Philadelphia, PA, April 23, 2021 … Today, Jewish organizations across Pennsylvania issued the following joint statement:
Yesterday, during an appropriations hearing where the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health was being questioned, Senator Cris Dush once again used inappropriate Holocaust analogies when he questioned whether nursing homes were used as “death camps” to reduce the costs of caring for COVID-19 patients.
Senator Dush came under fire last spring for comparing Governor Wolf and his administration to Nazis, which Jewish organizations across the Commonwealth strongly and uniformly condemned.
Senator Dush clearly has learned nothing. His rhetoric has no place in political discourse or debate; these comparisons are offensive and wrong. Repeated misconduct of this nature cannot be righted by after-the-fact apologies and nonapologies.
We call on the leadership of the Pennsylvania Senate to take meaningful action to clearly and loudly demonstrate that they reject Senator Dush’s outrageous rhetoric.
Unfortunately, numerous legislators have made similarly inappropriate and damaging Holocaust analogies in recent years. We urge majority and minority leadership of both Houses of the Pennsylvania General Assembly to make clear that their caucuses will no longer tolerate any language that trivializes the Holocaust or any other genocide, and to hold members accountable who violate this standard.
Signed,
ADL (the Anti-Defamation League)
American Jewish Committee
Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg and JCRC of Greater Harrisburg
The Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley
The Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh
The Greater Altoona Jewish Federation
The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia
The Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania
The Jewish Federation of Reading/Berks
The Jewish Federation of Wilkes-Barre
The Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition
The York Jewish Community Center