Connecticut GOP candidate faces antisemitic advertising charges



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The election campaign of Republican candidate Ed Charamut attacks an opponent sent to voters on Monday, his opponent, Democratic Republican Matthew Lesser, saying it would be bad for the elderly. But the ad features a cartoon image of Lesser, a Jew, with a broad smile, grabbing a wad of $ 100 bills.

The mail arrives after 11 people were killed Saturday during a shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue, which the police called hate crime. It was the deadliest anti-Semitic incident in US history and reignited the surveillance of anti-Semitism in the United States.
The Connecticut branch of Connecticut's Anti-Defamation League told Hartford Courant that "the juxtaposition of a Jewish candidate to a post and money in this way suggests a secular anti-Semitic trope".
Charamut defended the leaflet in an email sent to the Courant on Tuesday, telling the newspaper that "those who wish to present a graphic illustration as an odious thing are completely false".

"I reject hate speech in all its forms," ​​wrote Charamut to the newspaper. "The mail sets a stark contrast between Matt Lesser and myself."

CNN joined the Charamut campaign.

After calling the criticism "misleading indignation" in an interview with the Courant, the President of the State Party, JR Romano, altered his earlier comments, asserting in a written statement provided to the newspaper that the 39, image was to be "recognized as offensive".

"I had the opportunity to discuss the background of the recent mail sent by candidate Ed Charamut and representing the state's representative, Matt Lesser," he said in a statement to the Current. "There have been many things in conversations with Jewish friends, including Jewish Republicans, and in a race with a Jewish candidate this image should be recognized as offensive, evoking classic anti-Semitic tropes." This can not be justified. I would not have approved this shipment and I am grateful to the party for not having approved it. "

Romano said in his statement to the Courant that he had asked to sit down with the ADL to "broaden my understanding of anti-Semitism and my sensitivity to it".

The Republican Party of the State and the ADL did not immediately return CNN's request for comment.

Lesser told the Washington Post that the mail "uses images that have been used to vilify the Jewish people for hundreds of years, caricature my face and make me grab a pile of money."

"It's as explicitly anti-Semitic as anything can be," he told the newspaper.

CNN also joined Lesser's campaign and did not confirm the sender independently.

The LDA noted last year that antisemitic incidents had increased by almost 60%, the largest increase ever recorded in a year.

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