May 15, 2020, Philadelphia, PA… Today, Shira J. Goodman, Regional Director of ADL Philadelphia, issued the following statement:
“ADL strongly condemns two Facebook posts recently added to the official Berks County Republican Party page.
One post explicitly called Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf a Nazi. This analogy is offensive and wrong, and trivializes the suffering of six million Jews and millions of others who died at the hands of the Nazis. We are dismayed to see this shameful analogy deployed by a significant political organization in Pennsylvania just ten days after Jewish organizations across the Commonwealth condemned a state legislator for comparing the Wolf administration to the Nazi Party. Holocaust analogies should only be used when referring to actual genocides, full stop.
Equally disturbing is another post featuring a meme in the style of the ‘Rosie the Riveter’ posters from the 1940’s in which a man displays the ‘OK’ hand gesture. While in most cases this gesture is innocuous, it has been adopted by white supremacists as a ‘trolling’ tactic and as a symbol of white power. We believe this meme acts as a dog-whistle to white supremacists in the region, and only serves to normalize and mainstream their hateful ideology.
As of 1:00 PM today, both posts were still live. We demand the Berks County Republican Party remove the posts, issue a sincere apology and commit to learning more about extremism and the Holocaust so they never repeat this egregious error again.”
This week, ADL released its annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, which showed that antisemitic incidents in Pennsylvania last year rose to their second-highest level in the past 40 years, and hit record-breaking highs nation-wide.
As a 501c3 nonprofit organization, ADL takes no position on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for office.
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ADL is a leading anti-hate organization. Founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of antisemitism and bigotry, its timeless mission is to protect the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all. Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of hate with the same vigor and passion. ADL is the first call when acts of antisemitism occur. A global leader in exposing extremism, delivering anti-bias education and fighting hate online, ADL’s ultimate goal is a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate. More at www.adl.org.
ADL’s Philadelphia Regional Office serves eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. More at http://philadelphia.adl.org.