A Jewish charity has defended JK Rowling after a US comedian claimed that the depiction of goblins in her Harry Potter books was anti-Semitic.
Jon Stewart slammed the author over the goblins that run Gringotts bank in her Harry Potter series on his podcast, The Problem with Jon Stewart.
Stewart, who is Jewish, questioned why Rowling chose to 'throw Jews in there to run the f***ing underground bank' in a fictional world where people 'can ride dragons and have pet owls'.
However, Dave Rich, director of policy at Jewish charity the Community Security Trust, told MailOnline that Rowling had been 'very supportive' of the Jewish community.
He said: 'JK Rowling has been very supportive of the Jewish community in recent years and tweeted repeatedly against antisemitism, so it is hard to imagine that she used anti-semitic caricatures in her books. Sometimes a goblin is just a goblin.'
Mr Rich did note, however, that there might be something 'subliminal' in her depiction, suggesting that 'subconscious anti-Semitism' in society over the years may have led to characters like goblins taking on 'anti-semitic caricatures' in their appearance.
Comedian David Baddiel added: 'The goblins in Harry Potter need to be seen not in a simplistic #teamRowling vs #antiteamRowling way but in a many-centuries long, deeply subconsciously embedded cultural context.'
Fans also defended the author, suggesting that her depiction of the goblins was typical of the fantasy genre, with the likes of JRR Tolkien and Terry Pratchett making similar descriptions.
One said today: 'Goblins were described and depicted like that decades before Rowling. So if those activists have problems with how goblins are depicted - they should cancel fantasy books and mythos that existed before.'
Another added: 'You would have to tar all fantasy writers such as Tolkien and artists, who have portrayed goblins in exactly the same light since the 19th Century. In most fantasy and children's writings they are almost always portrayed as mean, hoarders of gold and jewels with the same features.'
Jewish fans were also quick to note that the author constantly called out anti-Semitism in recent years.
Jon Stewart (pictured), who is Jewish, questioned why Rowling chose to 'throw Jews in there to run the f***ing underground bank' in a fictional world where people 'can ride dragons and have pet owls'
Stewart characterized the goblins as an obvious anti-Semitic trope, and questioned why more people haven't done the same. Pictured is a movie still from the first Harry Potter film
Goblins in Lord of the Rings. Fans also defended the author, suggesting that her depiction of the goblins was typical of the fantasy genre, with the likes of JRR Tolkien and Terry Pratchett making similar descriptions.
Jewish fans were also quick to note that the author constantly called out anti-Semitism in recent years
However, some fans pointed out that Rowling's depiction of goblins was consistent with how they had been depicted in fantasy for years, such as in the works of JRR Tolkien
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Rowling was a frequent critic of Jeremy Corbyn during his leadership of the Labour Party and also refused to join a cultural boycott of Israel.
In 2018, she criticised anti-Semitism in Britain on several occasions, prompting one Jewish journalist to tweet: 'There's a strong case that no single person has done more to raise international awareness of the anti-Semitism faced today by British Jews from the far-left than @jk_rowling. She's not only spotlighted it, but used her skills to explain it to 14 million followers. Remarkable.'
Others noted that Rowling's original sketch of goblins was significantly different to the movie depiction of the creatures, which Warner Brothers are behind.
Stewart, 59, said the banker goblin characters in the author's famous book series are based on caricatures of Jews from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an infamous anti-semitic text that purports to show a Jewish plan for world domination.
'Here's how you know Jews are still where they are,' Stewart said in the episode before bemoaning how those who he's spoken to have been reluctant to acknowledge the resemblance.
'I just want to show you a caricature. And they're like, 'Oh, look at that, that's from Harry Potter!' And you're like, 'No, that's a caricature of a Jew from an antisemitic piece of literature.' J.K. Rowling was like, 'Can we get these guys to run our bank?''
When he first saw the Harry Potter films, Stewart said he expected other theater patrons to 'be like 'h*** shit, she did not, in a wizarding world, to just throw Jews in there to run the f***ing underground bank.' And everybody was just like 'Wizards.''
However, some pointed out how Rowling's goblins simply reflect the way the creatures are typically depicted in media.
JRR Tolkien and Terry Pratchett's works both contained goblins, with their description similar to Rowling's.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: 'The portrayal of the goblins in the Harry
