC headquarters on West 49th Street on Saturday at 9 pm.
“We are going to NBC to educate — not to crucify anybody — we are going there to say this is not funny,” Hikind said in the video that was disseminated on Tuesday. “Antisemitism is never funny. Period.”
The skit in question that has raised the ire of so very many centered around Covid vaccinations in Israel. According to a recent New York Post report, during his “Weekend Update” skit, cast member Michael Che, who plays a news correspondent quipped, “Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population. I’m going to guess it’s the Jewish half.”
According to the Jewish Virtual Library the vast majority of Israel’s population — 74 percent — is Jewish, as was reported by the NY Post.
The Post reported that vaccination rates of Israeli Arabs are much lower than Jews in the country, partially due to distrust of the government in the Arab community, according to a January article in The Christian Science Monitor.
As a scholar of contemporary anti-Semitism and a son of Holocaust survivors, Hikind posted, “Unsurprising coming from SNL as they have a long record of anti-Semitism.”
Beside himself, Hikind said that Sid Rosenberg, co-host of WABC’s “Bernie and Sid in the Morning” radio show, will lead the protest, according to the NY Post report.
Also weighing in on this issue was acclaimed radio talk show personality, longtime Jewish activist, and president of the Conference of Jewish Affairs, Rabbi Aryeh Spero. In a recently published article entitled, “Saturday Night Live Stoops to Anti-Semitism to Get a Cheap Laugh” Rabbi Spero wrote:
“The producers of Saturday Night Live decided they would sacrifice the truth and demonize the Jewish State for the sake of a cheap laugh or, worse, enable an age old blood libel accusing Jews of manufacturing and spreading plagues while being indifferent to others. Surely Mr. Michaels knows of the heroic efforts Israel has made in creating vaccines, medicines, and state-of-the art medical equipment to alleviate not only the coronavirus but also every type of disease found across the globe. The Saturday Night Live crew would do best to educate themselves on how Israel, matched only by the United States, has sent its transportable medical units immediately to every part of the globe facing a meteorological or medical catastrophe.”
He added that: “The Saturday Night Live crew would never be this callous, nor stereotype a Muslim or LTGBQ group. They know that in today’s culture, such demonization would get them cancelled and removed from media outlets.The demands for perfection made by left-leaning media outlets are directed mostly against the United States and Israel. Why are there never demands that Muslim countries and organizations step up to the plate and help others, as is continually demanded of Israel, the United States, Jews and Christians?”
Rabbi Spero who is also the author of the book “Push Back: The Battle to Save Our American Judeo-Christian Heritage” also said in his article:
“Had Lorne Michaels, founder and producer of Saturday Night Live checked, he would have found that Israel has already vaccinated 70% of its Arab population over 60 years old, directly resulting in a delay for many of its Jewish citizens within Israel. In addition, had Mr. Michaels checked, he would have found that Israel offered the vaccine to Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Arab Authority, who refused the vaccine, placing his hatred of Israel above concern for his own Muslim constituents.”