Rep. Burns Silent as Opponent Labeled “Jew-Boy” at Fundraiser
Listed in: Other Domestic Policy, NJDC News, Press Releases
Washington, DC: The Saturday Savannah Morning News reports that a controversy is growing around Representative Max Burns (R-GA). According to the newspaper, anti-Semitic remarks were made in his presence at a recent campaign fundraising event -- remarks which Rep. Burns did not speak out against. The newspaper reports that at the fundraiser, "Jackie Sommers, a Savannah businessman who contributes to Burns' campaign and makes fund-raising calls on his behalf, stood up and made some introductory remarks. Angela Lee, a reporter at the Sylvania Telephone newspaper, was at the event and said Sommers began talking about Burns' fight ahead, referring to one of his opponents as 'that Jew boy down in Savannah.' There was no acknowledgement whatsoever from anybody about the remarks," Lee said. Burns, who addressed the crowd immediately after Sommers' speech, acknowledged that he did not respond to the comment."
"It is unacceptable in this day and age that a Jewish candidate for office would encounter such anti-Semitic slurs -- and that incumbent members of Congress would sit idly by while such offensive language is used," said National Jewish Democratic Council Executive Director Ira N. Forman. "At a time when the Republican Party is supposedly mounting a full-court press to switch the overwhelmingly Democratic Jewish vote to the Republican Party, you would think that a Republican federal officeholder would speak out against anti-Semitism when it is unleashed at an event to benefit him -- or that he would at least issue a strong but belated statement. Yet neither is the case here. I have said it before, but I will continue saying it wherever it applies: If this is the Republican idea of Jewish outreach, then I'd hate to see what antagonism looks like."
