Borat’s a Muslim!

The Letters section has always been my favorite part of Jewish newspapers, and the Jewish Week isn’t letting me down. Today’s issue includes a letter that suggests that Borat is actually a Muslim conspiracy to malign Jews. Here’s a taste:

I have seen the film called “Borat,” and I am appalled and disgusted by it…

I’ve been told by various people, authoritatively, that this man, this “Sacha Baron Cohen,” is English, he is Israeli, he is Orthodox, he is a Sabbath observer.

What I think is that this Borat/Cohen is an anti-Semitic Muslim who uses the Jewish persona as his excuse for disseminating the worst anti-Semitic venom since Hitler.

Why would the Jewish Week publish this letter? To show that there are conspiracists among us? To present the anti-Muslim view that this is a real anti-Semitic movie? While the letter doesn’t reflect well on its author, right now I’m thinking it looks even worse for the paper that printed it.

Discover More

Borat in America

Sacha Baron Cohen's satirical look at the United States -- and (fake) Kazakh anti-Semitism.

Jewface & Borat

Yesterday, my friend Rabbi Eliyahu Stern over at Beliefnet contrasted the new Borat movie with another recent cultural production highlighted ...

Borat as Bruno Makes Over the Messiah

Sasha Baron Cohen’s upcoming movie focuses on his character Bruno, a campy gay Austrian fashion journalist. In the clip below ...