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ADL Blasts Rush Limbaugh For Rant About Jews


The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said Rush Limbaugh reached a new low with “borderline anti-Semitic comments” on his radio show, in which he raised the possibility that liberal Jews were having “buyer’s remorse” with President Obama in light of the outcome of the Senate election in Massachusetts.

Limbaugh told his listeners: “To some people, banker is a code word for Jewish; and guess who Obama is assaulting?  He’s assaulting bankers.  He’s assaulting money people.  And a lot of those people on Wall Street are Jewish. So I wonder if there’s – if there’s starting to be some buyer’s remorse there.”

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

Rush Limbaugh reached a new low with his borderline anti-Semitic comments about Jews as bankers, their supposed influence on Wall Street, and how they vote.

Limbaugh’s references to Jews and money in a discussion of Massachusetts politics were offensive and inappropriate.  While the age-old stereotype about Jews and money has a long and sordid history, it also remains one of the main pillars of anti-Semitism and is widely accepted by many Americans.  His notion that Jews vote based on their religion, rather than on their interests as Americans, plays into the hands of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.

When he comes to understand why his words were so offensive and unacceptable, Limbaugh should apologize.

(ADL Press Release)



55 Responses

  1. Wih all due respect to the ADL perhaps they sdhould explain why they laft out part of his comments.
    Mainly what he said was that for people with “prejudice and hate” bankers are code word for Jews.

  2. The jewish press will break this story in 3 weeks.

    The Yated will have many op eds about Rush since Rush is their Rabbi.

  3. OMG!! Talk about being taken WAY out of context!!! Maybe they should actually LISTEN to the whole show rather than relying on some nit wits to send them a partial quote.

  4. Statement from From Norman Podhoretz

    In my new book, “Why Are Jews Liberals?”, I argue that it no longer makes any sense for so many of my fellow [secular] Jews to go on aligning themselves with the forces of the Left. I also try to show that our interests and our ideals, both as Americans and as Jews, have come in recent decades to be better served by the forces of the Right.

    In the course of describing and agreeing with the book the other day, Rush Limbaugh cited a few of the numerous reasons for the widespread puzzlement over the persistence of liberalism within the [secular] American Jewish community. And while discussing those reasons, he pointed to the undeniable fact that for “a lot of people”–prejudiced people, as he called them twice–the words “banker” and “Wall Street” are code words for “Jewish.” Was it possible, he wondered, that Obama’s attacks on bankers and Wall Street were triggering a certain amount of buyer’s remorse within the [secular] American Jewish community, which gave him 78% of its vote? Finally, taking off from my observation that many Jewish liberals like to call themselves independents, he wondered whether a fair number of the self-described independents who deserted Obama and voted for Scott Brown might actually have been Jewish liberals. If so, he concluded, Brown’s “victory could be even more indicative of an even bigger change in the political temper of the country than has so far been recognized.”

    For this, Rush Limbaugh has been subjected to a vile attack by Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League. Of course, Mr. Foxman has a long history of seeing an anti-Semite under every conservative bed while blinding himself to the blatant fact that anti-Semitism has largely been banished from the Right in the past forty years, and that it has found a hospitable new home on the Left, especially where Israel is concerned. This makes Foxman a perfect embodiment of the phenomenon I analyze in “Why Are Jews Liberals?” Now Foxman has the chutzpah to denounce Rush Limbaugh as an anti-Semite and to demand an apology from him to boot. Well, if an apology is owed here, it is the national director of the Anti-Defamation League who should apologize for the defamatory accusation of anti-Semitism that he himself has hurled against so loyal a friend of Israel as Rush Limbaugh.

  5. By the way. memo to Abe Foxman yes Jews vote based on their religion that’s why religous Jews have begun voting Republican its the irreligious who vote Blue.
    Just in case Foxman does’nt know the Catholics also vote based on their beleifs in fact all religious people do. They seem to feel that the best thing for America is to be proud of the fact thats there is a G-d who runs the world.
    What was the Founders said?
    In G-d we trust.

  6. Mr. Limbaugh must have been referring to those left wing liberal Reform Jews who practice something other than Judaism but still call it Judaism. You know, the ones that supported B.O.
    the socialist african guy who doesn’t give a hoot about our Constitution but ended up as President of our country so that he could CHANGE it into something more like Cuba or Venezuella. These are the Jews he’s complaining about the dumb leftist elite liberals. I think Abe Foxman may be one of them.

  7. When idiots like Abe Foxman (self-appointed spokesperson for Jews) cries anti-semitism for no reason (like this), then when there will REALLY be anti-semitism, noone will listen.

    Abe Foxman = Boy who cried wolf.

  8. sorry, but i actually agree TOTALLY with rush on this. it’s a sad and unfortunate fact that the ultra Liberals are usually jews… don’t try to smokescreen that by saying “Rush Limbaugh reached a new low with his borderline anti-Semitic comments about Jews … and how they vote… His notion that Jews vote based on their religion, rather than on their interests as Americans, plays into the hands of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists”. as i said it’s an open albeit unfortunate fact. many gentiles resent how jews are sadly at the forefront of the attacks on their values and religion. let’s make a kiddush Hashem by being at the forefront of the fight FOR values and religion!

  9. Although, perhaps his choice of words wasn’t the best, non-the-less, I highly doubt that Rush’s intention was to blemish the image of Jews. He was obviously going after Obama and stating that the Liberal Jews are going to eat their hats for voting for him.

  10. Abe Foxman is bored. There haven’t been any swastikas found on any public toilets in South Dakota for him to issue a press release about!!!

  11. What’s the big deal? Rush is a political analyst and commentator, and he happens to be pretty darn right about these dynamics. Yes, there IS buyer’s remorse among liberal Jews and specifically among the many that are in the finance and banking industries.

  12. Foxman is terribly out of touch with what is anti-Semitism today. After all, he’s the one who went after Christians (who are among our biggest supporters) for wanting to display X-Mas decorations that had a more religious nature then trees and santas.

    If he still feels a need to keep the ADL operative, how about going after all the nations that openly publish “The Elders of Zion”. And he could also go after cyber-anti semitism, which is abundant. But he may not yet know about the Internet. After all, he occupies a time zone somewhere in the 1950’s.

  13. I have listened to Rush since his show first went national.

    Rush is about as far from antisemitic as anyone can get, he is quite the opposite and as someone said one of the greatest friends, Jews can have.

    If anyone is ‘borderline antisemitic’ here it’s the ADL who has often attacked Christians just for having public displays of crosses as if they have no right to follow their religion.

    Such foolishness is one thing that helps cause antisemitism as does attacking those who are friends of Jews such as Rush.

    How come the ADL never says anything about the antisemitism of the leaders of Israel who love to attack and persecute religious Jews, like in the case of the yeshivah they are evicting in Jerusalem?

  14. Oh Please!

    I listen to Rush every day for more than 10 years.

    He is anything but an anti-semite.

    The ADL is soooooo out of touch in reality.

  15. IF FOXMAN CONTINUES TO VICIOUSLY ATTACK RUSH, HE MIGHT ACTUALLY SUCCEED IN TURNING A GOOD FRIEND OF THE JEWS, RUSH LIMBAUGH, INTO AN ENEMY.

  16. HEY!

    WHY HAVEN’T WE HEARD FROM THE ADL ABOUT THE PBVIOUS ANTI-SEMITSM PUBLICLY DISPLAYED BY THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT WHO “DIDN’T KNOW” WHAT TEFILLIN WERE AND DIVERTED A PLANE AND CAUSED A NATIONAL TERROR ALERT WHEN SHE WAS TRAINED IN RELEGIOUS SENSITIVITIS???!!!!

    WHAT A FARCE THE ADL IS.

  17. its funny how the leftists who hate religion are now all insulted about someone insulting religion, the truth is it has nothing to do with religion that they are insulted over they just hate rush and the conservatives and their using anything they can to bring him down, do i sense desperation!

  18. I’m sure Rush or his people will see this with google alerts etc.

    Let it be known that the ADL represents exactly that. The ADL, and the ADL only.

    This is by far the most pathetic statement ever released by the deplorable Abe Fox-nerd.
    He should be ashamed of himself, and his organization should toss him out of the building head first for disgracing them.

    Rush Limbaugh has proven himself repeatedly to be nothing more that a friend of Jews.

    And besides Fox-nerd, last I checked, Rush has a a personal rabbi. That’s right. Rabbi Nate Segal, of Torah Umesorah.
    If Rabbi Nate Segal felt this was anti-semitic, don’t you think he would tell Rush something to his face? I’m sure he hasn’t, since Rush didn’t say anything wrong. And besides, by you opening up your mouth in a public statement released to everyone, you just cause more hatred toward the Jews by the true anti-semits.

  19. Rush Limbaugh is more pro Jewish and pro Israel than those liberal Jews who voted for Obama. He has consistently and vigorously championed Israel. His social and political views are consistent with conservative Jewish values. Shame on the ADL!

  20. Another example of a simple-minded headline in the media forming the opinion of simple-minded people. Rush Limbaugh, for those who listen and follow him extensively, is anything but antisemitic, racist or homophobic. He supports one very simple idea – “Support yourself, don’t rely on others to do it for you”. He doesn’t care about race. He doesn’t care about religion. He doesn’t care about about orientation.

    What he does, for you simple-minded people out there, is play off the media’s obsession with race, religion and orientation. He exposes the fallacy, self-deception and hate which resides in the media and the liberal left.

    Although I am very convinced that Limbaugh is very much a friend of Israel as it stands for Democracy, I don’t believe he consciously supports or hates any religion in particular. Nor does he believe the stereotype of the Jewish banker dominating the financial system. The bottom line is there are plenty of Jewish bankers, and Obama is screwing ’em despite their earlier support.

  21. Rush is a big Ohaiv Yisroel, supports Israel and is aligned with most of Israel’s thinking and Jewish thinking, including understanding the real dangers of terrorism, Iran and the middle-east, he has a real human touch.

    He is principled against mushchasim, give-away’s by the government to people that doing nothing, believes in hard work, low taxes …… and is a fantastic “performer”.

    Like most frummer yidden he wants limited government and beieves that Obama is very dangerous.

    Yes and Obama almost became a dictator — and it took the likes of Limbaugh to call him out and whom were proved right in the end that Obama is a bunch of Hot Air.

    Obama supported the Palistinians and tried to force his radical agenda of no-building in Jewish Yerusholayim, and succeeded in a no-building plan in the West bank — and Mitchell hinted already of what the US could and would do to Israel if they dont listen to the US.

  22. I don’t think Foxman has the moral leg to criticise anybody after he gave the ADL’s Jewish imprimatur to the current Roman Pontifex Maximus who not only served in the Hitlerjugend, but was also the Church’s Grand Inquisitor, as Prefect of the infamous Roman Inquisition, the Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei or Holy Office. It was that criminal organisation that orchestrated and conducted the infamous kidnapping of Jewish child Edgardo Mortara.

  23. The ADL themselves are self hating jews, we never see them screaming when peta comes down on orthodox rituals or the likes of reform and conservative movements.

    the ADL should be ashamed if only it would release the entire statement made by RUSH Limbaugh so we can understand what rush was saying,

    nobody is more of an Ohev Yisroel like rush who’s been advocating for jewish causes for decades

  24. hey foxman, rush is a great friend of israel. His comment is a lot less racist then harry reid’s about President Obama, which you had no comment about. WHy? cause your a liberal hack (who should have some buyers remorse about the administration you voted and campaigned for)

  25. This whole accusation is hog wash and blatantly false. Those that listen to rush know that he is one of the most ardent of Jewish and Israel supporters. As a matter of fact he went to Israel before it became popular for the American politicians to go there. Let Abe Foxman go to the liberal American universities and hear the “venom” that comes out there every day, against Israel, Jews, the West, America, etc.
    OH sorry! He doesn’t want to offend his liberal lefty friends.

    Get A Life Abe.

  26. Foxman has hit an all time low. Rush Limbaugh is a true friend of Israel and the Jewish People. The problem is the ADL. Once a watchdog for real anti-semitism in the US and the World, over the past decade it has become mainly a pro-homosexual rights organization and a far left wing democratic party shill like Media Matters. The ADL and Foxman have lost their legitamacy. Sad but true. The only problem is that the ADL will now hurt the entire Jewish Community as it tars a true friend of the Jewish People. Shameful.

  27. This guy Foxman is just another liberal who’s blinded by obamamania. Rush is a true friend of yidden I’m a witness to this I been listening for years.

  28. He accuses Rush of “His notion that Jews vote based on their religion”. Do Liberal Jews vote based on their religion, Abe? Their religion is “Liberalism”. First it was Communism, then it was Socialism, and now it is Liberalism; all three are a disease.

    I too don’t understand why his words were so offensive? Can anyone explain to me how a proven friend of the Jews all of a sudden becomes an anti-Semite just because he attacked Liberal Jews?

    Just because Rush Limbaugh is a Conservative, does it give you the right to spit in his face? Had he been a Liberal friend of the Jews, would you still have condemned him? Do you want to turn him into an enemy?

    Shame on you Abe!

  29. Rush has been an outspoken friend of Israel for decades. Foxman is just looking to be baleidigt wherever he can. Nothing wrong with what Rush said

  30. I LOVE ABE FOXMAN. HE IS A VERY GREAT MAN. how dare you jews ever in your life say anything at all negative about him. shame on you.
    I AM FARTHEST TO THE RIGHT AS YOU CAN GET. I DONT LIKE ANYTHING LEFT AT ALL. abe foxman is not talking about anything except people throwing stereotypes into the media which is exactly what rush limbaugh did. if every jew had that reaction like abe foxman there would be 0 antisemitism ALLOWED in the world.
    I LOVE YOU ABE FOXMAN.

  31. I cannot get over how allegedly intelligent, learned, Jews support Rush Limbaugh. Of all people who should be able to recognize faulty conclusions in an argument, mutated sequential thinking to come to those conclusions, emotional laden opinions, not only the inability to respond to counter view – but the refusal to allow counter views to be heard unless they are naive, slam dunk views, it should be learned Jews who see through his parlor game talk.

    Rush Limbaugh is not such a friend of the Jews. He hardly mentions the Jews. The fact that Israel is an ally of the US is his knee jerk reaction to every-so-slightly favor Israeli interest, but I am not impressed.

    He is a disgusting man who is not beyond trying to impress married women, every-chance-he-gets, and such character does not make it such a leap to not caring less about Jews unless by being minimally supportive of Israel, makes him feel he is a more patriotic American, ONLY because it is a country that is our ally. If Zimbabwe were an American ally, he would favor them too, but only for that reason.

    He is a hollow man who clings to his definition of patriotism because he feels it gives him substance. He is self serving, pompous, and a pig.

    No, I am not a kool-aid drinking liberal. Give me Michael Savage, Bob Grant, William F Buckley, George Will, etc. anyday. But take Limbaugh the circus geek and put him on satellite radio with Howard Stern who ALSO has very high ratings. So what?

  32. Further, he is really saying that the “Jews are getting what they deserve”, and hating Jews for allegedly electing Obama is and antisemitic and bigoted statement at it’s core equally spewed by neo nazi interests in America.

  33. Unfortunately – Abe knows the best way to Chanfer – lick up Mr Obama – is to make fun of Rush – Kat Mchanfim ainiom mkablim pnei hashechina

  34. The ADL’s attempt is more pathetic than making a mountain out of a molehill; here there isn’t even a molehill! Rush Limbaugh and conservative Americans like him have long been strong, unconditional and loud supporters of the Jewish people and Israel. They have always been respectful and consistently staunch allies. No one can make the same claim for liberals and Democrats. Interestingly, I remember the ADL and similar liberal Jewish groups as being rabid critics of activists who demonstrated on behalf of Israel and world Jewry in the 1960’s and 1970’s. At the same time, I remember conservative and evangelical groups joining countless demonstrations for a variety Jewish causes. Foxman’s diatribe is an insult to mainstream American Jewry. Does Foxman think that his co-religionists are that stupid and naive?? I would rather have Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Marc Levine and other similar conservatives on my side anytime, rather than vermin that attach themselves to Rahm Emmanuel, Charles Schumer, etc.

  35. BORUCH HASHEM FOR RUSH the liberal traitors are a shame to yiddishkeit and an “honour” for Judy -uism. Secular Judiaism is a fraud b/c they are desecraters of our basic rules and regulations. J.D.L get lost

  36. To moshiachnow01 in comments #43 and #44 you could not possibly be more wrong with the truth being totally the opposite of just about everything you say.

    #1 Rush puts liberal callers, at the top of the call list as a daily standard practice of his show.

    #2 Rush does not mention Jews on a daily basis because his show is not a Jewish show nor it is ONLY about Jews.
    But everytime there is major news about Jews or Israel and he comments on it, his comments are always in favor of Jews, every single time without exception.

    #3 Your implication that Rush tries to influence married women to either cheat on their husbands with him or leave their husbands for him as absolutely false.
    He is nice to all women, married or not and being nice is how everyone should be.

    #4 Claiming he likes Israel only because they are our allies is also false.
    The antisemites (all of whom are liberals, by teh way. by definition there is no such thing as a conservative antisemite) always attack Israel specifically because they are our ally, lying that Israel “leeches” from America and “controls America as part of the Zionist Occupation Government (Z.O.G.) plot to rule the world.

    #5 Bob Grant is the antisemite not Rush.
    Both Grant and Savage have in the past, serverly criticised Israel for “oppressing” the Arabs becuase they dared defend themselves agaisnt the terrorism.
    Savage has since seemed to change his tune about that, but he like Bob Grant did at one time say such things.
    Grant has also said that Jews protesting a Christmas play which had a clearly evil character who looked exactly like a steriotypical Jew (long hooknose, and ugly crooked scheming face and body, constantly looking for money to steal or cheat people out of) had no right to such protest.
    “How dare they, how DARE they!!!” he yelled out on his show.
    And of course his rantings making fun of the Hebrew language when talking about Kahane Chai
    “Kahane Chai, kahane Chai, lets get the phlem out of our throat he whined, again this was on his show years ago.
    All these and other antisemitic things that I mention people saying are things I personally heard them say.
    I listen to these shows and no one told me this nore did I read someone else comments.
    I personally listened to and heard it straight from the source, when it was said by them.
    And these people are all liberals not conservatives.
    Grant is a big abortion supporter and very much agaisnt Americans fighting terrorism in Iraq and he reads the Spotlight ragsheet (which is produced by the Aryan Nations, publications arm).
    Savage is a very big union supporter whio at times has said that minimum wage should be $25.00 per hour.

    So holding them up as so much greater then real conservatives like Rush shows people to be the liberals they claim not to be.

    And further all the name calling and ad hominym attacks is also typical of liberals.
    Everytime they have no real logic or solid evidence they have to resort to their liberal bag of tricks and pull out the name calling and just throw it at conservatives and hope it ‘sticks’.

    And Rush never said or implied that “Jews got what they deserved”.
    liberal Jews perhaps but not Jews just for being Jews.

    And I agree, liberals did get what they deserved.

    Are you going to say that I am antisemitic now?

  37. Rush and the ADL [Michael Ledeen]

    Norman Podhoretz quite properly takes Anti-Defamation League czar Abe Foxman to task for insinuating that Rush is somehow a Jew-hater for wondering if Jewish voters are having buyer’s remorse regarding Obama. They certainly should, both because of Obama’s striking nastiness to Israel and of his attacks on “greedy bankers” (which Rush mentioned), free broadcasting, and of course the crusade against American medicine, all enterprises in which Jews have long flourished.

    Rush should be a hero to Foxman and American Jews, but they are so blindly partisan that they can no longer distinguish between their friends and their enemies. Foxman has relentlessly attacked American Evangelicals — arguably the most pro-Jewish and pro-Israel people in America — but conveniently disappears when the government goes after real Jews for presumed “dual loyalty.” Which, one might say, is the core principle of the ADL.

    Foxman wants Rush to apologize. Nuts. I want Foxman retired and replaced by somebody who fights for Jews and our friends.

  38. MoshiachNow01 – The point over here is not his political views, but rather whether he made an antisemitic statement or not. I personally think regardless of whether his words were appropriate or not, his intentions were not to spew hatred on to the Jews, but rather to state that Jews that vote Obama may be regretting it now. The fact is that many people (including non-Jews) are regretting their vote.

  39. i think that many of you are confusing being pro israel with being pro jewish

    christians are not our friends

    and if you believe them to be, then you arent spending enough time learning

    rush may be a supporter of israel, but it has nothing to do with his love for jews…

  40. As I have said and repeated, Rush has had positive things and ‘only’ positive things, to say about not ‘just’ Israel but ‘also’ specifically about Jews.

    Many others Christians have had the same attitudes.
    If that is not being friends with Jews, then exactly what would they have to do to convince those of you who think they do not and will not ever like Jews?

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