The re-emergence of antisemitic caricatures
For centuries, antisemitic tropes have been used to portray Jews as loathsome individuals, typically depicting them with physically exaggerated facial features, while accusing them of controlling everything.
Once popular, those cartoon caricatures began to fade following the end of the Second World War, when it was no longer socially acceptable to openly show blatant bigotry or racial intolerance. The hope was that we’d advanced, as a species, no longer able to see others as despicable solely based on ethnicity.
That’s why it’s particularly off-putting to see the re-emergence of what resembles these kinds of visual reminders that ugly Jews rule. Because, that is the image that comes to mind when looking at a recent X post by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The cartoon shows White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, sporting an excessively large nose while holding a leash on President Trump - two antisemitic tropes rolled up into one nasty cartoon.
In this particularly anti-Jewish charged atmosphere, where Jews are already feeling vulnerable in so many places throughout the world, does Newsom not know that Miller is a Jew and what impact such a disgraceful depiction could engender?
Have political considerations become so important to Newsom that he is willing to stoop to that kind of low ethnic portrayal, just to score a few points with the progressive anti-Israel segment of the Democratic party?
Already having called Stephen Miller a fascist, on X just a week or two ago, that post received 31 million views, a deliberate act which could easily place a target on Miller’s back, causing yet another crazed individual to try to take him out, as we saw with Charlie Kirk.
It’s hard to comprehend what goes through the mind of a state leader, who is supposed to serve as an example, to his constituents, when he has no problem publishing the basest of insults, by way of two antisemitic stereotypes which are neither accurate nor prudent.
For starters, who believes that the highly unpredictable Donald J. Trump can be controlled or influenced by anyone when it’s mostly the opposite that occurs?
Are we supposed to believe that Newsom is ignorant when it comes to the inferred meaning of a cartoon which has so much obvious negative connotation attached to it, even absent a written message?
Newsom, the slick consummate political grifter has made an art form of thinking he can hoodwink people. Counting on a weak memory so that they won’t remember all of his many failings or hypocrisies, evidenced by breaking his own rules when it suits him (i.e. The French Laundry) the fast-talker is a pro at getting away with the worst double standards.
But this time, he’s gone too far! At a time when labeling someone a Fascist can result in a bullet to their neck, it is up to our leaders to set a responsible tone, by not emphasizing an already enflamed hatred towards Jews which has, sadly, gotten out of control.
As someone who governs the State of California, Newsom is well aware of the many anti-Israel protests which have taken place on the campuses in his state. Just since 2024, these demonstrations have occurred at UC Berkeley, USC, Cal Poly Humboldt, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, Stanford, Sonoma State, San Francisco State, UC Riverside, Occidental College, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz and University of San Francisco.
Has he been unaware of each and every one of these events? Has he not heard about Jewish students who have been physically threatened and harmed?
Just this past July, “UCLA reached a $6 million dollar settlement with three Jewish students as well as a Jewish professor when the university violated their civil rights by allowing Palestinian protesters to block their access to classes and other campus areas.”
But California campuses are not the only venue for antisemitic eruptions. An article entitled, “Los Angeles is becoming unsafe for its Jewish residents,” resulted when Israel’s Minister of Diaspora and Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli wrote a letter, back in June 2024, calling upon both the Los Angeles Mayor and Governor Newsom to “address a concerning escalation of antisemitic incidents in the city, stating that there was “deep apprehension about the safety of Jewish residents in Los Angeles.”
Concerned over violent protests and an anti-Israel disruption at a California synagogue, Chikli had every reason to express what he saw as a growing trend.
Did Chikli’s message not ever get to the eyes of Gavin Newsom? Or is the governor so driven by his own political ambitions that the Jewish community is of no importance to him? Ironically, many of them are, undoubtedly, the ones who put him in power since Jews have traditionally voted for the Democratic candidate.
The distressing caricature of a Jewish man, with exaggerated facial features, brings us back to the dark days of European persecution against Jews which was a precursor to the toxic atmosphere that ushered in the Holocaust, resulting in the murder of six million of our people.
It doesn’t take much to agitate and enflame deep-seated anti-Jewish sentiment, and if Gavin Newsom doesn’t understand that, then it’s high time that he takes responsibility for his actions.
Assuming that he knew nothing about the ethnic meaning behind this disgusting cartoon, he cannot feign ignorance any longer, because the post has gotten millions of views, with comments recognizing the trope for what it is. One such response showed a boiling cauldron with the words Juden-Presse, being stirred by a grotesque Jewish caricature, while someone drinks from the pot.
Governor Gavin Newsom not only owes Stephen Miller a huge apology for his insensitive, ill-timed, bigoted and incendiary X post, but he owes a huge mea culpa to the Jewish people collectively, because failure to do so will have the potential to stir that pot of Jewish hatred even more.
At a time when the Jewish state is fighting for her very existence and Diaspora Jews are feeling the effects of a centuries-old prejudice that resulted in great persecution against them, Newsom must realize that he is guilty of leading a divisive and highly-charged visual assault which is not just directed at one man but at an entire tribe.
That apology cannot come fast enough!
A former Jerusalem elementary and middle-school principal who made Aliyah in 1993 and became a member of Kibbutz Reim but now lives in the center of the country with her husband. She is the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, based on the principles from the book of Proverbs - available on Amazon.
You might also like to read this:
