Montreal, Canada – A local Montreal newspaper said it did not mean to offend the Jewish community by printing a cartoon depicting a Hasidic Jew with a taxi cab, but nonetheless defended itself, saying a cartoon is meant to be an exaggeration of the characters and the broader situation, and anyone could be the subject of one.
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The cartoon, which was published in the July 2010 issue of La Metropole, depicts a Hasidic Jew calling to passengers from his cab, labelled Taxi de David, “Come in! May Yaveh be with you …” The headline of the cartoon reads, “A taxi transformed into a … synagogue?”
By definition a cartoon is meant to be an exaggeration, said Richard Marcil, editor-in-chief of La Metropole.
“We saw nothing offensive in it,” Marcil said of the cartoonist Métyvié’s drawing.
It was meant to raise questions about a local news event and was not published with anti-Semitic sentiment, he said.
The cartoon refers to the story of Montreal cab driver Arieh Perecowicz, who was fined $1,400 by the Montreal Taxi Bureau for having too much stuff in his cab, including photos of his family and his Rabbi, mezuzahs (prayer parchments), a poppy and a Canadian flag, among other things.
Perecowicz is now suing the city for damages, saying the bylaw, which restricts the display of objects not required for the taxi to be in service, is discriminatory and that he was singled out for having Jewish religious objects in his cab.
Perecowicz is not a Hasidic Jew, but he does believe in God, he said.
He told the Gazette he had not seen the cartoon.
Throughout July, members of Montreal’s Jewish community wrote to La Metropole and complained to the province’s Jewish advocacy groups, saying the cartoon is anti-Semitic and offensive.
“The stereotype of the Jew with the long hooked nose and the side curls is something you would see in 1930s Germany, not something you would see in a 21st-century Canadian newspaper,” said Moise Moghrabi, the vice-president of B’nai Brith Canada. “It’s reminiscent of a different era.”
Marcil said he received more than 30 complaints from readers about the drawing. An apology was published on La Metropole’s website on Monday. It will also be printed in the August issue, which comes out on Wednesday.
“We’re pleased that La Metropole was so quick to react and recognize their error in judgment,” said Adam Atlas, president of the Quebec Jewish Congress. The cartoon is offensive, Atlas said, because it reinforces the stereotype that Jews are miserly (the sign on top of the cab has the website address www.pascherpascher.com, as in “pas cher” or inexpensive) and that they have long noses.
In addition, Atlas said, only 13 per cent of Montreal’s Jewish population is Hasidic.
A cartoon may not have been the best way to tackle the issue of religious symbols and cluttered cabs, said John Miller, professor emeritus in the School of Journalism at Ryerson University and an expert in journalism ethics.
“All media, as our cities become more cosmopolitan, have to learn how to respect people of different faiths and ethnicities,” he said on the phone from his home west of Toronto.
The public reaction to this cartoon is healthy and is also instructive for the editors at La Metropole, he said.
However, the best way to handle a situation like this involves more than an apology and an explanation of the cartoon, Miller added. “(La Metropole) should publish a range of opinion in their pages and thoroughly air (the issue) out,” he said.
“What the public is crying out for here is a dialogue.”
Marcil said the August issue of La Metropole does not reproduce the complaint messages he received, but he said the editors are considering publishing some of the complaints on the newspaper’s website.
The test whether is it anti-semetic is like this –
If they portray an arab changing his cab into a mosque – and they get less than 50 calls for the newpaper to apologize to alla else they will burn the place down – then i tis not anti-semetic. If they get more than 50 – it is anti semetic
Demand the resignation of the editors
They may choose to reprint some of the complaints. Hmmmm. Does anyone wonder which complaints they will publish? The ones that make sense or the one’s that aren’t quite comprehensible? No, I didn’t think so either.
A similar cartoon of a Canadien français would have been met with considerably more heat right up to Parliament. But, no racisme in Montreal, just an exaggeration.
All you really need to know is that certain Vichy French (Nazi collaborators) war criminals were welcomed in Quebec after France was liberated. Just do a search something like “Vichy French escape to Canada” and you will see how a cartoon such as this could be published.
“A local Montreal newspaper said it did not mean to offend the Jewish community by printing a cartoon depicting a Hasidic Jew with a taxi cab.” Hey, anyone want to buy a bridge.
The only thing missing is a mechetza in the back seat? LOL Thought the cartoon to be funny?
this is what the world is like no diferance then yester year
the most offensive part is using Hashem’s Name in vain – otherwise, it’s just dumb – we have much wittier political cartoonists here in the good ol’ US of A
It’s just another Dudley-Do-Right, dumbass Canadian. These French-Fries don’t know their head from their 2 chess. What do you expect from them?
He says that “What the public is crying out for here is a dialogue.”
No, simpleton; this is old fashioned anti-Semitism on the part of the artist and on the part of the editors if they are mature enough to understand what this conveys. The long hooked nose is unadulterated anti-Semitism, and they should not be let to get away with feigning innocence of a so called exaggeration. No exaggeration was here but measured and precise anti-Semitism, Mit Di Gantza Deutcha Punklichkeit. Don’t let them get away with it; hold their feet to the fire.
To # 6: No, of course it’s not funny. But what french joke is? The frogs are notoriously devoid of sense of humor. I guess, the traits the frogs are particularly known for, bitterness and resentment, do go with levity.
The last phrase of my post #11 was supposed to read “do NOT go with levity”. My apologies.
Nothing anti-semitic in the cartoon? The editorial staff has a major problem. They have stereotyped Jews as hook nosed Chassidim. I doubt that they would sterotype anyone else.
The shame is not the cartoon. The shame is that the paper saw nothing offensive. The apology is nice, perhaps some education would be better.
I was recently vacationing near Montreal with my family and we took food we bought from the Tosher community to a nearby park. We were stunned to see a large and very unflattering picture of Hassidic Jews drawn in black marker right onto the picnic tabletop. The text that accompanied it was unfriendly and clearly antisemitic.
2 things the French do well – Anti-Semitism and surrender …