NEW YORK (JTA) — A man in an Elmo costume was ejected from Central Park and hospitalized after going on an anti-Semitic rant in the middle of the New York landmark.
While the man’s name was not released because he was not arrested, police said that Monday’s incident was not the first time he had dressed as the Sesame Street character and gone on a racial rant.
Videos of the costumed Elmo’s anti-Semitic comments began to circulate Sunday and show him directing bystanders to read "The International Jew" published and distributed by Henry Ford, the automobile manufacturer who was known for his anti-Semitic views.
“I’m not making money because the Jewish costume company is harassing me,” said the man, caught on video. “That’s why I’m doing it and that’s why I want people to read ‘The International Jew,’ because if you start your business in this city, Jews will harass you.”
The man also complained that he wasn’t making any money because of “Jewish cops and company.”
A spokesman for the Sesame Street Workshop, the nonprofit group that produces “Sesame Street,” released a statement on Monday saying that “The ‘Sesame Street’ Muppets are known the world over, and we do not condone unauthorized representations of our characters.”
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