POPULAR new Netflix drama The Umbrella Academy has been slammed as anti-Semitic.
The body who represent the Jewish Community in Britain have condemned the show, saying the use of Yiddish feeds into a anti-semitic conspiracy theory that Jewish people are controlling the world.
The Umbrella Academy, one of the streaming services latest releases, tells the story of an adopted family with supernatural powers attempting to save the world from the apocalypse.
But the family are up against the nefarious Commission, an organisation which controls the world’s timeline who are trying to ensure the end of the world happens.
The series features the head of the Commission using Yiddish in the final episode, as well as sporadic Yiddish words in episode six.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews Vice President Amanda Bowman said: “The use of a Yiddish saying by the evil boss of an organisation which controls the world’s timeline is clearly an antisemitic trope.
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“Whether intentional or not, this makes for very uncomfortable viewing. Netflix should take action to remove the racism from this scene.”
Yiddish was spoken by over a million Jewish people in central Europe prior to the holocaust and now has around 200,000 speakers.
Author Katherine Locke said: “There’s an antisemitic conspiracy theory that there’s a secret cabal of Jews controlling or manipulating the world.
“This conspiracy theory has fuelled antisemites for a long time, and frequently results in violence.
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“This scene played right into that. And I think the important part here is: some people will brush this scene off. A lot of people didn’t even see it.
“But there are two groups of people who will see it, and whom I believe are meant to see it: Jewish viewers, and antisemites. It felt like a dog whistle and a warning all in one.
“I don’t know who wrote the scene, or who added it, or if they knew what they were doing. It’s entirely possible that they didn’t know what they were writing.
“But that just goes to show how deeply embedded some of these antisemitic ideas are in our society.”
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The use of the language is not in the comic book and was a decision to be put in by the show’s makers.
However in the comic book series the two assassins, Hazel and Cha-cha, wear swastika armbands – suggesting it is a Nazi organisation.
The phrase used by the Handler translates to The eggs think they’re smarter than the chicken.
The placement of the phrase comes between the Handler berating the assassins for failure and then compelling them to kill.
Several users have vowed to boycott the series after learning of the use of Yiddish in an antisemitic context.
One viewer said:“Of all the languages they could have chosen, to choose one that fits into a dangerous trope is unforgivable.”
The streaming service previously came under fire for agreeing to host a documentary on antisemite Louis Farrakhan – something they said was an internal miscommunication. Netflix declined to comment when approached by the Sun on Sunday.
