The arrest of a Jewish businessman on suspicion of perpetrating fraud on Wall Street on a massive scale has caused "an outpouring of anti-Semitic comments on mainstream and extremist websites," according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the leading anti-Semitism watchdog group in the U.S.
The public comment sections of highly trafficked news sites, blogs, and financial message boards that are filled with anti-Semitic comments, are mostly from anonymous users, JTA quoted ADL as saying.
The Jewish businessman’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme defrauded private investors, banks and philanthropic foundations, including a number of Jewish-related charities, of some 50 billion dollars.
'Perfect storm' for anti-Semites
“Site users have posted comments ranging from deeply offensive stereotypical statements about Jews and money -- with some suggesting that only Jews could perpetrate a fraud on such a scale -- to conspiracy theories about Jews stealing money to benefit Israel,” the ADL said in a statement.
“These and other anti-Jewish tropes have appeared on popular blogs devoted to finance, in comment sections of mainstream news outlets and in banter among users of Internet discussion groups.
ADL’s national director Abraham Foxman said that “Jews are always a convenient scapegoat in times of crisis, but the Madoff scandal and the fact that so many of the defrauded investors are Jewish has created a perfect storm for the anti-Semites.”
"Nowadays, the first place Jew-haters will go is to the Internet, where they can give voice to their hateful ideas without fear of repercussions."
Sites in New York and Florida affected
Popular news sites in New York and Florida, where many of the affected businesses and charities are based, have seen a large share of the anti-Semitic comments. At one point the comment section of The Palm Beach Post featured numerous anti-Jewish posts. They were subsequently removed by the site’s administrators.
Other high-traffic sites with anti-Semitic posts have included the comment-enabled sections of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Forbes, New York Magazine, the New York Post, and Israeli websites of Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post.
The postings refer to Madoff as a 'Crooked Wall Street Jew,' a 'jew money changer thief,' 'another Jew banker,' etc.