Chile’s Jewish Community Denounces Use of Antisemitic Meme in Liquor Ad

Jewish leaders in Chile expressed outrage this week over the publication of a liquor advertisement featuring a grotesquely antisemitic meme, The Algemeiner reported.

The ad — placed on Monday in the journal Las Últimas Noticias by the Valparaíso-based Arbol Verde alcohol distribution company — included the “Happy Merchant” meme, which shows a bearded Jewish man with a hooked nose smirking and greedily rubbing his hands together.

In a statement, the Jewish Community of Chile slammed the ad for using a “classic stereotype of a Jew” that Nazi propagandists used to lay the groundwork for the Holocaust.

Hoy en @lun, inaceptable publicidad que alude al clásico estereotipo de un judío que la propaganda nazi convirtió en el germen del antisemitismo que llevó al genocidio de 6 millones de judíos. Impresentable forma de promocionar un producto y una grave falta de edición del Medio.

— Comunidad Judía de Chile (@comjudiachile) July 11, 2022

An Arbol Verde spokesperson said the illustration was meant to highlight discounts for customers paying in cash, and that there had been no intention of offending Jews.

The Israeli Embassy in Chile responded, “Not having the intention to offend does not explain or reduce the seriousness of the facts.”

🔴Adherimos a la condena formulada por @comjudiachile a publicidad de empresa de licores basada en estereotipos antisemitas en @lun.

El no haber tenido ánimo de ofender, no explica ni aminora la gravedad de los hechos. pic.twitter.com/K2Edw7psnj

— Israel en Chile (@IsraelinChile) July 11, 2022

Chile — home to around 18,000 Jews — has not been immune to the global surge of antisemitism in recent years.

B’nai B’rith Chile President Boris Kisiliuk spoke with the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) last year about the situation facing the country’s Jewish community, in an interview that can be read in full here.