Weekly Kibbitz
Are the Goblins in ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ Antisemitic?
“Hogwarts Legacy,” which has become
the best-selling game on Steam,
the world’s most popular vendor for
computer games.

While there have been Harry Potter
games in the past, this is the fi rst major
studio video game from Avalanche
Software, a subsidiary of Warner Bros.

Games. It lands several years after the
depiction of goblins in Harry Potter
books and movies elicited criticism.

Comedian Pete Davidson criticized
author J.K. Rowling on “Saturday Night
Live” in 2020 for creating a world in
which “little giant-nosed Jew goblins”
control the banks.

And in a podcast episode in 2021,
comedian Jon Stewart said: “You can
ride dragons, and you’ve got a pet
owl, and who should run the banks?
Jews.” Those accusations have resurfaced.

Jack Doyle, a writer for The Mary Sue,
a publication that describes itself as
“the geek girl’s guide to the universe,”
wrote that the video game “revives the
antisemitic trope.”
He added that “the game seems to be
of the opinion that the ‘moral’ choice is
to crush the [goblin] rebellions, thereby
returning goblins to subjugation.”
Dobby at the Warner Bros. Studio
Tour London: “The Making of
Harry Potter”
‘A World Lots of People Love’
Following Stewart’s comments, the
U.K.’s Campaign Against Antisemitism
said in a statement that “the portrayal
of the goblins in the Harry Potter series
is of a piece with their portrayal in
Western literature as a whole” and
“is a testament more to centuries of
Christendom’s antisemitism than it is
to malice by contemporary artists. So
it is with JK Rowling, who has proven
herself over recent years to be a tireless
defender of the Jewish community.”
Travis Northup, who wrote a glowing
review of the game for IGN — a popular
video-game journalism website — said
he didn’t think that the game’s premise
echoed an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

“The story does not depict a cabal
of bank-controlling goblins trying to
take over the world,” he wrote in a
Twitter direct message. “It’s about
one particular goblin rebelling against
the Wizarding World’s insistence on
keeping magic out of the hands of their
kind.” Still, Northup said “I certainly won’t
deny that the Wizarding World’s depic-
tion of goblins in general has always
been a bit questionable, even before
this game.” ■
— Jacob Henry
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When people enter the world of
“Hogwarts Legacy,” the blockbuster
video game that was offi cially released
on Feb. 10, they will fi nd themselves
immersed in the fi ctional universe of
“Harry Potter” … and face-to-face with
an alleged antisemitic caricature.

The narrative of the game centers
on a goblin rebellion in the 1890s,
about a century before the fantasy
books take place. Some who have
had an early look at the game have
echoed longstanding concerns that
the creatures’ prominent hook noses
and their role in the “Harry Potter”
universe running the wizard bank,
Gringotts, teeter on the edge of an
antisemitic stereotype that Jews
control the world’s money supply.

Others have taken issue with “Harry
Potter” author J.K. Rowling’s views on
transgender people, which LGBTQ
rights groups have called transphobic.

The criticism does not appear to
have signifi cantly impeded sales of