UPenn Prof Posted Antisemitic Cartoons — Blamed Trump for Being Fired
A professor at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the hallowed Ivy League schools founded by Benjamin Franklin, has been terminated after posting dozens of antisemitic and anti-Zionist cartoons on social media.
The adjunct professor, Dwayne Booth, who joined Penn’s Communication School in 2015 and goes by the pen name “Dr. Fish,” had been uploading antisemitic cartoons to his Instagram account since the October 7 attack on Israel.
One notable cartoon depicts three young men in business suits drinking what appears to be blood from wine glasses labeled “Gaza”—a grotesque reference to the classic antisemitic blood libel that Jews drink the blood of others.
In the background, a half-American, half-Israeli flag is visible, with a peace dove nearby. One of the men turns to the dove and asks: “Who invited that lousy anti-Semite?”
Another cartoon features manipulated images of Jewish Holocaust survivors holding signs that say “Israeli Assassins,” “Stop the War in Gaza,” and “Free Palestine.” These and other images are publicly viewable on Booth’s Instagram account, @mrfishcartoons.
In one particularly disturbing cartoon, Booth depicts a Gazan baby being shot by a gun marked with an Israeli flag. He did not respond to requests for comment.
While some of Booth’s work had already been exposed by The Washington Free Beacon, a Liberty Affair investigation found additional antisemitic memes on his account, with repeated themes focusing on Jews, Hitler, and Israel. While Booth also creates cartoons about presidential politics, antisemitism is a recurring motif in his work.
Booth’s cartoons are also featured on ScheerPost.com (where Booth is listed as the site's Creative Director, in fact), a far-left site that promotes his art alongside anti-Israel articles. In one article by former New York Times writer Chris Hedges, Booth’s cartoon appears at the top. Hedges compares Israeli military operations to Nazi genocide tactics, writing: “The Nazis shipped their victims to death camps. The Israelis will ship their victims to squalid refugee camps in countries outside of Israel.”
Hedges continued: “And if we do not stand in eternal vigilance over evil—our evil—we become, like those carrying out the mass killing in Gaza, monsters.”
Booth’s firing comes as part of a broader trend of academics being removed from university posts after posting pro-Hamas propaganda and antisemitic content.
Though the UPenn president condemned Booth’s cartoons as “reprehensible,” the university initially claimed it would still employ the artist in the name of free speech.
Booth, however, claims his firing had nothing to do with antisemitism, instead blaming “Trump budget cuts.”
“My dismissal… had nothing to do with the false accusations from last year that the artwork I produce as a professional editorial cartoonist outside the classroom was antisemitic merely because it was critical of Israel,” he wrote.
He also claimed that all adjuncts at Penn were terminated due to Trump-era budget cuts. However, as of March 28, there is no public record or news confirming any such mass layoff. Penn media relations did not respond to a request for clarification.
In a bizarre attempt at humor, Booth added: “I was informed that the reason for the termination was budgetary, which I think is the same reason they gave to Jesus just before they crucified him.”
As of this writing, Booth’s faculty page remains live, listing his cartooning “accomplishments.”
This piece will be updated if Booth or the University of Pennsylvania respond.
This report was brought to you by Toni Airaksinen, Senior Editor of Liberty Affair and a journalist based in Delray Beach, Florida. Follow her on Substack , on X @ Toni_Airaksinen and Instagram @Toni_Airaksinen.
