Wiesenthal's Top 10 anti-Semitic slurs

As the year ends and everyone writes up their Top 10 list of best books, albums and movies of the year, there’s one list no one wants to be on: the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s 2010 Top 10 Anti-Semitic Slurs.

“There’s a lot to choose from unfortunately,” said Rabbi Marvin Heir, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

The idea for the list, he said, came out of how mainstream the slurs have become.

“We began with a nice few hundredsof the typical suspects: Hamas, Hezbollah, the American Neo-Nazi party — the typical groups that always hate Jews, but then, in a wider search, we were startled that you didn’t need to go near the lunatic fringe,” he said. “There were 40 or 50 mainstream people that no one would suspect of harboring such feelings.”

“We wanted to show that when you’re looking for haters of Jews, they’re right near you,” Rabbi Hier explained. “They’re advisors to prime ministers and in close proximity to the U.S. President … What has previously been mouthed by Goebbels, Hitler and Stalin is now in the mouths of mainstream Americans and Europeans in power.”

The number one spot was easily taken by longtime Hearst journalist Helen Thomas, who resigned when she was quoted as saying “Jews should get the hell out of Palestine.” Not to be outdone, she made a second comment at an Arab event in Detroit.

“Congress, the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street are owned by Zionists,” Thomas said. “They put their money where their mouth is.”

Rabbi Hier said that Thomas was an easy choice for the number one slot.

“Who’s in the position of more influence… A person that knew every president since JFK,” Rabbi Hier said. “Who would have dreamed she harbored such ill will? Everyone kibbitzed with her at the White House,… She was treated as the queen in terms of the press. To be in proximity to power all these years is a long time to be harboring such feelings.”