Jewish Groups Slam UK Celebrity for Offensive Remarks Likening Jewish Women to Witches

“His remarks are deeply offensive and insensitive to religiously observant Orthodox Jewish women,” the Anti-Defamation League told The Algemeiner on Monday. “He should have known better than to invoke the comparison, and we hope he retracts it quickly and apologizes to those he offended. ”

McIntosh, a British TV personality and actor who starred in the UK’s Celebrity Big Brother, made the remark on Sunday while commenting on the appearance of “two Orthodox Jewish women” he saw remove their wigs during a flight. He wrote in a Facebook post that the women had “short hair as if butchered off with a rusty space” under their wigs, and asked, “Does anyone know what the point in this is?”

“With those bald heads and the way they are dressed they look like a pair of witches from Roald Dahls Witches gonna seriously scare kids or grown ups like me,” he wrote. “In fact I’ve got it they don’t want outsiders mixing with their woman[sic]! And the trick 110% works damn those guys are smart.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of The Simon Wiesenthal Center, said he believes McIntosh “obviously feels that a body-building regimen and tattoos make him attractive to women and in turn he can only relate to women through their physical attributes.” He then called the reality star “clueless” about those living a “Torah values-oriented life, wherein sexuality is a private matter between a man and his wife.”

“I wouldn’t label him an anti-Semite on this incident, just someone who is completely clueless about a values system about sexuality that is beyond his comprehension,” he added. “One suggestion for the future: If the sheitel [wig] thing confuses him — don’t look next time.”

McIntosh’s social media followers also attacked him for his Facebook post, The Huffington Post reported. Some users tried explaining that it is part of Jewish culture for women to cover their hair, which only their husbands may see in private. One woman called his comments anti-Semitic, saying, “You can rest assured an orthodox Jewish woman would not mix with you even if u pranced around in your shortest short shorts lol so your opinion of them means nothing.”

McIntosh replied, “Heyyyyyyy I posses all the qualities women need in a man and more p.s $10 there gonna be after me by the end of the flight.” He also denied his comments were offensive. “How is what I said racist lol! I’m asking a question plus the woman in particular did look like genuine characters from witches,” he wrote.