Many of us recently received a flyer from Jen DeSena that highlighted a doctored photo of her opponent, Jon Kaiman, holding “fistfuls of cash.”
This is blatantly antisemitic. Depicting Jewish candidates holding wads of money is not a new tactic.
In fact, it’s been used by many candidates to signal to their constituents that their opponent is Jewish.
Using antisemitic stereotypes are always hurtful, but they are particularly painful at this moment in time.
The Town of North Hempstead prides itself on being part of the Not In Our Town movement to “stop hate, racism and bullying, and build safe, inclusive communities for all.”
I had hoped that wasn’t just an empty slogan.
Christine Monterosso
Manhasset
Antisemitism lurks just below the surface of our society, waiting patiently for the next opportunity to flower. It is discouraging to see it sprout up now in the current election cycle. We must be eternally vigilant and call it out as it appears.
I doubt that has anything to do with whether he is Jewish and all to do about his previous spending.
@Jason D, that’s why it’s called a dog whistle. To provide bad-faith actors with plausible deniability to the larger population, but effectively communicating a concept to those “in the know” that can read between the lines.
When you combine this specific image with other references to “supporting communists” in the messaging used to disparage Kaimane, any educated member of society that has a grasp on the cultural and political underpinnings of our current neoliberal mode of governance would be able to put two and two together.
You can read more here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Marxism_conspiracy_theory
These ads are blatantly leveraging fear tactics to activate reactionary forces within American culture: a combination of anti-semitism and anti-communism that’s pervasive in conservative ideology.
At the end of the day, single conspiracy theory that has become mainstream thought for the Republican part will eventually point back to Jews as the source, a blatant example of this is the decrying of “Soros funded DAs in democrat run cities”).
Because conservatives are fighting against a time in which the working masses are becoming radicalized – the contradiction of wealth inequality necessary for capitalism to function is becoming too hard to ignore.
When that happens, capitalists will activate the reactionary, violent and bigoted elements of a society to leverage this underpinnings against working class solidarity.
For those who doubt that this was antisemitism, see the below article. They knew what they were doing:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/06/republicans-attack-jewish-candidates-across-us-with-an-age-old-caricature-fistfuls-cash/