New York GOP Chapter Vows To Re-Air Anti-Semitic Campaign Ad
The leader of the Republican Party chapter in Rockland County, New York vowed to re-air a campaign ad that it deleted from its Facebook page after being criticized for anti-Semitism, the New York Post reported Thursday.
The video, titled “A Storm is Coming,” claimed that local legislator Aron Wieder, who is an Orthodox Jew, and his “bloc” were plotting a “takeover” of the area, which would threaten “our homes, our families, our schools, our communities, our water, our way of life.” The video was condemned by New York Attorney General Tish James and the Republican Jewish Coalition before being removed from Facebook.
“The Video came down for 2 reasons: first accomplished its goal of highlighting the issues that face our county. And second, took it down because the controversy stopped adding to number one above,” Rockland County GOP chairman Lawrence Garvey wrote on Facebook. “However,” Garvey added, “the video will be back, because this conversation is important to Rockland.”
Anti-Semitism isn’t just Jews getting punched in the face.
It’s videos like this, that paint religious Jews as the “other”. I am shocked that the Rockland County GOP approved this ad.
This video says a lot more about the people who made it than the people it seeks to condemn. pic.twitter.com/43LNeh1ygu
— Councilman Deutsch (@ChaimDeutsch) August 29, 2019
Rockland County has been the site of tensions for years between longtime locals and Orthodox, who now comprise around one-third of the population. A 2015 Rockland County GOP ad was also condemned as anti-Semitic for its use of footage of Jews.
The recent ad was previewed and approved by multiple local Republican Party officials in February, the Post previously reported.
Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30