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Comedian Jon Stewart slams anti-semitic tropes in ‘Harry Potter’ series

WION Web Team
New DelhiUpdated: Jan 05, 2022, 05:02 PM IST
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Photograph:(Twitter)

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The reference he gives is of 1903 book by The The Protocols of Elder Zion which is know as anti-semitic text. In the book, characters bear resemblance to the goblin creatures in the Harry Potter books.

Jon Stewart on his podcast addressed the issue of anti-semitic tropes present in Harry Potter. In the recently aired Jon Stewart podcast, he spoke about the use of anti-semitic caricatures in JK Rowling’s books. 

The reference he gives is of 1903 book by The The Protocols of Elder Zion which is know as anti-semitic text. In the book, characters bear resemblance to the goblin creatures in the Harry Potter books and Stewart argues that most people don’t understand or know the reference. 

He said on his podcast, “Here’s how you know Jews are still where they are. I just want to show you a caricature. And they’re like, ‘Oh, look at that, that’s from Harry Potter!’ And you’re like, ‘No, that’s a caricature of a Jew from an anti-Semitic piece of literature.’ J.K. Rowling was like, ‘Can we get these guys to run our bank?’”

He adds that in the world of Harry Potter, people “can ride dragons and someone can own a “pet owl,” yet he wondered: “Who should run the bank? Jews. 

“It was one of those things where I saw it on the screen and I was expecting the crowd to be like, ‘Holy s – – t, she [Rowling] did not, in a wizarding world, just throw Jews in there to run the f – – king underground bank,’ ” Jon continued. “And everybody was just like, ‘Wizards.’ It was so weird.”