The University of Pennsylvania was embroiled in another scandal following October 7: communication school lecturer Dwayne Booth was attacked for a political cartoon that critics said was antisemitic.
One of Booth’s illustrations, titled “Slaughterhouse,” shows Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with glowing red eyes, covered in blood and holding a knife.
The controversial image was published on Booth’s personal website, crowncrack.com, where he used the pseudonym Mr. Fish.
In other cartoons, Israeli and American men can be seen drinking blood from wine glasses marked “Gaza”; it has been criticized as a reference to the blood libel — Nazi propaganda that claimed Jews used the blood of Christian children in religious ceremonies. One particularly distressing image titled “Executioner’s Song” shows a baby with a gun — stamped with an Israeli flag — held to his head.
There is also an illustration, “Never Again and Again and Again,” which appears to show an emaciated Jew during the Holocaust holding a poster protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza. Another, “Birth of a New Nation,” shows a skeletal hand tearing up an Israeli flag.
Outrage over Booth’s cartoon inspired Penn interim president J. Larry Jameson to issue a statement calling the cartoon “reprehensible,” while reaffirming educators’ academic freedom.
In one disturbing cartoon, Booth — under the pseudonym Mr. Fish — depicts a baby with an Israeli-branded gun pointed at his head. Dwayne Booth/clowncracked.com Booth teaches two courses at the University of Pennsylvania on cartooning.
Booth is a lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication, where he teaches political cartooning. According to the Annenberg website, he currently teaches two courses: “WARNING! Graphic Content: Political Cartoons, Comics, and Artists Without Censorship” and “Pain and Satire: The Madness of Humor and How It Keeps Us Healthy.”
Raphael Englander, an 18-year-old Penn freshman from Philadelphia, submitted an op-ed to the student newspaper about the controversy, writing that, although “the content of Booth’s class was really interesting,” he would not be able to take the class after seeing Booth’s cartoon.
Cartoonist Dwayne Booth is a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania’s school of communication. Annenberg School for Communication
“As the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, I cannot understand this course now,” he wrote. “How can I? His work simultaneously spread the conspiracy that murdered my own family members and mocked their memory by confusing the Jewish state to their murders.”
The Daily Pennsylvanian’s editorial team rejected Englander’s submission, citing the word limit, and plans to publish a similar opinion piece on the topic, in an email reviewed by The Post.
The Post was unable to locate the referenced section. The Daily Pennsylvanian did not respond to a request for comment.
Booth depicted Benjamin Netanyahu as a butcher holding a Palestinian flag in one cartoon. Dwayne Booth/clowncracked.com
Englander said that, although he “refuses to address antisemitism on our campus in general,” Booth’s cartoons made him feel like “flipping a switch.”
“I was outraged and saddened that a lecturer at my university created and shared an antisemitic cartoon,” Englander, a Jewish Studies major, told The Post. “Although I feel safe on campus, I have many friends and acquaintances who do not feel safe, and there are many, concrete examples of antisemitism – including this cartoon, the latest.”
Booth’s faculty profile describes him as a freelance cartoonist and writer.
Critics say this cartoon by the professor promotes the antisemitic trope of blood libel. Dwayne Booth/clowncracked.com
“Dwayne Booth writes and speaks about the importance of maintaining political cartoons as a unique universal language that often has a greater ability to spark debate and probe deeper conversations than language commentary alone,” it reads.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Booth has been a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania since 2014, and also served as an adjunct professor at Barnard College and Columbia University in 2017.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the University of Pennsylvania referred The Post to Interim president Jameson’s Feb. 4 statement posted to the university’s Instagram account.
In one cartoon, Booth depicted an emaciated Holocaust victim holding a Free Palestine poster. Dwayne Booth/clowncracked.com
“I meet [Booth’s cartoons] reprehensible, with antisemitic symbols, and incompatible with our efforts to combat hate,” Jameson wrote. “For me, it is painful to see the suffering and tragic loss of non-combatants in Israel and Gaza being satirized.”
In the statement, Jameson explained that the cartoon was posted to Booth’s personal website and was not seen in class, and referenced efforts to combat antisemitism on campus.
After October 7, the University of Pennsylvania was dragged down for its inadequate response to campus antisemitism, leading to the resignation of former president Liz Magill.
Campus buildings at the University of Pennsylvania had pro-Palestinian messages projected onto them last semester. Free Penn Police A campus sign was graffitied with “Free Palestine” in December.
In recent months, protesters on campus have chanted “We are Hamas,” while signs have read “Free Palestine” and “from the river to the sea” displayed on building facades.
Jewish students even sued the university for failing to protect them, citing violations of the Civil Rights Act. At the time of the filing Penn declined to comment, and the case was later dismissed by the Department of Education.
Jameson, appointed in December following Magill’s resignation, affirmed Booth’s right to free speech while condemning the cartoon.
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Former school president Liz Magill resigned after her testimony about campus antisemitism in Congress drew harsh criticism. Reuters
“At Penn, we have a fundamental commitment to open expression and academic freedom,” he wrote. “We also have a responsibility to challenge things we find offensive, and to do so by acknowledging the right and ability of our community members to express their views, however repugnant we find them.”
In response to Jameson’s statement, Booth told The Post: “It just saddens me that Jameson’s statement attempts to defuse the controversy out of respect for those who are trying to limit free speech, academic freedom, and attack independent journalism in pursuit of an agenda designed to shut down debate. encourage it.”
He also said that he did not “see how any of my work propagates any conspiracy at all.”
“There is a misreading of the artwork in question if the viewer sees it as a direct parody of what happened in Nazi Germany,” Booth wrote. “That said, I would say that the only comparison that can be made between the actions of Israel and the actions of Germany in the 1930s and 40s is that both Germany and Israel carried out the same campaign of genocide of defenseless civilians. This is by no means a rogue opinion, and I am not the only one who uses history to point out comparable details that can be useful for the debate on current issues happening in Gaza.”
Penn Interim President J. Larry Jameson called Booth’s cartoon “reprehensible.” Karen Gowen Photography/Penn Medicine
In a public statement, the professor insisted that his provocative cartoons were part of a long-standing tradition of provocation.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve felt some warm responses to the work I’ve done, nor is it unique to me,” Booth wrote on his personal Instagram on February 3. literally, for centuries … Continue, as always, in the name of Truth, Justice, and Love.”
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