The Jewish Defense League has just received advanced copy of an outrageous B.C. comic strip set to run on (Easter) Sunday, April 15, 2001 in most major newspapers across America. We find nothing funny about Johnny Hart's text and artwork. In fact, we find it highly crude, insulting and an example of outright Jew-hatred.

JDL chairman Irv Rubin is asking every JDL member and supporter to immediately contact his or her local newspaper that publishes B.C. and appeal to the editor not to allow this insult to be printed next weekend. B.C. is pushing Replacement Theology (the theory that Christianity has replaced Judaism as "The Chosen" because the Jews do not accept Jesus as messiah) down the throats of the readers -- many of them children -- of the Sunday comics. As the candles burn, the menorah (a sacred and venerated symbol of the Jewish people) is obliterated and turns into a cross (the symbol of Christianity).

Spread the word. Ask your friends and relatives to ask their newspapers to pull Johnny Hart's B.C. from next Sunday's newspaper. Please do it today!

To those who might say that Hart has a First Amendment right to have his comic strip published, they should be reminded that this is not a First Amendment issue. The First Amendment bars the GOVERNMENT from censoring speech. Private publications have NO innate duty to publish any views; indeed they have the responsibility to publish factual and decent material. The above comic strip is an affront to the Jewish people. It is telling Christians to destroy our religion in the name of Jesus. Contact your newspaper and demand the omission of B.C. from next Sunday's newspaper. Do it in memory of every Jew who has died as a result of Christian persecution.