A number of people contacted ADL about a syndicated editorial cartoon by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's David Horsey, which plays on the New Testament story of the Prodigal Son. The concerns center around the cartoonist's portrayal of the "federal government" as a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke.

In response to concerns that the image was anti-Semitic, the cartoonist has since altered the image by removing the yarmulke.  He explained on his blog that he realized that the imagery was a mistake and that it was not intended as a comment about Jews.  Horsey said he "...realized that one little detail in my cartoon -- the yarmulke -- had clearly identified the characters as Jews, not as mere ancient residents of the Middle East. It was a dumb, thoughtless, unnecessary addition that was easily remedied."

Horsey has made clear that the cartoon was meant to be a comment on the federal home loan crisis, and was never intended as a comment about Jews.

While the altered version of the cartoon appears in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Web site and was redistributed through the syndicate, many newspapers had run the original cartoon before he published his response.

ADL's letter to Horsey in response to the controversy follows: