The Comment Miley Cyrus Made About Old Jewish Men That's Being Seen in the Jewish Press as Insulting

A seemingly derogatory comment about 70-year-old Jewish men made by Miley Cyrus last week is being described in the American Jewish and Israeli press as an anti-Semitic slur.

In an interview with the website Hunger TV, Cyrus described herself as making her often controversial career choices on her own, sometimes in defiance of her professional music industry handlers.

“With magazines, with movies, it’s always weird when things are targeted for young people yet they’re driven by people that are like 40 years too old,” Cyrus said.

The interview Miley Cyrus gave the website Hunger is making waves on Jewish and Israeli websites (Image: Screenshot HungerTV.com)

“It can’t be like this 70 year old Jewish man that doesn’t leave his desk all day, telling me what the clubs want to hear. I’m going out, I know what they want to hear,” she said.

“I know when you’re in a club, what makes everyone go crazy and when the time is where everyone’s like ‘alright I’m going go get a drink.’ I know when people walk off the dance floor and I know what’s driving it so I’ve got to be the one doing it because they’re just not in on what 20 year olds are doing,” Cyrus added.

The interview is getting prominent play on Jewish and Israeli websites. Here are some choice headlines:

• “Cyrus Takes Aim at ‘Old Jews’” (Ynet)
• “Miley Cyrus Knows Better than Old Jewish Men” (The Forward)
• “Miley Cyrus doesn’t want a 70-year-old Jewish man telling her what to do” (Jewish Telegraphic Agency/JTA)
• “Miley Cyrus vs. 70-Year-Old Jewish Men” (The Times of Israel)

Hebrew sites were loose with the translation, as in Mako’s headline, “Miley Cyrus: I Won’t Listen to Some 70-Year-Old Jew.”

Israel’s The Marker writes writes, “Finished Licking Hammers, Now Let’s Insult Jews," referring to her latest music video “Wrecking Ball” in which Cyrus appears nude and licks a hammer.

Haaretz seemed to summarize the sentiment most were driving at: “Another Scandal around Miley Cyrus: This Time an Anti-Semitic Statement.”

“It seems impossible that Miley Cyrus could put her foot in her mouth, what with that enormous tongue she’s always sticking out taking up so much room in there. Somehow, though, the pop star has gone and done exactly that,” writes JTA.

The Forward writes, “Miley Cyrus’ tongue has gotten its fair share of press lately. But the former ‘Hannah Montana’ tween-star turned pro-twerker is now getting attention for something she actually said…Miley complained about record executives being too old to know what’s what. And who does she blame? Old Jewish men.”

“As the video for ‘Wrecking Ball’ broke YouTube viewing records in 24 hours — with 208,578,360 views as of Thursday morning — maybe she has a point. But really, why bring Jews into it?” it adds.

In contrast with the other coverage, the Tablet’s Liel Liebovitz had a different take. “Let us not, however, alert the Anti-Defamation League quite yet: Cyrus is nothing but a compulsive tinkerer with her own image, and her hip hop phase, one imagines and hopes, won’t last long."

“When she emerges from it, in a few years, her mind too mature and her hips too stiff for anything too obviously suggestive, she may come to recognize the beautiful irony in having set out to be authentic like the kids in the clubs but ending up as an aging Jewish record executive herself,” he adds.

This may yet be another publicity stunt. When asked by Hunger TV about her bottom line message, “What do you want to say to the world – coming straight from Miley,” the provocateur didn’t mince words.

“Buy my f***ing album…now,” she said.

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