The Umbrella Academy season 2 accused of antisemitic stereotypes

The Umbrella Academy season 2 has once again courted controversy for continuing to portray antisemitic stereotypes.

Viewers have criticised the show for portraying a corrupt organisation with an evil mastermind known as The Handler who speaks Yiddish, which is a language spoken exclusively by Ashkenazi Jews.

The Handler played by actress Kate Walsh also spoke in Yiddish in the first season of The Umbrella Academy.

This prompted The Board of Deputies of British Jews to write an open letter against the series for antisemitism.

Amanda Bowman, Vice President of the board wrote, “The use of a Yiddish saying by the evil boss of an organisation which controls the world’s timeline is clearly an anti-Semitic trope.”

“Whether intentional or not, this makes for very uncomfortable viewing. Netflix should take action to remove the racism from this scene.”

Seeing the character continuing to speak Yiddish in the second season shocked viewers who now believe it was a deliberate intention.

In season two, The Handler also spoke in Mandarin which prompted the question: “Why have her speak Yiddish when she could speak ANY other language?”

On Twitter, user @nyarchivist accused the show of “antisemitic dog whistling” in a TikTok video about the series.

“Having the villain speak that language is [saying], ‘Look at these big Jewish villains, aren’t they vile, look at their gross language.’ That is what it is. That is what it’s always been, because society is built on believing that Jewish people control everything. That is antisemitism.”

Another netizen wrote, ““I don’t know what to tell you, The Umbrella Academy having the ‘secret world domination cult’ speaking Yiddish is definitely, intentionally antisemitic.”