Chilean Jewish community outraged by use of anti-Semitic meme in ad for discount alcohol

Chilean Jews are outraged by the publication of an advert for cut-price alcohol that displays a notorious anti-Semitic meme.

The advert was published by the Chilean alcohol distributor Arbol Verde in Monday’s edition of the Chilean national newspaper, ‘Las Últimas Noticias’.

It featured the ‘Happy Merchant’ – an anti-Semitic internet meme depicting a hook-nosed man with a cunning smile, wearing a head-covering and holding banknotes.

The Jewish Community of Chile fired back on Twitter, saying “[it was] unacceptable advertising alluding to the classic stereotype of a Jew that Nazi propaganda turned into the germ of anti-Semitism that led to the genocide of 6 million Jews.

"Unpresentable way of promoting a product and a serious lack of editing of the media”.

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

The ‘Happy Merchant’ was created by cartoonist A. Wyatt Mann and was released both in print and online in 2001. The sketch was part of a cartoon that also included a racist drawing of a black man, captioned, "A world without Jews and Blacks would be like a world without Rats and Cockroaches."

No es la prensa escrita de Alemania Nazi del 1940 es el Chile de hoy publicitando en @lun caricaturas antisemitas que en otros países generarían el repudio transversal!
Que vergüenza.! Cc @comjudiachile @ggorodischer pic.twitter.com/ejbhL7Z2KL
— Gabriel Silber (@gabrielsilber) July 11, 2022

According to the US advocacy group the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “The Happy Merchant has become nearly ubiquitous in modern online white supremacist and anti-Semitic iconography”.

There are around 18,000 Jews in Chile, accounting for approximately 0.1% of the population. Separately, the country is also home to what's believed to be the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East, with as many as half a million Palestinians settling in Chile.

Last year saw the election of far-left, anti-Zionist Gabriel Boric as president of Chile. While the Jewish Community of Chile tried to form a positive relationship with Boric, the president responded with reluctance.

La Comunidad Judía en Chile me envía un tarrito de miel por el año nuevo judio, reafirmando su compromiso cn "una sociedad más inclusiva, solidaria y respetuosa". Agradezco el gesto pero podrían partir por pedirle a Israel que devuelva el territorio palestino ilegalmente ocupado. pic.twitter.com/rtb1dt8QRP
— Gabriel Boric Font (@GabrielBoric) October 2, 2019

During the High Holy days, the Jewish Community of Chile sent the new president a pot of honey for the Jewish new year, Boric responded with a tweet, saying, “I appreciate the gesture, but they could start by asking Israel to return the illegally occupied Palestinian territory”.