Dov Hikind, a former NY state assemblyman and founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, organized the protest, stressing in an invite to the event on social media that NBC needs to be told that "antisemitism is NEVER funny."
Protesters chanted "Shame on NBC!" and "Antisemitism is not funny!" outside the network's West 49th Street entrance, according to the newspaper.
Activists and organizations have expressed outrage at the joke by comedian Michael Che, who stated during the Weekend Update segment of SNL that "Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population. I’m going to guess it’s the Jewish half."
"It’s amazing that they have not apologized yet," Hikind said to the Post. “They did something so egregious, so horrible; I’m personally sick and tired of a major network like NBC indulging in spreading hate. That’s basically what they did.”
“I’m not going to be silent about this stuff that really endangers the Jewish people,” added Hikind.
Please join me in sending @nbcsnl a simple message: Antisemitism is NEVER Funny! DATE: This Sat. night, Feb 27 @ 9PM ESTLOCATION: NBC-SNL HQ "30 ROCK" 49 W. 49 St., NY, NYNo one needs to get cancelled but lots of people need to get educated about Jew-hate.#EducateDontCancel pic.twitter.com/Vo2Rps3kRq
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) February 24, 2021
In the invite to the event, Hikind stressed that "no one needs to get cancelled but lots of people need to get educated about Jew-hate." In a video on Twitter, he said that "we are going to NBC to educate, not to crucify anybody. We are going there to say 'this is not funny.'"