A social media post from a Kentucky Republican group is the subject of backlash due to its antisemitic language, WVLT reports.
The since-deleted post, shared to Facebook by the Bracken County Republican Party, referred to Steve Dettelbach -- the new director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- as part of the “Jewish junta.”
In a post to the party's Facebook page, Bracken County GOP chair Karin Kirkendol declared that the post "does not represent the values of the Bracken County Republican Party."
"It was incredibly insensitive. We will investigate how this occurred and we commit to tighter oversight of our social media going forward," Kirkendol said.
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But the chair of the Kentucky Jewish Council, Rabbi Shlomo Litvin , isn't buying the apology.
“Regardless of where it came from, it was posted on their page. They now have a responsibility to stand with anyone who can read and say the idea that Jews are running the government is a fake antisemitic trope that has no basis in reality,” said Litvin.
“From the attempted assassination of a member of the Jewish community running for mayor in Louisville, to cries of ‘Jew them down’ in the state, to an op-ed in the Courier-Journal saying that the Jews are faking antisemitism...and now this. An accusation from a local republican party that Jews are running the government,” he continued.
According to The Informant journalist Nick Martin, the statement was copied from a post made by neo-Nazi activist Joseph Jordan. "Neo-Nazi Joseph Jordan (aka 'Eric Striker') and his friends are now bragging over the ordeal," Martin noted.
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State Sen. Karen Berg, a Democrat representing Louisville and the only Jewish member of the state legislature, also denounced the statement.
She told the Cincinnati Enquirer that the fact a GOP county representative "felt emboldened enough to post this on social media is a sign of a rise in extremism and hatred that has dangerous repercussions for our society."
"I am so tired of this," Berg added.
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