ZOA: Another ABC Series (“Scandal”) Engages in (this time, Veiled) Anti-Semitism
News Press Release
April 8, 2016

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein and ZOA Director of Special Projects Liz Berney, Esq. issued the following statement:

Last week, an ABC TV series, aptly named “Scandal,” equated “wearing a black skullcap” to evil-doing.  A black skullcap (also called a yarmulke or kippah) is an item worn by religious Jews.  In an episode entitled “The Miseducation of Susan Ross” (Season 5, Episode 16, air date March 31, 2016, seen by 6.4 million viewers), a concerned employee describes her boss’s transformation, from formerly doing good, to now engaging in evil dirty tricks that will cause devastating harm to a political candidate’s innocent young child, as follows:   “I’m talking about replacing the white hat with a black skullcap.”   The Scandal TV series frequently uses “wearing a white hat” as a metaphor for doing good, and being on the side of truth and justice. The show could have easily used a metaphor other than “wearing a black skullcap” for evil – but instead made the veiled reference to religious Jews.  

An ABC TV series, aptly named “Scandal,” equated “wearing a black skullcap” to evil-doing.

(If “Scandal” wished to use a “political” metaphor for evil, a far more appropriate garment to symbolize “evil” would have been the keffiyehs worn by the Arab terrorists while they slaughtered hundreds of innocent Jews living in Jerusalem and Hebron in the 1930s.   Egyptian-born terrorist Yasser Arafat – who was responsible for targeting and the murders of hundreds of Jews including Jewish schoolchildren from the 1970s to 2000s – “popularized” the headgear as the “Palestinian keffiyeh”; it is worn by Palestinian Arab terrorists who continue to attack and murder innocent Jews today.)

Up until now, “Scandal” has avoided anti-Semitic references, and the offending line last week appears to be an isolated incident. Normally, we might write the line off to insensitivity.  But in light of ABC’s rife-with-anti-Semitism series, Quantico, we wonder whether anti-Jewish bigotry has now infected another ABC show, whether this is a harbinger of plans for worse to come (which needs to be stopped now), and what in the world is going on at ABC. 

According to IMDB (Internet Movie Database), the episode at issue was co-written by “Scandal”’s powerful creator Ms. Shonda Rhimes and Somali Muslim writer Ms. Raamla Mohamed.

ZOA urges Ms. Rhimes, Ms. Mohamed and ABC to issue an apology, delete or replace the offending line in replays of the episode (the offending line is unnecessary to the story), and avoid further anti-Semitic references or slurs in the future.  ZOA wrote to ABC on April 6, and has received no response thus far.

What You Can Do / Contact Information:

Please feel free to contact ABC and the episode’s co-writers at the addresses below, to ask them to apologize, delete or replace the offensive line, and avoid future anti-Semitic references.  Please copy ZOA on your correspondence at liz@zoa.org:

 

Creator and co-writer Shonda Rhimes’ twitter address: https://twitter.com/search?q=shonda%20rhimes&src=typd

Co-writer Ms. Raamla Mohamed’s twitter address: https://twitter.com/dramaraamla

 

Ms. Channing Dungey

President, ABC Entertainment Group 

Email:  Channing.Dungey@abc.com

(818) 560-1000; direct:  818 460-7030

 

Ms. Hope Hartman

Senior VP, Communications, ABC Studios, ABC Entertainment

Email: Hope.C.Hartman@abc.com

Direct: 818 460-6360

 

Mr. Mark Mazie, Esq.

Chief Counsel, Disney-ABC Media Networks

500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, CA 91521

Email: Mark.Mazie@abc.com

tel:  (818) 460-5767

 

Karl T. Nilsson

Executive Publicity Director – Disney/ABC Television Group

Email: Karl.T.Nilsson@abc.com

Tel: (212) 456-7955

 

ABC Audience comments line:

(818) 460-7477 

Our Mission
ZOA STATEMENT
The ZOA speaks out for Israel – in reports, newsletters, and other publications. In speeches in synagogues, churches, and community events, in high schools and colleges from coast to coast. In e-mail action alerts. In op-eds and letters to the editor. In radio and television appearances by ZOA leaders. Always on the front lines of pro-Israel activism, ZOA has made its mark.
Center for Law & Justice
We work to educate the American public and Congress about legal issues in order to advance the interests of Israel and the Jewish people.
We assist American victims of terrorism in vindicating their rights under the law, and seek to hold terrorists and sponsors of terrorism accountable for their actions.
We fight anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses.
We strive to enforce existing law and also to create new law in order to safeguard the rights of the Jewish people in the United States and Israel.