The American Jewish Congress today criticized the award last night of an Oscar to the animated short subject, “The Crunch Bird,” as “a regrettable act of insensitivity toward the Jewish community.” Rabbi Yaakov Rosenberg of Philadelphia, chairman of the AJ Congress Commission on Jewish Affairs, deplored the use of Yiddish dialect and ethnic caricature “for comic purposes.”
He said this may have been an acceptable form of humor two generations ago. “Today,” he stated. “the world has learned, to its sorrow, that holding up to ridicule members of minority groups for the way they speak or act or look not only injures the victims of such attack but corrupts society as a whole.”
Rabbi Rosenberg termed “The Crunch Bird” an offensive piece of cinema and “therefore unworthy of the high professional and ethical standards which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences seeks to honor in its annual distribution of awards.” He expressed the hope that the Oscar given to the two-minute cartoon “will not serve to encourage other film makers to imitate its vulgarity.” The producer of “The Crunch Bird” could not be reached immediately for comment.
Tel Aviv police are investigating the possibility of arson in a fire that broke out today in the conference room of the headquarters of the National Religious Party. The fire was quickly put out and damage was negligible.
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