Point of View: Antisemitism implicit in Kavanagh campaign flyer
by Kris McDaniel-Miccio, Rabbi
October 25, 2023 issue of Hudson Valley One, Op-ed, Politics & Government
This weekend a colleague and friend forwarded a copy of a flyer released by the Kavanagh campaign via USPS. To say the flyer was unsettling is an understatement. The front sported pictures of the candidate, Kavanagh, with trifecta photos of Manny Nneji, Democratic candidate for DA, outgoing DA David Clegg and George Soros.
Why George Soros?
Most New Yorkers, even those of us who now reside in Ulster County, know the dog whistle associated with George Soros. I suspect even the folks who make up the Kavanagh cabal understand this as well.
George Soros is the Hungarian philanthropist and Holocaust survivor who underwrites progressive campaigns and causes, internationally and here in the U.S. The Hungarian administration of Victor Orban was responsible for attacking Soros with posters plastered in Budapest which resurrected the Nazi-era propaganda used to denigrate and stir the toxic pot of hatred and violence against Jews.
In the U.S., Soros is the target of the alt-right, named as the progenitor of farcical notions that “whiteness” and white folks are at risk politically. As The Atlantic noted, the anti-Soros cabal of Breitbart, Bannon and Trump used anti-Soros propaganda (aka lies) to promote domestic conspiracy theories. One such theory attributed protests against Brett Kavanagh’s Supreme Court candidacy as a Soros-generated campaign, resulting in a spate of vile posters on college campuses — the work of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website.
And now? We have a flyer in mailboxes across Ulster County from the Kavanagh campaign linking Soros to Manny Nneji. Forget for a moment, Soros is not providing any support to Nneji. Leave aside the accusation implicit by the photographic trifecta of Soros, Nneji — and Clegg. What resonates now — 14 days after Jewish babies were beheaded, Jewish women raped and sodomized, teenagers and young adults at a peace rally murdered, and elderly Holocaust survivors dragged into Gaza as hostages — is the morally bankrupt conduct by the Kavanagh campaign in designing and releasing this flyer.
Say what you will about either DA candidate’s policies or positions, but use antisemitic tropes? This is at once detestable and inexcusable.
On Saturday, October 21, I called the Kavanagh campaign twice. There was no answer. I would suggest there is no answer for using this dog whistle. I suspect members of the campaign will claim either ignorance to or indifference with what politically conscious Americans know — and quite frankly neither position is tolerable. Neither.
More importantly, there is no excuse. Full stop.