Is this a 20-year-old pogram reference that started out as a shofar? Despite some good reviews, Hogwarts Legacy remains plagued by issues with the franchise's creator J.K. Rowling's apparent antisemitic beliefs. Things aren't looking great for Rowling as more evidence has recently surfaced in the game.
Before we get into that, here's what I've learned: Many, many people, including former Daily Show host Jon Stewart, have accused Rowling of including antisemitic tropes in her stories in the form of evil goblins. In the books, the goblins run a bank, and are suspiciously similar to how Jewish people are perceived negatively.
An eagle-eyed early access Hogwarts Legacy user discovered a troubling Jewish reference: the goblins in the game have a horn that appears to be a ceremonial Jewish one, called a shofar. In the game, it is used to "annoy witches and wizards."
The anti-Jewish parallels go even deeper. The game and its books all reference a faked-up "1612 Goblin Rebellion." Here's where things get bad. A real, deadly riot against Jews began in 1612 and continued for years. It's called a pogrom, which officially translates to "an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group, in particular that of Jewish people in Russia or eastern Europe."
The shofar situation might be explained on its own, but when you combine it with the pogrom, it becomes very difficult to miss a pattern. The 1612 reference goes back to book 3 – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Regardless of how this plays out, it becomes harder and harder to ignore the franchise's manifest anti-Jewish policies.
Tomorrow, Hogwarts Legacy will be released everywhere.