Top US Jewish Group Calls for Apology for Cattle Car Cartoon
by Algemeiner Staff
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is calling for an apology from a major Atlanta newspaper for publishing a cartoon depicting a commercial airplane as a cattle car.
The image — drawn by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez — features a passenger saying, seemingly sarcastically, “I can’t understand why people don’t want to fly.”
Among the newspapers that published the syndicated cartoon was The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which was singled out for rebuke by the AJC.
“This cartoon is offensive and a slap in the face of survivors and all who lost family in the Holocaust,” the AJC asserted. “The Atlanta Journal Constitution owes its readers an immediate apology and explanation.”
This cartoon is offensive and a slap in the face of survivors and all who lost family in the Holocaust.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution (@AJC) owes its readers an immediate apology and explanation. pic.twitter.com/S3vWSTv8wD
— American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) May 15, 2020
Many European Jews were transported in cattle cars to Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.
However, travelers have long used cattle car metaphors when complaining about uncomfortable conditions, even before World War II.