JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Funny, you don’t look Jewish

By Ben Harris · March 19, 2009

What do you call a wealthy media mogul with a trophy wife who loves Chinese food and owns a piece of palatial Manhattan real estate? Apparently, a Jew.

Check out the opening of Rupert Murdoch's recent speech to the American Jewish Committee, which gave the CEO of News Corporation its National Human Relations Award.

Over the years, some of my wildest critics seem to have assumed I am Jewish. At the same time, some of my closest friends wish I were.

So let me set the record straight: I live in New York. I have a wife who craves Chinese food. And people I trust tell me I practically invented the word "chutzpah."

Couple of things worth noting here. Anti-Semites have long considered Rupert Murdoch to be Jewish. How could a wealthy Manhattanite whose vast media holdings are unfailingly pro-Israel NOT be Jewish? Do a Google search for "Rupert Murdoch Jewish" and 128,000 pages come up. Jew Watch, the anti-Semitic Web site that is the virtual authority on such things, links to several articles that mention Murdoch has a Jewish mother.

That said, Murdoch himself clearly implies this is not so (though he could have been clearer had he wanted to) in his speech, which was adapted for this article in the Jerusalem Post (perhaps a full version of his remarks might bring more clarity). His opening sounds like the run-up to a joke about his non-Jewishness, and the Post headline ("I am not Jewish, but ...") indicates they read it the same way.