Tel-Chai Nation

It appears metaphorically attacking new supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh wasn't enough for the producers of the awful Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In the new episode a writer at the American Thinker describes, they even had to make one of the villains come from an apparently Jewish ethnic background:

After a waitress at a posh seafood restaurant has been drugged and raped, the investigators make their way to “Far Rockaway by Andrew,” a trendy eatery, and find an employee who characterizes management as liking to “keep the guests boozed up and happy.” The owner/chef is one Andrew Liebowitz (Luke Kirby), who already is seen behaving testily and dismissively with the waitress. While interviewed in the wine cellar by detectives, he asks them to try a rare wine, valued at $800.00 a bottle, calling it “the pinnacle of organic viniculture, plus it’s kosher” -- an ironic observation by this chef with a Jewish name, considering that many of the dishes already attributed to him are patently non-kosher (including octopus -- with “deconstructed coleslaw”). [...]

It is discovered, however, that our “authentic” Jewish restauranteur had raped at least four women and stolen their underwear as trophies! But a district attorney, Chris Hodges (Jacob Pitts), refuses to prosecute. Turns out that he went to high school with Liebowitz, and that they drove to school together every day. Chris is accused of pushing a 15-year-old girl to the ground while Andy was advising his future prosecutor friend in the logistics of rape. In the end Chris wears a wire, evoking memories of Andy’s pious, synagogue-attending grandmother in order to make Andy nostalgic enough to talk. It turns out that Andy was never in the synagogue with his grandmother as he claimed, but getting “lessons” in the basement of a girl (to whom the writers give a conspicuously Jewish name). As it turns out, Chris and Andy implicate each other in different rapes.

I suppose that one could argue that this episode was “inspired” not only by headlines about alleged high school cruelties of a future Catholic officer of the court, but also by headlines about Jewish media moguls and anchors who abused their power by exploiting actresses and other female employees. And the writers certainly have the prerogative to choose characters of any ethnic or religious background (in this case, Jewish) to be the bad apple or the bad influence. Still, I can’t help thinking that this exploitation of headlines, on both counts, was, in the end, all for the sake of having a one-liner with the word, “kosher” in it.

I figure another problem was that they make it look like this is what all Jews stand for, and wouldn't add another Jewish character who sets a better example by following the best in Judaist teachings, as the writer noted at the end. Sure, I'd like to think this was inspired by the Weinstein headlines, but knowing what this TV show's track record is like (there were quite a few times when the women/victims were scapegoated), that's why I won't be shocked if the latest story's even worse than it sounds. Back in 1992, early in the run of its now defunct parent series, there was an episode that fell back on antisemitic notions, and it wouldn't be the last. The whole franchise is a pure embarrassment, and it's time even this spinoff got put to rest already.

Labels: anti-semitism, Moonbattery, showbiz, United States