A cross-communal group of rabbis have joined the voices calling for media mogul Rupert Murdoch to remove the controversial right wing pundit Glenn Beck from Fox News.
The rabbis have taken out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal newspaper condemning Mr Beck’s repeated attacks on Holocaust survivor and financier George Soros.
In the advert the group criticised as “inappropriate” a programme broadcast on the channel last year called “Puppet Master”, in which Mr Beck accused Mr Soros of helping “to send the Jews to the death camps”.
During the show he also suggested that Mr Soros was “at the centre” of the economic crisis and made the comment in front of a picture of a star or David.
The group also expressed outrage at the “literally hundreds of on-air references to the Holocaust and Nazis when characterizing people with whom you disagree”.
The rabbis, all branches of Judaism, said: "We respectfully request that Glenn Beck be sanctioned by Fox News for his completely unacceptable attacks on a survivor of the Holocaust.”
They added: "We share a belief that the Holocaust, of course, can and should be discussed appropriately in the media.
“But that is not what we have seen at Fox News,"
In another show earlier this month Mr Beck referred to nine figures – almost all of the Jewish – who had created "the era of the big lie" in the United States.
The advert was placed in the newspaper by the American organisation Jewish Funds for Justice (JFSJ). JFSJ Mik Moore said: “This is not an issue for liberal or conservative rabbis, but an issue for all.”
Earlier in January JFSJ organised a petition demanding that Mr Beck be fired. It was signed by more than 10,000 people and sent to Mr Murdoch’s New York headquarters.
