Jewish group chides Biden for using 'offensive' term

CNN ^ | September 17, 2014 | Ashley Killough

[McGruff]

Vice President Joe Biden "should have been more careful" in a speech when he used a term that some consider anti-Semitic, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League said Tuesday.

"That's one of the things that he finds was most in need when he was over there in Iraq for a year," Biden said, "that people would come to him and talk about what was happening to them at home in terms of foreclosures, in terms of bad loans that were being...I mean these Shylocks who took advantage of, um, these women and men while overseas."

[caddie]

Exactly. These ADL people voted for Biden 10 to 1.

Cause <=> Effect.

They need to shut up and enjoy everything Biden has said, including this. He is their overwhelming choice for VPOTUS.

[Responsibility2nd]

Ooops. Your tagline needs a little maintenance.

[expat2]

The “who happened to be Jewish” is not quite the whole story. That wasn’t random or accidental. In the Middle Ages, lending money was verboten for Christians, so money-lenders were invariably Jewish.

[Gefn]

I agree with you about the character Shylock. I bet even less know about his daughter, Jessica.

Not only does “pound of flesh “ occur in this play, but the lines, “if you prick us, do we not bleed.....”

Brush up on your Shakespeare, .....there is a reason why we still read him after 400 years.

[captain_dave]

During the middle ages through to the French revolution in many parts of Europe Jews were forbidden from lots of other occupations and guilds so lending and commerce were the only way to survive. Also, Jews tended to be literate while many others were not.

[Zionist Conspirator]

I am so [expletive deleted] tired of "tolerance" and "inclusiveness" being invoked as the one and only justification for the right to practice the Jewish religion. This is the religion that invented Theocracy (and the only one to ever actually practice it!). Have these idiots ever heard of Pinechas Ben 'El`azar of Yehoshu`a Bin Nun at all???

And the way some American conservatives defend the "enlightenment" I don't think they'd be overjoyed to see the return of full-throttle normative Theocratic Judaism either!

Abe Foxman's sole goal in life seems to perpetuate faux Galut "Jewishness" (Hollywood, bankers, the ACLU) as the universal Jewish stereotype.

[expat2]

True. Both Christians not being allowed to lend and Jews not being allowed to join guilds resulted in most moneylenders being Jewish.

[Organic Panic]

Give me a break. The thing that ticks me off is the untrue nonsense that people who SIGNED contracts were taken advantage of when they could not fulfill the conditions of the contract and had to leave their house. They signed the damned mortgage. Again Biden lies but that’s nothing new.

[john mirse]

We must be kind to Biden, because like most Americans, the only Shakespeare play he probably has ever read was back in high school many, many years ago.

When Biden overhears someone mention "The Merchant of Venice", Biden probably thinks the person is talking about some businessman in Venice Italy.

So let's not be too hard on Biden.

[Little Ray]

Thanks!

[Vaduz]

Biden needs to be put back in the attic.

[McGruff]

Vice President Joe Biden says he made a poor choice of words when he referred to unscrupulous moneylenders who took advantage of U.S. troops as “Shylocks.”

Biden was speaking Tuesday to a legal aid group when he described how some troops serving overseas were facing foreclosures at home. He used the word “Shylocks,” a reference to the villainous Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare's “The Merchant of Venice.”

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/biden-says-shylocks-was-poor-choice-words