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Fagin is a fictional character in Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist who has sparked much debate over the years. Allegedly based on an actual criminal, the character teaches boys to steal and is described as villainous, selfish, miserly—and Jewish. He is called “the Jew” more often than “Fagin,” despite the fact that Dickens removed over 180 instances of it after befriending a Jewish couple. Which of Dickens’s later Jewish characters may be an apology for his anti-Semitic portrayal of Fagin?
Source: The Free Dictionary