Puerto Rican Newspaper Apologizes For Blaming ‘The Jew’ For Island’s Problems
Image by Nikki Casey
By Aiden Pink January 11, 2018
The editors of Puerto Rico’s largest newspaper have apologized for publishing an op-ed that blames the island’s problems recovering from last year’s devastating hurricane on “the Jew.”
Monday’s column by Wilda Rodriguez in the newspaper El Nuevo Día, titled “What Does ‘The Jew’ Want From The Colony?”, claimed that “Wall Street types” dictate U.S. policy, and that “Congress will do what ‘the Jew’ wants, as the vulgar prototype of true power is called.”
“No offense to people of that religion,” she added.
She went on to claim that Wall Street and “the Jew” are punishing Puerto Rico in order to get the island to pay its $70 billion debts.
The paper has since added a note to the top of the article apologizing to the island’s Jewish community, adding, “We do not promote content that can be interpreted as anti-Semitic.”
Rodriguez also issued a semi-apologetic statement. “I’m profoundly sorry that some have interpreted one of my pieces as anti-Semitism,” she wrote. “My career as a writer has been clear, and prejudice and racial and religious hostility have never been a part of it. I can understand the strong reaction that some of have had to the mere usage of the word ‘Jew.’ My intention was not to offend, but to provoke a public discussion. With that clear, I ask for forgiveness from those of good faith that were hurt by my political allusion. I have not and never will intend to offend them.”
The paper also published an op-ed on Thursday by the mayor of a Puerto Rican town, praising the local and national Jewish community for its recovery efforts after hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Jeffrey Boxer contributed reporting to this article.
Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
