A JEWISH comedian who made a Holocaust joke during the Comedy Festival has been loudly heckled by the Anti-Defamation Commission.
Ari Shaffir, from the US, referenced the Nazi gas chambers last week during a routine about Jewish people, in his stand-up show Heretic.
Commission chairman Dr Dvir Abramovich said he had been contacted by a woman in the audience whose mother was a Holocaust survivor.
The festival-goer had been deeply distressed by Shaffir’s reference, he said, especially given Shaffir was Jewish-born, though he now claims to be an atheist.
“I’m not comfortable with what he joked about Jews, but to joke about the gas chambers as well is a whole other issue and totally crosses a red line,” Dr Abramovich said.
“You can’t defend the indefensible. We strongly believe that Ari Shaffir needs to exercise better judgment in the future, and owes the victims and survivors an apology for a skit that went too far.
Read the article by Catherine Lambert in the Herald Sun.