The campaign for a Republican running for state Senate in Connecticut mailed out a flyer that depicted his Democratic opponent, Rep. Matthew Lesser, a Jewish man, clutching a fist-full of cash and trying to snag an elderly man’s piggy bank, according to the Hartford Courant.
The mailer, sent out by Republican candidate Ed Charamut’s campaign this week, has been widely criticized for its glaring anti-Semitic imagery. The mailer was met with heightened backlash following the massacre at the synagogue Saturday in Pittsburgh, where 11 people were murdered in what authorities are investigating as a hate crime.
Two days after 11 Jewish congregants were murdered in their synagogue, @ed48510762’s mailer about his Jewish opponent @MattLesser landed in mailboxes. pic.twitter.com/YTwSfgiXdE
— Gabe Rosenberg (@Gaber205) October 30, 2018
“It’s imagery used to depict Jewish people going back hundreds of years,” Lesser told the Courant. “Whether that was intentional or not I can’t say. That’s not what our community is about. On Sunday evening in Middletown we had a community gathering on the South Green in light of what happened in Pittsburgh, and it was the best of our community and it was really heartening. It’s demoralizing to see the campaign go in this direction.”
And this wasn’t some independent expenditure- it was sent by the campaign and approved by the candidate @ed48510762 pic.twitter.com/ESMQq2Ep2F
— Gabe Rosenberg (@Gaber205) October 30, 2018
