ADL calls on Joan Rivers to apologize for comments she made on E!'s 'Fashion Police,' comparing Heidi Klum to a Nazi.
By JPOST.COM STAFF
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is calling a statement Joan Rivers made on her E! Entertainment Television show Fashion Police, “vulgar and hideous.” Rivers, commenting on a dress worn by German-American supermodel Heidi Klum, said, “The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens.”The segment was first aired February 25, and has since been aired at least four times. None of the co-hosts responded to Rivers' comment, and no apology was given.ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor Abe Foxman said in a statement that "Joan Rivers should know better." He said her comments are offensive to "Jews, Holocaust survivors, and Americans.""It is vulgar and offensive for anybody to use the death of six million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust to make a joke, but this is especially true for someone who is Jewish and who proudly and publicly wears her Jewishness on her sleeve," added Foxman.In a letter to Suzanne Kolb, President of E! Entertainment Television, ADL urged the network to have Rivers issue a formal apology, and to remove the segment from future broadcast.Foxman stated that this was not the first time Rivers has made comments "trivializing the Holocaust." Last year, when Costco decided against carrying her book, Rivers compared their company policies to the Nazi regime.Rather than apologize for Nazi comparison, Rivers responded to critics saying, “Don’t talk to me about the Holocaust!”Backlash over River's comments closely follows the ADL's outrage over a comedy sketch performed at Sunday's Academy Awards which Foxman called "offensive and not remotely funny."The sketch featured an "anti-Semitic" foul-mouthed teddy bear named Ted, telling his movie co-star Mark Wahlberg that in order to "work in this town" (Hollywood) he must be Jewish."Instances like these ones "only reinforce stereotypes which legitimize anti-Semitism," Fox said.