After facing criticism on social media, the Russian propagandist stated that she shared the joke not to ridicule the war in Israel and Jews. Once again, Russian propaganda has «hit rock bottom» — this time, propagandist Lisa Lazerson told a joke about dead Jewish infants.
While hosting a show with journalist Alexey Venediktov, the host of «The Living Nail» decided to share a joke comparing dead Jewish children to concrete. She remarked that the only difference between them was that you can’t unload concrete with a pitchfork.
This incident occurred during a live broadcast to support the channel, where its employees were raising money for its continuation. Social media users were outraged by such «humor» and understandably linked the joke to the Hamas war against Israel.
It is worth noting that Lisa Lazerson is a Russian journalist who, at a certain stage of her career, worked as the press secretary for Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky. Currently, the latter serves as an assistant to Vladimir Putin.
Shortly after the scandal, Lazerson apologized for the joke about dead Jewish children. According to her, the context was unclear in the excerpt circulated on social media because she purportedly intended not to mock the war in Israel but to provide an example of a non-humorous anti-Semitic joke.
«I shared this joke as an example of Soviet anti-Semitism because it is a real joke from the 70s, one of the jokes of ‘black humor.’ And I thought it would be perceived as a mockery of the anti-Semitism that is re-emerging today, which we all see. It was an attempt to fight against it because the joke was not funny, and it was told in the context that I hate jokes,» she added.
Shortly after this, Venediktov suspended Lazerson from the broadcasts until the end of the year, to which the propagandist announced that she would not return to «The Living Nail,» which, according to her, was her only job.