Vice President Joe Biden has rendered an apology to the country's Jewish community after his use of the term 'shylock' to describe Jewish real estate investors earlier in the week.
He described his use of the word, which is widely regarded as anti-semitic, as a "poor choice."
VP Biden was speaking at a conference organized by the Legal Services Corporation on Tuesday, when he made the unsavory comment about soldiers in need of legal assistance to protect them from "these Shylocks" who he said took advantage of them while they are out of the country.
Shortly after the VP's comments, Abraham Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, censured these words saying Mr. Biden "should have been more careful."
Shylock is a term derived from the name of one of the adversaries in William Shakespeare's famous play 'Merchant of Venice.' The character - a Jew - was described as a merciless moneylender, who demanded a pound of flesh for a defaulted loan.
According to Mr. Foxman, "When someone as friendly to the Jewish community and open and tolerant an individual as is Vice President Joe Biden, uses the term 'Shylock' to describe unscrupulous moneylenders dealing with men and women, we see once again how deeply embedded this stereotype about Jews is in society."
VP Biden has a long history of making contentious remarks. In 2007, moments before he was announced as the official running mate of the president, he told the New York Observer, while assessing the candidates, that then Sen. Obama was "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." "I mean, that's a storybook, man" he added.
VP Biden has since apologized for his remarks saying "Barack Obama is probably the most exciting candidate that the Democratic or Republican Party has produced at least since I've been around."
