Entertainment
NBC pulls Nurses episode from future broadcasts after accusations of anti-Semitism
NBC has pulled an episode of its drama Nurses from digital platforms and future broadcasts after it was accused of anti-Semitism.
The network has decided no longer air the eighth episode of the series, titled Achilles Heel, which originally aired on February 9, following complaints.
The scene featured a young Orthodox Jewish man named Israel who is in hospital for a shattered leg, and whose father says that ‘the Creator’ will heal him, rather than medicine.
A doctor informs Israel that he will need to have a bone graft, requiring part of a cadaver’s leg to be surgically inserted into his own.
Israel says: ‘You want to put a dead leg inside of me?’, with his father saying: ‘A dead goyim [non-Jew] leg — from anyone. An Arab, a woman.’
His nurse sarcastically adds: ‘Or God forbid, an Arab woman’, with Israel refusing the treatment, saying: ‘It’s God who heals what he creates.’
There is no rule in Orthodox Judaism against having a dead body part surgically inserted into one’s body, and no rule against this being a non-Jewish body part, or that of a woman or an Arab.
The website Jew In The City was the first to call out the depiction of Orthodox and Hasidic Jews in the episode.
An article read: ‘Hasidic Jews are being attacked in the streets with greater frequency every single day. Do better, Hollywood, at not constructing pernicious lies that endanger our community.’
A statement from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish global human rights organisation, read: ‘The writers of this scene check all the boxes of ignorance and pernicious negative stereotypes, right down to the name of the patient, Israel – paiyous and all.
‘In one scene, NBC has insulted and demonised religious Jews and Judaism.
‘Overreaction? Orthodox Jews are targeted for violent hate crimes – in the city of New York, Jews are number one target of hate crimes in US; this is no slip of the tongue. It was a vile, cheap attack masquerading as TV drama. What’s NBC going to do about it?’
B’nai Brith Canada also demanded action, with chief executive officer Michael Mostyn saying: ‘The disturbing stereotypes present in this episode of Nurses are deeply damaging to Jews, especially Orthodox practitioners.
‘We call on the producers to act responsibly and take accountability for this outrage.’
Seffi Kogen of the American Jewish Committee tweeted: ‘I think this is the most antisemitic thing I have ever seen in a TV show…For those of you unfamiliar with Jewish law, which puts precedent on healing and saving lives, there is no prohibition on the kind of bone graft in this clip.
‘The writers made it up, dressed their actors in Jew-face, and put random extremist nonsense in their mouths.’
The move not to air the episode on digital platforms was welcomed by the organisations.
NBC did not create Nurses, as they purchased the Canadian drama from an external studio after it premiered in January 2020 on Canada’s Global TV channel.
It was acquired due to the shortage of programming during the pandemic, and its season finale aired this week.
Metro.co.uk has contacted NBC for comment.
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