Insidious stereotypes

I’d like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Henry Ergas (18/12) for calling out Barack Obama’s description of Nicolas Sarkozy for what it was – blatant anti-Semitism. I may be a lapsed Jew, but being Jewish involves more than religious practice.

I was born in England in 1944, by which time all my close relatives were safe from the Holocaust. Nonetheless, I find it alarming that the sort of stereotype which contributed to that diabolical act of genocide should be promulgated by someone whom I have admired and should know better.

Tony Barnett, Kangaroo Valley, NSW

(The Australian)