The worldwide financial meltdown has triggered an uptick in anonymous anti-Semitic comments blaming Jews for the crisis on mainstream Web site message boards, the Anti-Defamation League said on Thursday.
Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti Defamation League.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
"Jews are greedy, rotten slimeballs," wrote one surfer on a Yahoo Finance group, according to the ADL statement.
"It's difficult, if not impossible, for one honest investor to neutralize the efforts of thousands of Jewish swindlers," another added.
A YouTube video titled "The Court Jewsters" includes a montage of Jewish figures involved in the crisis - from Lehman Brothers chief Richard Fuld to US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Benanke - and includes a shot of a dollar bill emblazoned with "In Zionist bankers we trusted."
The comments were similar to those posted on white supremacist sites such as the Vanguard News Network, an "Aryan Alternative Newspaper," where a comment ridiculed Congress for "sittin' around eating crumpets while the Jews are driving away with truck loads of hundred dollar bills."
"The age-old canards about Jews and money are always just beneath the surface," ADL national director Abraham Foxman said.
"As we witnessed after 9/11, whenever there is trouble or uncertainty in the economy or world events, Jews become the scapegoats, and ugly anti-Semitic canards are given new life."
Yahoo has been quick to remove comments containing hate speech, but the YouTube videos remain up and many anti-Semitic posts remain archived on live discussion boards, Foxman said.
