Troubling TV show - The Jewish Standard

Our family loves science fiction, especially when it involves time travel. (Perhaps we long to go back into history and set things right, or perhaps we’re just fascinated by the paradoxes raised by the possibility. What happens if you meet yourself? How will traveling through time change the future – or will it?) We’ve been hooked on “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” But Monday night’s episode was truly a journey back into another time – the time when anti-Semitism was common and even acceptable on the airwaves.

A kippah-wearing, Torah-quoting character in the episode, Moishe, lies and cheats and is a fence for stolen diamonds. What was the point? To say that Jews lie and cheat and steal, all the while wrapping themselves in the Torah – which is debased by their abuse of it?

And by the way, the actor gave a particularly repellent performance. He was oily and snake-like. Phooey.

For some unfathomable reason the episode was titled “The Brothers of Nablus.” If “Nablus” was supposed to be some kind of code word for “Israeli,” it doesn’t work. Nablus is populated mainly by Palestinians – and a handful of Samaritans.

RKB

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