David Baddiel: ‘Stupid f****** frummers’ comment was ‘authentic frustration’

David Baddiel has defended his use of expletives in criticising Charedi lockdown breaches, saying it was born out of “authentic frustration”.

The comedian responded to a column in Jewish News by veteran journalist Jenni Frazer, which said his language would not make religious Jews “more law abiding”, and could paint Jews in a negative light among non-Jews.

This comes after he responded to last week’s JN investigation into the hosting of illegal simchas by the Charedi community, by sharing a story accompanied by the phrase: “Stupid f****** frummers”.

He said the expletive response “wasn’t an attempt to make the charedi more law-abiding. I’m not a social planner. It was a cry of authentic frustration – a lot of those on my timeline – and the use of the word Frummers, a way of indicating a tweet by a Jew and for Jews.”

Baddiel, whose Twitter profile describes him simply as a “Jew”, added that “ it’s worth remembering how much racists believe that Jews stick together and never criticise bad behaviour within the community publicly. There’s a sense of “shh – what will the non-Jews” think about all this which I don’t hold with.”.