Presenter Jon Stewart criticizes ‘Harry Potter’: ‘These goblins are anti-Semitic’ | showbiz

Jon Stewart spoke on his podcast, The Trouble with Jon Stewart, about the similarities between the “goblins” from “Harry Potter” and caricatures from the anti-Semitic book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. “When I talk to people, sometimes I ask if they’ve seen the movie ‘Harry Potter’ before. Have you ever seen a scene in the Gringotts Bank? Do you know who the people who run the bank are? Jews! When I show someone a caricature, they respond, “Oh, that’s from ‘Harry Potter,'” Stewart—who is Jewish himself—said in the podcast. Then I say, ‘No, this is a cartoon from an anti-Semitic book.’ Then J.K. Rowling (the author of ‘Harry Potter’) thought, ‘Otherwise. Should we let these people run our bank?” It’s a wizarding world. We can ride a dragon, you can have an owl as a pet. But who should run the bank? Jews.”

Orcs are, according to the film series’ fan page, “a very intelligent breed of small, magical creatures resembling humans, with long fingers and feet. Due to their skills in money and finance, they largely control the economy and run the Gringotts Wizarding Bank.” Stewart continued, “When I first saw them in the movie, I expected the audience’s reaction. ‘Damn, didn’t Rowling choose to let the Jews run the secret bank in a wizarding world?’ But that didn’t happen. It was very strange.”

The writer J.K. Rowling has been heavily criticized for several years for her comments about transgender people. This earned her a lot of criticism, also from actors from the franchise. Surprisingly, she also didn’t appear on the last 20th anniversary special of “Harry Potter,” which launched on HBO last week (and can be viewed with us at Streamz).

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