Welcome to South Korea— enjoy our gratuitously anti-Semitic comic books!

CAPTION: A series of cartoons in the America volume of ‘Far Country, Neighbor Country’ saying the reason Arab terrorists hate the U.S. and carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attack is because ‘Jews use money and public discussion as weapons to make WASPs do what they want.’

Jewish Journal World Headquarters, located in twin office blocks on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles ‘s KoreaTown, is a shifting mosaic of ethnicities and lifestyles—the Mexican taco truck out front, Korean banks and Realtors, a minyan on the 12th floor, here a latte, here some kimchee, felafels and sushi, lawyers and traders, cube farmers in regalia, and all the smokers clenched outside, like shunned weasels.

What do the Korean bank people on our floor think of us?  Most of the Koreans that come here are Christians, and we are truly exotic to them.  I always smile at the bank reception lady and once I brought them some mis-delivered mail.  She smiles back.

I hope they don’t learn about the Jews from a top-selling series of comic books meant to teach world history to Korean kids.

A South Korean comic book has been defined as anti-Semitic in a U.S. State Department report. The book is from a series called “Distant Countries and Neighboring Countries” and is about the U.S.

In a report on contemporary global anti-semitism submitted to the U.S. Congress on Saturday, the State Department said the book “recycles various Jewish conspiracy theories, such as Jewish control of the media, Jews profiting from war, and Jews causing the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks.”

The series, written by Rhie Won-bok, a professor at Duksung Women’s University, was designed to teach youngsters the history and culture of other countries in comic book format. The “best-selling” children’s book series sold more than 10 million Korean-language copies, according to the report.

The report cited two examples of anti-Semitism in the book. One comic strip shows a newspaper, a magazine, a television, and a radio, each with a Star of David, and is captioned, “In a word, American public debate belongs to the Jews, and it’s no exaggeration to say that [U.S. media] are the voices of the Jews.”

Another strip shows a man climbing a hill and then facing a brick wall inscribed with a Star of David and a STOP sign. The caption reads, “The final obstacle [to success] is always a fortress called Jews.”

The author later acknowledged his mistake and pledged to write “in a more responsible way,” the report said.

Yikes!  Koreans in Korea hate Jews?  Did they ever meet any Jews? 

The community here in KTown has reached out to us and vice-versa.

It’s hard to hate people you know.

-- The Web Guy