I did dismiss it, especially since I continued reading and it became clear. But it is the FIRST thing that popped into my head.
Kinda like when I was 12 years old and living on the 8th floor of an old apartment building when I was awakened by a really major earthquake (floor is meaningful because the higher up you are the more you feel it) my FIRST thought was that a giant of some kind was shaking the building. But, being a thinking person, I dismissed Thought One and went to Thought Two: Earthquake.
Bigotry and anti-semitism… It was the National Geographic You Tube channel… I feel pretty certain that National Geographic would never accept anti-semitic or otherwise bigoted advertising, and if the ads were somehow automated, I would think they would be monitored to avoid such things.
My first interpretation was the same as Stoid’s. The correct interpretation never occurred to me. In a world that once featured signs such as “No dogs or Irish,” “Jew-free loans” does not sound particularly outlandish.
If it really were “loans not given by those who follow Judaism,” I would’ve expected it to be phrased “Jew Free Loans,” not “Jewish Free Loans.” After all, those who follow Judaism are rarely called “Jewish” as a standalone noun (as opposed to an adjective), and if someone were that anti-Semitic, they probably wouldn’t shy away from the offensive phrasing.