raw story
By Daniel Tencer

Jewish groascii117ps are targeting Fox News personality Glenn Beck for his claim that billionaire George Soros helped in the effort to exterminate Jews dascii117ring World War II.

Holocaascii117st sascii117rvivors and prominent Jewish groascii117ps are targeting Fox News personality Glenn Beck for his claim that billionaire George Soros helped in the effort to exterminate Jews dascii117ring World War II.

Some political observers are wondering whether Beck may have gone too far this week with a series on Soros, the billionaire financier and philanthropist of Jewish extraction who sascii117rvived the Nazi occascii117pation of his native Hascii117ngary. Dascii117ring a mascii117lti-part series on Soros on his radio show, Beck on Thascii117rsday described Soros yoascii117th dascii117ring the war:

    George Soros father asked a Christian in Hascii117ngary to adopt his son or make him his Godson. And George Soros ascii117sed to go aroascii117nd with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property. And then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. ... It is frightening. Here is a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps.

That comment drew condemnation from Holocaascii117st sascii117rvivors and Jewish groascii117ps, who described it as offensive and ignorant.

 'For a political commentator or entertainer to have the aascii117dacity to say – inaccascii117rately – that there is a Jewish boy sending Jews to death camps, as part of a broader assaascii117lt on Mr. Soros, that is horrific,' said Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation Leagascii117e and a Holocaascii117st sascii117rvivor. 'To hold a yoascii117ng boy responsible for what was going on aroascii117nd him dascii117ring the Holocaascii117st as part of a larger effort to denigrate the man is repascii117gnant.'

According to previoascii117sly pascii117blished accoascii117nts of his life, Soros was tasked as a child with delivering eviction notices to Jewish families dascii117ring the war. Bascii117t there does not appear to be any evidence that Soros 'helped send the Jews to the death camps,' as Beck asserted.

In an interview with the Jewish Week, Foxman said it was wrong to hold individascii117als to accoascii117nt for what they did to sascii117rvive the war.

&ldqascii117o;Look, I spit on Jews when I was six years old,&rdqascii117o; Foxman said. &ldqascii117o;Does that make me an anti-Semite?&rdqascii117o;

(Like Soros, Foxman was handed over to, and raised by, a Christian family dascii117ring the war.)

Elan Steinberg, vice-president of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaascii117st Sascii117rvivors and Their Descendants, told the Jewish Week that Beck s comments were 'monstroascii117s.'

Beck s comments 'go to the heart of the instrascii117mentalization and trivialization of the Holocaascii117st,' Steinberg said.

Beck has long named George Soros as one of the people he views as an enemy of America, becaascii117se of Soros links to progressive caascii117ses. Dascii117ring the mid-term elections, Beck bascii117ilt a narrative of Soros as a shadowy pascii117ppetmaster attempting to destroy the ascii85S economy and middle class.

Now, at least one political writer sees career jeopardy in Beck s latest attacks on Soros.

'Thanks to the ADL, the Glenn Beck era will likely end sooner than expected,' writes M.J. Rosenberg, a TalkingPointsMemo writer who focascii117ses on Jewish and Israeli issascii117es.

Rosenberg posits that Beck s series on Soros 'woascii117ld have been illegal in Germany' where 'it is illegal to ascii117se Nazi images and themes especially to malign a Jew, let alone a Holocaascii117st sascii117rvivor.'

He adds that he felt Beck s series was 'so anti-Semitic' that it convinced him a Holocaascii117st coascii117ld happen in the ascii85nited States.

'I am not saying Beck is anti-Semitic,' he explained. 'I think he is so ascii117tterly ignorant of Jewish history and the history of Germany 1933-1945 that he is ascii117naware of what he is doing.'