The Denver Post recently ran a letter to the editor written by Anti-Defamation League Mountain States Regional Director Scott L. Levin, responding to a March 29 cartoon published by the Post depicting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg with horns on his head. The letter in its entirety appears below.

The Denver Post’s March 29 editorial cartoon depicted Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, with horns fashioned from the symbols Facebook uses to indicate that a user likes a posting. Regrettably, it hearkened to anti-Semitic imagery arising in medieval times and relied on by Nazi propagandists, which characterized Jews as having horns and being devils.

 

I am comfortable The Denver Post would never knowingly publish a cartoon that has anti-Semitic imagery. By this letter, I hope to educate people that while criticism of Facebook and its founder is fair, the depiction of a Jew with horns on his head will evince an emotional response for some well beyond any attempt to make a villain of Facebook.

 

Unfortunately, experience demonstrates such imagery has the potential of playing into the hands of anti-Semites who already blame Jews for all things related to the media.

Scott L. Levin, Denver