DNC Staffers Question Demand for Holocaust Remembrance Day Statement in Leaked Emails
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
PHILADELPHIA (JTA) — Democratic National Committee staff members questioned Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s request for the group to put out a statement in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, leaked emails show.
In an from May released as part of the batch of DNC emails leaked by Wikileaks this week, a staffer wrote that an statement marking the day was unnecessary. The chain was first reported by the Daily Caller.
“We aren’t going to do statements for every Jewish holiday unless she wants to do them for every religious holiday and trust me, this Catholic can give you a list of them,” wrote staffer Kate Houghton. “Also when she does an official statement it makes very little sense to have two statements out there in her voice.”
Houghton’s colleague, Senior Communications Adviser Ryan Banfill, replied, “This is about remembering the Holocaust. Never forget,” to which Houghton replied that other genocides should be commemorated in the same way.
“Yup… or Darfur or Armenia or Rwanda or Bosnia (which PS is where my husband served),” she wrote. “Does she want us to do one for each other those remembrance days as well?”
The email leak, which first came out over the weekend, revealed that the DNC had discussed ways to undermine the campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who ran against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. One of the emails suggested questioning Sanders’ belief in God and commitment to his Judaism.
Wasserman Schultz resigned her DNC post in the wake of the leak.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
