“This is straight up anti-Semitism,” wrote Ben Shapiro. “There is NOTHING in Jewish law that remotely approaches anything the Jews say in this clip.”
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
Just days after NBC’s Saturday Night Live aired a joke about Israel’s vaccination campaign that was widely condemned by Jewish groups, a clip from a different program aired on the network has drawn outrage from Jewish users on social media.
In a scene from the hospital drama Nurses, a Haredi patient who needs a bone graft is seen fretting about the possibility that the donation will come from a non-Jew.
The patient and his father are depicted with distinctly Jewish characteristics. The son wears a kippah (or yarmulke) and has peyot (or sidelocks); the father is wearing a black hat and sports a long beard.
The doctor informs the patient that the graft will come from a donor who is deceased, and the patient’s father immediately begins speculating about the identity of the donor.
“A dead goyim [sic] leg. From anyone — an Arab, a woman,” his father says, conveying his disapproval of the idea.
“Or, God forbid, an Arab woman,” a nurse says sarcastically in response to the father’s concern.
Trying a different tactic, the nurse then tells the patient that if he doesn’t accept the graft, he’ll never be able to play basketball again. The patient replies that the outcome must be God’s will.
“It’s God who heals what He creates,” the patient adds.
“I think this is the most anti-Semitic thing I have ever seen in a TV show,” wrote Seffi Kogan of the clip, in a tweet that went viral.
“For those of you unfamiliar with Jewish law, which puts precedent on healing and saving lives, there is no prohibition on the kind of bone graft in this clip,” he clarified.
“The writers made it up, dressed their actors in Jew-face, and put random extremist nonsense in their mouths.”
Political commentator Ben Shapiro shared Kogan’s tweet, writing, “This is straight up anti-Semitism. There is NOTHING in Jewish law that remotely approaches anything the Jews say in this clip.”
Legal scholar Eugene Kontorovich responded, “Wow. This show simply revealed what they think [about] Jews – people with problems with science, Arabs, and women.
“Hospitals in Israel do transplants between Jews & Arabs every day, it’s not an issue.”
B’nai Brith Canada slammed NBC for airing the episode in a statement. The show originally aired on a Canadian network and was recently acquired by NBC.
“The disturbing stereotypes present in this episode of Nurses are deeply damaging to Jews, especially Orthodox practitioners,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada.
“All of this could have been avoided if producers had thought to consult members of the Orthodox Jewish community before depicting them in this false and slanderous light.”
B’nai Brith’s 2019 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents for 2019 revealed that there were 2,207 acts of violence, vandalism and harassment perpetrated against Canadian Jews in 2019, the highest number on record.
The organization added that Orthodox Jews, especially Hasidic Jews in the New York area, have been the target of numerous violent anti-Semitic attacks during the last two years.
NBC has not yet responded to criticism of the clip.