Jewish Republican candidate dredges up debunked claim that George Soros a ‘Nazi sympathizer’
George Soros Image by Getty Images
The latest political candidate to condemn George Soros, the Jewish billionaire Democratic megadonor, is Jewish himself.
Eric Early, a Republican who is running for Congress in California, tweeted Sunday, “Nazi sympathizer Soros is a danger to our nation.” Soros, who is a frequent target of Republican officials, in fact survived the Holocaust as a teenager.
The false accusation that Soros aided Nazis is not uncommon among criticism of him, which has become unrelenting in this election cycle and frequently veers into anti-Semitism. In reality, Soros was hidden as a child by a Hungarian bureaucrat and once accompanied him to survey the property of a Jewish household.
Here’s the Forward’s explainer about who Soros is and why he is a magnet for such attacks, and here’s the Snopes debunking of the Nazi fallacy.
The Republican Jewish Coalition confirmed in an email to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Sunday that Early is Jewish. He is running against California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who is also Jewish, in a heavily Democratic district.
On Saturday, Schiff had criticized Early for sharing a meme that falsely claimed Schiff was related to Soros. He is not. Schiff called the meme anti-Semitic.
“This week, my opponent shared a “meme” about me. A well-circulated anti-Semitic lie,” he tweeted, adding that “the Republican Party’s willingness to traffic in bigotry and hate has caused lasting damage.”
The meme is gone from Early’s Twitter feed, and Early responded to Schiff’s criticism by writing that “there’s nothing antisemitic at all about the retweet (whoever did it).” Early told the Washington Times that Soros is “flat-out scum” and called Schiff “one of Soros’ many tools.”
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
