Cartoon offends Jewish groups

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

Johnny Hart, whose syndicated caveman comic, "B.C.," runs in 1,300 newspapers worldwide, including the Sunday Honolulu Advertiser, has touched off controversy with today's Easter strip.

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Some Jewish leaders have found the cartoon offensive, and contend it suggests Christianity is replacing Judaism.

Rabbi Morris Goldfarb, a scholar at Temple Emanu-El in Honolulu, said he isn't happy about the strip but questioned the wisdom of making too much of it.

"It is something which is annoying and demeaning," Goldfarb said. "But I really think this is overblown. I don't think we need to give this so much attention. Most people won't even catch the implications."

For others, the implications were too much to ignore. They took exception to what they viewed as a symbolic snuffing of the Jewish faith. The Anti-Defamation League in New York called Hart's Easter strip a throwback to the days of teaching contempt against Jews.

After viewing advance copies, the Jewish Defense League, based in Los Angeles, issued an appeal asking editors to pull the cartoon.

Many newspapers, including The Advertiser, receive their Sunday comics sections preprinted and cannot pull a strip at the last minute.

Advertiser Editor Saundra Keyes said the need to pull a comic rarely arises. However, in the case of today's "B.C.," she said she would have done so had she been alerted.

"I respect Mr. Hart's right to his beliefs, and our newspaper offers various forums, including the Faith page, for exploring perspectives on theology," she said. "But one of our responsibilities is to edit for taste. The depiction of a menorah's transformation into a cross is tasteless."

Keyes said newspaper syndicates usually send out advisories whenever an upcoming strip or column could present problems. But she said she received no such notice regarding Hart's Easter strip.

Richard S. Newcombe, president of Creators Syndicate, which owns "B.C.," said on Friday that an advisory should have been sent out, and he took responsibility for the oversight. Newcombe said a syndicate editor had warned him a month ago that the strip would be controversial.

"I've been doing this for 25 years, and this is the first time I've made a mistake like this," Newcombe said. "I just didn't see it. I got blindsided. And I apologize.

"I interpreted the comic to be a tribute, that Christianity is rooted in Judaism. And I thought that is a nice message, and I naively did not see the negative interpretation that the (Anti-Defamation League) and other Jewish groups have complained about."

Hart, a Christian who has been drawing "B.C." since 1958, and has increasingly injected religious themes into the strip in recent years, expressed regret "if some people misunderstood the strip, and it hurt their feelings. ... This is a holy week for both Christians and Jews, and my intent, as always, was to pay tribute to both."