KOREAN ANTISEMITISM
Books, Bars and K-Pop
RM of K-Pop group BTS wearing Nazi insignia, The Korea Times
This post is part of a continuing examination of worldwide antisemitism. Donald Trump’s rants about his lack of Jewish support and Elon Musk’s Nazi salute make this issue increasingly urgent.
In 2015, a Samsung subsidiary posted online cartoons that portrayed Paul Singer, a Jewish hedge fund manager, as a vulture with a large beak. South Korean media had blamed Jews for attempting to block a Samsung merger. One publication wrote that “Jews are known to wield enormous power on Wall Street and in global financial circles,” and that it is a “well-known fact that the US government is swayed by Jewish capital.” Jewish money, it reported, “has long been known to be ruthless and merciless.” Samsung removed the cartoons after Jewish groups protested.
A 2014 Anti-Defamation League (ADL) survey found that more than half of South Koreans agreed with the statements that, “Jews have too much power in the business world,” “Jews have too much control over the global media,” and “Jews have too much control over global affairs.” The ADL concluded that South Korea had by far the highest concentration of antisemitic beliefs in South Asia.
There are only a few hundred Jews in South Korea, including US military and representatives of foreign companies, out of a population of about 50 million. Koreans may have first learned of Judaism in the late 18th century, when Christian missionaries arrived with the Hebrew Bible. Christianity spread widely in Korea in the late 19th century.
As in China, Jews are considered exceptionally intelligent; Koreans marvel at the high percentage of Jews who have won the Nobel Prize. Korean versions of the Talmud are marketed as self-help guides, books of Jewish wisdom and educational children’s books. Korean newspapers feature regular columns on Jewish education, television stations air documentaries on Judaism and students in Korean schools engage in “Talmudic debates.”
Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church, was born in Korea. The Church has proclaimed that Jews lost their status as the chosen people after Moon became the new Messiah. Moon has stated that Jewish victims of the Holocaust were paying indemnity for the crucifixion of Jesus.
According to Christopher L. Schilling’s article in Modern Judaism, bars throughout South Korea have featured Nazi themes, including the “Adolf Hitler Techno Bar & Cocktail Show” in Busan and a bar called “Third Reich,” decorated in Nazi style, in Seoul. South Korean television has aired an advertisement for a popular candy with one of the country’s most popular comics posing as an angry Hitler who, after taking a bite, positively changes his mood. The Seoul subway once carried an ad for a popular online community that showed a man dressed in leather Nazi garb with the slogan: “We just want masters.”
K-Pop groups also have embraced Nazi themes. The girl group Pritz performed in Nazi-like costumes and RM, a member of the group BTS, was photographed wearing a hat bearing the SS death’s head symbol. Sowon, of the girl group GFriend, posted a picture of herself next to a mannequin in Nazi clothing.
Antisemitism is part of a more general trend toward racism and xenophobia in South Korea. According to a 2010–2014 World Values Survey, 44.2 percent of South Koreans reported they would not want a foreigner as a neighbor. A 2016 BBC poll of several different countries found that South Korea had the highest percentage of people who stated that race was the most important factor defining national identity. In his Modern Judaism article, Schilling concludes:
What South Korea needs is emancipation from the idea that the Jewish people are different from other human beings in any way. Only then will it be able to act effectively and meaningfully in today’s world. Many South Koreans, overwhelmed by modernization, are seduced by empty and grotesque generalizations about the Jewish people as being much smarter and more powerful than other humans. This mythical view, formed in the minds of many Koreans about a group of people they have almost never encountered, does not actually help to explain a faster and more confusing world. A good starting point from which to begin fixing this problem would be the South Korean educational system, which seems rather broken. With its rote memorizations and the lack of any analytical thinking, it is in the process of further creating stereotypes about the Jews. Thinking analytically, and creating a world-view that harmonizes with the facts surrounding us, rather than simply memorizing ideas, is certainly a hard task for anyone, Korean or not. But, as Koreans say, “Go-saeng Ggeut-eh naki eun-da – at the end of hardship comes happiness.” And more happiness is what South Korea certainly needs.
Sources:
"Jewish Seoul: An Analysis of Philo- and Antisemitism in South Korea, " Christopher L. Schilling, Modern Judaism, vol. 38 no. 2, 2018, p. 183-197.
“When antisemitism and philosemitism go hand in hand: attitudes to Jews in contemporary East Asia,” Rotem Kowner, Mary J. Ainslie and Guy Podoler, Patterns of Prejudice, published online April 18, 2024
“The ADL Global 100: Index of Antisemitism,” Anti-Defamation League, January 2025