Crossing The Line

Benign cartoon or _painful reminder of prejudice?

DIANA LIEBERMAN

Staff Writer

S

en. Joseph Lieberman,
Democratic Party candidate
for vice president of the
United States, doesn't have a
particularly big nose. He doesn't wear
a yarmulke in public. And he doesn't
walk around with a six-pointed star
pinned to his lapel.
However, that is how cartoonist
Henry Payne portrayed Lieberman in
a cartoon that appeared Aug. 10 in the

Detroit News.
The newspaper intended no malice,
said several staff members.
"We always look into our cartoons
for taste and gauge how they'll be
reacted to in the community," said
Nolan Finley, editorial page editor.
Payne said that drawing overly
large noses — on such political fig-
ures as Reform Party founder Ross
Perot, Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat and President Bill Clinton —
was part of his palette as a caricatur-
ist. The cartoonist gives Perot big
ears, Jimmy Carter big lips and
Clinton a big chin, while Michigan
Gov. John Engler gets two chins.
"I draw a bigger honker on Ross
Perot, for example, than any other
politician I can think of, and yet have
never received a complaint," Payne said.
Many members of the Jewish com-
munity see the Lieberman cartoon
portrayal as highly offensive.
"I was reminded of what I saw as a
child growing up in Berlin," said
Rabbi Ernst Conrad, rabbi emeritus of
Temple Kol Ami in West Bloomfield.
"It's like what Der Stunner, the antise-
mitic weekly put out by Julius
Streicher, used to publish."
Rabbi Conrad was shown the car-
toon by a congregant. He brought it
to an Aug. 11 meeting of the Jewish
Community Council of Metropolitan
Detroit.
Also at the meeting was Zina
Kramer of Bloomfield Hills. "I was
offended," Kramer said. "While I
understand cartoonists have to exag-
gerate people's features, there has to be
some sensitivity to portraying Jewish
people with huge noses.
"It's the equivalent to portraying
someone in the African American corn-
munity with curly hair and big lips," she
said, adding that she would like to see

the Detroit News print a formal apology.
The cartoon shows a donkey, the
symbol of the Democratic Party, mak-
ing a speech. Behind it stands
Lieberman, complete with the huge
nose and other accoutrements, holding
a sign that reads, "Clinton Is An
Immoral Philanderer!"
The caption reads "The Republican
Party has been taken over by religious
right fundamentalists obsessed with
Clinton's sex life and ... Oh no!!"
Payne said the cartoon was a com-
ment on what he sees as hypocrisy in
the Democratic Party, which has loud-
ly condemned religion in politics,
rather than a deliberately offensive
stereotype of Jews.
"I ran it past my editors and col-
leagues — two of whom are Jewish —
and they all like it," he said.
After the Aug. 11 meeting, David
Gad-Harf, the JCCouncil's executive
director, immediately contacted Payne.
Gad-Harf also spoke to Jeffrey
Hadden, deputy editorial page editor,
the highest-ranking editorial staff
member then in town.
Gad-Harf said both men took his
concerns seriously. "In their view —
not mine — Lieberman's Judaism was
relevant to the issues raised in the car-
toon. I am fairly sure the stereotyping
was done inadvertently."
Gad-Harf said the Detroit News and
its cartoonists do not have a track
record of doing anything anti-Jewish.
"Our hope is that this is an aberration,
not the beginning of a trend," he said.
Both Gad-Harf and Don Cohen,
Michigan regional director of the Anti-
Defamation League, said they would
continue to track how Lieberman is
portrayed in political cartoons.
"It's our role to let these cartoonists
know the sensitivities they are playing
on and to ask them to find another way
to express their point," Cohen said.
However, he added, it's important
for people who object to something
they see in the media to contact them
directly as well as contacting the
JCCouncil or ADL. This can help the
media understand the importance of
the problem that needs to be addressed.
Gibby Schwartz of West Bloomfield
said Payne's cartoon was offensive to
generations of Jews. "If you are a real
antisemite, you would love it," he said.
"Why not just put the Star of David on
his arm already and be done with it?"

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