Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Image by Getty Images

(JTA) — New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused President Donald Trump of anti-Semitism for his attacks on Rep. Adam Schiff of California.

“Understand that Trump is engaged in deliberate, atrocious, targeted antisemitism towards Chairman Schiff,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted with a retweet of an article in The Intercept suggesting that Trump’s attacks against Schiff come from the neo-Nazi playbook.

“It’s wrong. It’s harmful. And his bigotry is reflective of the white supremacist base he relies on for political gain,” she also tweeted.

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Schiff leads the House Intelligence Committee, an important committee in the impeachment inquiry against Trump.

On Wednesday, Trump said of Schiff: “We don’t call him ‘Shifty Schiff’ for nothing. He’s a shifty, dishonest guy.”

The Intercept notes that calling Jews shifty – suggesting that they are sneaky and manipulative, is an age-old anti-Semitic canard.

In a tweet last week lambasting “Democratic savages,” President Donald Trump singled out two Jewish congressmen – Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, Rep. Adam Schiff of California – and the quartet of congresswomen including Ocasio-Cortez known as The Squad. Nadler is head of the House Judiciary Committee.

Trump’s son, Donald Jr., in a tweet said that Schiff was “hand-picked and supported by George Soros,” and called him a Soros “puppet.” Soros, a Holocaust survivor and philanthropist who funds liberal and pro-democracy causes, has been a frequent target of the far right in the United States and abroad, who often invoke anti-Semitic tropes including being a puppetmaster to exaggerate his influence in politics, economic affairs and immigration.

Responses to Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet noted that Trump’s daughter and grandchildren are Jewish, and that most people were unaware that Schiff was Jewish until they read her tweet.

The post Ocasio-Cortez accuses Trump of anti-Semitism over his attacks on Schiff appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

PJ Grisar is the Forward’s culture fellow. He can be reached at [email protected].

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