Jewish book promo causes drama for LAFD
The LA Daily News reports,
A song played inside a West Los Angeles fire station whose lyrics were altered in an alleged anti-Semitic way sparked the most recent discrimination probe within the Los Angeles Fire Department, an official said Wednesday.
The 2000 hit “Who Let the Dogs Out?” was changed to say “Who let the Jews out?” and was played inside Fire Station58 sometime this month, according to several sources and confirmed by Los Angeles Fire Commissioner Genethia Hudley-Hayes.
The station is in the Pico/Robertson neighborhood, which has a large Jewish population.
It was not known who lodged a complaint or whether any firefighters are under investigation.
Amusingly, the song in question is actually from a Flash animation created to promote the novel Schlepping Through the Alps — which was awarded Best Book of 2005 by Jewschool. It is not, in itself, at all antisemitic, though perhaps, depending on the context in which it played, it may have been interpreted as such. Nonetheless, sheesh… I bet creator Dan Meth never saw that coming.
Full story.
This is really bizarre. The animation has been out for over a year, and honestly there’s nothing “anti-semitic” about the lyrics, even taken away from the animation. I’m really curious as to whether there are any Jewish firefighters in the department and who reported this as offensive.