Antisemitism charge over mailer

Lesser finds attack ‘deeply upsetting’; Charamut denies it’s ‘hateful’

Prompting charges of antiSemitism, a campaign mailer sent in Middletown this week attacks Democratic state Rep. Matt Lesser with edited imagery showing the Jewish legislator holding $100 bills near his face and smiling maniacally.

After spending Sunday night at a candlelight vigil for the victims shot at a Pittsburgh synagogue, Lesser said Tuesday he found the mailer sent by his opponent Republican Ed Charamut “deeply upsetting.”

The mailer has prompted calls from Democrats for Charamut to drop out. Its imagery was also condemned by the state Republican Party and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski Tuesday evening.

“For somebody in 2018 in Connecticut to surface this kind of representation is unconscionable,” said Howard Sovronsky, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford. “It’s that old image of the greedy Jew that we find incredibly offensive.”

Charamut, a Rocky Hill Town Council member, accused Lesser of playing “identity politics” in a statement Tuesday.

“The mailer makes the point that if elected, Matt Lesser will undoubtedly vote to hike people’s taxes again and again,” Charamut wrote. “Those wishing to portray a graphic illustration as something hateful are completely wrong.”

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont called the mailer “overt anti-Semitism” and demanded Republicans and Stefanowski reject it. State Senate Democratic President Martin Looney of New Haven and Democrat Middletown Mayor Dan Drew said Charamut should withdraw from the race.

Stefanowski released a statement about the mailer Tuesday evening.

“I firmly condemn the use of any anti-Semitic imagery or messages on campaign mailers,” Stefanowski said. “Connecticut’s Jewish community is an integral part of who we are as a state, and

to disrespect one portion of our community is to disrespect our state as a whole.”

Stefanowski used the incident to punch back at Lamont. He said he found it “remarkable” that Lamont would travel to Iran, which does not recognize Israel as a country. He suggested that Lamont should not have taken an endorsement from the Connecticut AFL-CIO, which in 2016 passed a resolution to boycott, divest and sanction Israel. Three months later, the resolution was declared invalid, the Connecticut Jewish Ledger

reported.

Republican Party Chairman J.R. Romano changed his stance on the mailer throughout the day Tuesday. Originally, he told the Hartford Courant criticism of the mailer was only coming from Democrats. But Tuesday evening he backpedaled, saying he spoke to Jewish friends about the matter.

“In a race with a Jewish candidate, this image should be recognized as offensive, raising classic anti-Semitic tropes. It cannot be justified,” he wrote in a statement. “I have requested to sit down with the ADL to broaden my understanding of and sensitivity to anti-Semitism.”

Michael Bloom, executive director of the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut, said it was “offensive” that Romano would insinuate that only Democratic Jews would be insulted by the mailer.

“Anti-Semitism is becoming normalized in our society and we need to stand up and demand that it must stop,” he wrote in a statement.

The greedy Jew stereotype dates back to the Middle Ages, Sovronsky said, when many Jews were money lenders because they were barred from other occupations or because Christians were forbidden by the church to lend money while charging interest.

“Somebody showed me the mailer and I was shocked to be honest,” said Lesser. “It uses unfortunate tropes that have been used to attack Jews for hundreds of years.”

Lesser serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Jewish Legislators. In the General Assembly, the five-term state representative is chairman of the Banks Committee and serves on the Insurance and Government Administration Committee.