An Australian army reservist apologized to the country’s Jewish community for comments on a reality TV show. Nelson Russell, 23, was removed from the “Big Brother” house after TV executives discovered he and a fellow contestant had lied about being single, a condition of entry into the program. Constance Hall, the other contestant removed a week before the evictions were due to begin, claimed she had lost a nose ring during a game televised in the house. When the TV company refused to replace the ring, Russell called Big Brother “a Jew” on live national TV. He told media, “I was trying to say that Big Brother was stingy, but I regret that. I truly didn’t mean to offend anyone. If I could take anything back, I definitely would take that back.” Jeremy Jones, the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council’s director of international affairs, said, “It was an unfortunate incident, but he made a fool of himself on national TV.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
