Korean, Jewish leaders protest cartoons

Leaders of Korean and Jewish communities in Los Angeles protested anti-Semitic cartoons in a South Korean book. One cartoon depicts a newspaper, magazine, radio and TV set with the caption, “In a word, American public debate belongs to the Jews.” The publication, in comic book format, is part of a series titled “Distant Countries and Neighboring Countries” designed to teach Korean students about other nations. It was written by South Korean professor Lee Won-bok. The book’s English translation reportedly has sold more than 10 million copies. “I don’t have words to describe the outrage I feel,” Yohngsohk Choe, co-chairman of the Korean Patriotic Action Movement in the U.S.A., told The Los Angeles Times. Choe was among leaders of the local Korean-American community who met last Friday with Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “The depictions… have the potential to harm good relationships with our Jewish American neighbors in Los Angeles,” Choe said. Cooper asked the book’s publisher in a letter “to carefully review the slanders in this book.” Publisher Eun-Ju Park answered by e-mail that she would check into the matter “more closely and correct what needs to be corrected.”