Orthodox Jews portrayed as racist and sexist by NBC, Global

The episode "Achilles Heel" depicts two Jewish men in a hospital, with one of them, a man named Israel, needing to undergo a leg transplant. The Jewish man expresses concern that the doctor will be putting "a dead leg inside of me."

The man next to him, who is dressed as a stereotypical Orthodox Jew, expresses even greater concern.

"Dead Goyim leg. From anyone. An Arab, a woman –" he says.

"Or God forbid an Arab woman," a woman in the room interjects.

The episode, which originally aired in February of 2020, was only noticed recently, and social media users have expressed outrage at what they view as an antisemitic depiction of Jews.

Despite being a plural word, the episode makes use of the term "goyim" as if it were singular, which is commonly done by antisemites when accusing Jews of being hateful of non-Jews. The term "goy," the singular equivalent, means non-Jew in Hebrew and Yiddish and is sometimes viewed as derogatory.

The attitudes towards non-Jews and women depicted in the scene is also inconsistent with Jewish law, which does not place any limits on medical transplants originating from non-Jews or women. In fact, in the Jewish religion, saving a life is considered to be a priority which supersedes most religious laws.

The show, which is based in Toronto, was originally produced by the Canadian media outlet Global, but was acquired by NBC in November of 2020. The show was still owned by Global when the episode first aired.

Despite not having yet acquired the show when the episode aired, many people online expressed outrage at NBC for the episode. A number of people have connected it to a recent episode of Saturday Night Live, which is also owned by NBC, where comedian Michael Che falsely claimed that Israel is only vaccinating its Jewish citizens against coronavirus.

Neither NBC nor Global have commented on the scene.