Galliano (Getty)

Anti-Semitism is out of style at Parsons.

Students at The New School of Design are angrily protesting the schools’ controversial new hire: designer John Galliano, the notorious deliverer of a hateful, pro-Hitler tirade in 2011.

The world-renowned design college has reportedly hired Mr. Galliano to teach a short workshop on “emotion” this May. Upon hearing the news, an anonymous group took to Change.org to start a petition that would block the designer from teaching at the school. 

“This is a person who was fired from Dior for his anti-Semitic remarks, who Natalie Portman refused to work with because of his remarks, so why is Parsons The New School for Design hiring him?” the petition demands.

“[Parsons] plans to hire John Galliano for a 3-day workshop,” the petition continues, “It doesn't matter if its for three months or three days, hiring someone who has made such horrific comments shows that the school values Galliano over their entire Jewish student body. It shows they value him over their students' respect, peace of mind, and heritage.” The petition later likens the hiring of Mr. Galliano to hiring a member of the KKK.

Supporters of the petition angrily voiced their disgust with Mr. Galliano. Most commenters were students, disgraced and offended that their school would hire an instructor with his track record.

“As president of the Jewish Student Union (the oldest and largest club on-campus), I am shocked that The New School hired John Galliano,” one Jennifer Kaplan commented on the petition’s webpage.

“I find it appalling that a known Anti-Semite like John Galliano could be hired to teach at The New School,” wrote Alex Goldblum, a Parsons alumnus. “I am demanding his immediate termination.”

The petition was supported by Parsons parents, too.

“My in-laws are survivors and lost their parents and many relatives in the Holocaust,” wrote Sally Baerman, whose daughter is a Parsons freshman. "Galliano, who debases himself with anti-Semitism, is NOT an instructor that is worthy of educating students ~ no matter how talented he may be.”

Mr. Galliano made headlines in 2011, when his anti-Semitic rant in a Paris cafe was caught on tape. “I love Hitler,” Mr. Galliano says in the video. “People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers, would all be f------ gassed.” Following his actions, the designer was promptly fired from Christian Dior.

Mr. Galliano made waves again last Fashion Week, when he stepped out in a questionably-offensive outfit that channeled Hasidic Jewish garb.

Still, the school stands by its decision. 

"The planned master class with John Galliano will be a dynamic and intimate opportunity for our students to learn from an immensely talented designer," a statement released by Parsons read.

"We believe that over the past two years Galliano has demonstrated a serious intent to make amends for his past actions, and as part of this workshop, Parsons students will have the opportunity to engage in a frank conversation with Mr. Galliano about the challenges and complications of leading a design house in the 21st century."

The  petition aims to collect 500 signatures. Stay tuned to find out if Mr. Galliano will be permitted to walk the runway, or whether the school will decide he’s simply out of fashion.

Update: An earlier version of this story said the petition was started by an anonymous group of Parsons students started the petition. It is not known whether they are students.

Apparently, suggesting that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are puppets manipulated by neocon puppet masters can be taken the wrong way. Critics (like Jeffery Goldberg in The Atlantic) allege that the imagery plays into old anti-Semitic stereotypes.

But what about the other imagery lurking in Ms. Dowd’s column? Let’s take a look.

Snakes:

Neocons Slither Back

Culinary:

“Paul Ryan has not sautéed in foreign policy in his years on Capitol Hill.”

Puppets:

“Ryan was moving his mouth, but the voice was the neocon puppet master Dan Senor.”

“Before he played ventriloquist to Ryan, Senor did the same for Romney, ratcheting up the candidate’s irresponsible bellicosity on the Middle East.”

Colonial:

“The clueless desert viceroys summarily disbanded the Iraqi Army…”

Voltaire:

“…. and misled reporters with their Panglossian scenarios of progress. (Dr. Pangloss is the overly optimistic tutor in Candide).

Folksy:

“…when Mittens infuriated the Palestinians by making a chuckleheaded claim about their culture.”

Winter sports:

“Senor got out over his skis before Romney’s speech in Jerusalem…”

Fruit:

“Republicans are bananas on this one.”

Maritime:

“They blame Obama for casting Hosni Mubarak overboard…”

Birds:

One minute Romney parrots Bibi Netanyahu’s position on Iran, the next Obama’s.

"No fair-minded reading of Maureen Dowd's column supports the allegations you and others are making. She makes no reference, direct or implied, to anyone's religion," New York Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal told Politico.

Maybe. But Maureen Dowd does make lots of references. One of them is bound to offend someone at some point.

Elmo. (Jason O. Watson/Getty Images)

It may be a “Sunny day (where) everything’s A-Ok” on Sesame Street but New York City apparently draws a slightly tougher crowd.

On Sunday afternoon, police officials escorted childhood icon Elmo (or, rather, an Elmo impersonator) out of Central Park on a stretcher headed for psychological evaluation at Metropolitan Hospital Center, the Times reported. Although we would normally expect a chorus of sobs from the children witnessing such a site, this Elmo had ruffled enough feathers with his anti-semetic and xenophobic jabs that bystanders were more than willing to say ‘good riddance!’

On Tuesday afternoon, according to The Times, the man in the suit, who calls himself Adam Sandler (perhaps alluding to his self-acclaimed 'comedic' talents), returned to his post in the park after being released from psychological evaluation earlier that morning.

"I'm sort of sneaking back in," he told The Times.

He additionally informed them of his background, recounting his creation of a pornographic site called "Welcome to Rape Camp" in Cambodia, resulting in his deportation from the country in 1999.

He told The Times that upon arrival to the US, he purchased an Elmo costume online with hopes of joining the forces of character impersonators that color Times Square day in and day out. These impersonators are unaffiliated with the Sesame Street Workshop, the producers of "Sesame Street," said in a statement.

Several YouTube videos documenting Elmo’s less than subtle rants were released on Monday, appalling many: “If you start your own business in this city, Jews will harass you!” he exclaimed in one.

As Elmo shouted, “I work for John Gotti,” (followed by a chain of profanities) in a tunnel near the Central Park Zoo, a clown donning a white coat, decorated with red hearts stepped out of his own friendly role to chastise his ‘fellow’ impersonator.

“What’s your problem … do I look like I’m playing with you, Elmo?” said the clown in a Blockbuster-style confrontation.

Now, obviously the angry shouts of Elmo and a clown echoing through a Central Park tunnel are bound to attract laughter – and that they did.

“Elmos around New York say they recognized the man from previous clashes,” reported The Times. They also reported that he would discourage people from taking photos with other costumed characters because they were ‘illegal immigrants.’

While the Elmos of Times Square would often steer clear of this specific impersonator while he roamed the streets, many impersonators declined to comment today when asked how they felt about the troublemaker being removed once and for all. Many of them responded, “I don’t speak English,” while continually pointing to their tip bags hanging around their necks. Others just shook their heads when asked for an opinion; one man in a Buzz Lightyear costume on 44^th and 7^th seemed especially upset, echoing a chorus of repeated “No’s” as he walked away.

This is not the first character impersonator infraction the news has seen: the LA Times reported on violent characters (specifically a pedestrian-slugging SpiderMan and a head-butting Chewbacca) in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater near Hollywood Boulevard in 2009 and 2007 respectively.

Whatever the case, the Elmos of New York can now walk a little easier. One thing’s certain: NY tourists will take heed next time they ask, “how to get to Sesame Street.”

The Nazis have begun their liquidation of Lvov, randomly murdering Jews for the sport of it and trucking away thousands to concentration camps. Here is a time and place of torture and death where everyone steals from everyone else to stay alive and nobody can be trusted—especially a sour and burly hamhock of a sewer worker and petty thief named Leopold Socha. Between robberies, he one day encountered some Polish Jews trying to escape from the ghetto before the Gestapo found them. For a price, he showed them how to climb down from a hole in the street into the murk and foul-smelling slime of the underground tunnels. Living with rats, eating a raw onion if they were lucky, separating from their families, giving birth to children surrounded by excrement, they miraculously survived for 14 months. When their money ran out, this accidental hero and his hardened, calloused wife above ground somehow discovered a conscience they didn’t know they had and protected their “children of war” from one near-fatal mishap after the next. In time, the lives of dependants and reluctant saviors alike intertwine with such inspired candor and force that the ensemble cast literally takes on the souls of the characters. They are so real that after a while you forget you are watching actors at all. This is especially true of Robert Wieckiewicz, an expressive and celebrated stage star in Poland who does wonders depicting the conflicting moral and religious instincts of Socha, a tough, emotionally detached sewer inspector and predatory crook whose criminal instinct for self-protection was betrayed by his new-found empathy for the disenfranchised. Only a handful of his Jews came through the ordeal alive, but the real Socha has since been honored for his humanitarian efforts, along with other brave Poles who altered human destiny by saving persecuted Jews from the gas chambers—specifically Oskar Schindler.

Warsaw-born director Holland, whose native epics about World War II, such as Europa, Europa, have always surpassed her more commercial English-speaking work (The Secret Garden, Washington Square), does such a thorough job depicting authenticity that the filth and degradation of the claustrophobic sewer eventually get to you. There’s an actual childbirth and the smothering of a baby I could not watch, as well as a deathly flood that proves to be an act of betrayal. It is to the credit of a sound screenplay by David Shamoon that the film carefully balances the fear and selfishness of the victims without sentimentality. Neither Socha nor the Jews are angels. Some of them are despicable on both sides of the equation. Without overdoing the atrocities, Ms. Holland attempts to illustrate the many cruel aspects of war’s effects on its victims as well as its perpetrators. The title is apropos, because most of the film submerges the viewer into a labyrinthine subterranean blackness that makes it difficult to share the experiences. We squint to watch them, and struggle to feel the sexual and emotional attractions that keep their minds from closing the bridge to insanity.

In Darkness is gloomy and hard to take for a running time of 145 minutes, but it’s an important film, related with deep conviction, and uncompromising in its understanding of the remarkable things members of the human race have done—to, for, and against each other—in the wilderness of war.

rreed@observer.com

IN DARKNESS

Running Time 145 minutes

Written by David F. Shamoon

Directed by Agnieszka Holland

Starring Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Fürmann and Agnieszka Grochowska

3.5/4

Three cars were set ablaze in Midwood last weekend. Vandals painted swastikas on park benches. The letters “KKK” was spray-painted on a van. These unspeakable acts of hatred were carried out in a quiet community home to many Jews, some of them Holocaust survivors.

The crimes are outrageous, but clearly not uncommon. A survey by the Anti-Defamation League shows that New York State (not just the city) had the second-highest number of anti-Semitic hate crimes in the nation last year.

Residents gathered on Sunday in a show of solidarity against those who sought to terrorize them. But solidarity isn’t enough. A full investigation is in order, and Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has promised just that. Mr. Hynes clearly gets it­—he said he believed it was no coincidence that the vandalism was carried out to coincide with the anniversary of Kristallnacht.

No wonder, then, that many residents admit that they’re more than a little frightened. “Any place where the Jewish people are, they’re scared,” one resident told the media.

That, of course, is outrageous and unacceptable. All the more reason why the bigots should be caught and prosecuted as quickly as possible. No Jew—no person of any creed, color, or sexual orientation—should live in fear in New York City. People come here to escape fear, not to have their fears realized.

The residents of Midwood should know that the City of New York stands with them and has nothing but contempt for the bigots who defaced their community.