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More Jewish officials are rebuking Rep. Randy Fine over tweet comparing Muslims to dogs
(JTA) — Since assuming office last year, Florida Jewish Rep. Randy Fine has ignited pushback on a regular basis over his comments about Muslims and Palestinians.
This week anger over a new tweet from the GOP Congressman spilled over even further, igniting a wide rebuke from Jews and pro-Israel figures on the other side of the aisle — some of whom are now calling for Fine’s censure or resignation.
The blowback followed Fine’s tweet on Sunday in which he stated, “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Fine, who positions himself as a staunch warrior for Israel and against antisemitism, claimed he was responding to a tweet by Nerdeen Kiswani, co-founder of the radical pro-Palestinian activist group Within Our Lifetime. Kiswani had written, “Finally, NYC is coming to Islam. Dogs definitely have a place in society, just not as indoor pets. Like we’ve said all along, they are unclean.” (Kiswani later said she had intended her tweet as satire, aimed at reports of New York dog owners not picking up their pets’ waste.)
But Fine’s remarks have set off a firestorm, and the blowback is led by many pro-Israel Jews.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America called Fine’s remarks “a disgrace to Congress, an affront to everything America stands for, and antithetical to Jewish values,” and called on Congress to censure him. Democratic Majority for Israel, which focuses on shoring up support for Israel among Democrats, also called Fine’s remarks “vile and indefensible.”
Moderate Jewish Democrats including Sen. Jacky Rosen and Rep. Dan Goldman also blasted Fine for his comments.
“This disgusting and dehumanizing rhetoric is unbecoming of any American — especially a Member of Congress,” Rosen tweeted. “Randy Fine should apologize and Speaker Johnson should forcefully condemn this bigotry.”
Goldman, who is fending off a primary challenger in a New York-area district Fine said his tweet was referring to, went even farther by calling Fine’s remarks damaging for Jews. He also called for his colleague to be censured and stripped of committee assignments.
“This is not only an unacceptable and revolting Islamophobic comment coming from anyone, much less a member of Congress, but it is incredibly damaging to Jews trying to combat antisemitism and unify against hate of all kinds,” Goldman tweeted.
GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson, Goldman added, “must show some actual leadership by bringing a censure resolution to the floor and stripping @RepFine of his committee assignments. Silence is complicity.” In 2023, Johnson oversaw a censure vote against progressive pro-Palestinian Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib for her use of the phrase “From the river to the sea.”
Other notable Jews also condemned Fine, including CNN anchor Jake Tapper, who called his comments “disgusting bigotry,” and actor Josh Malina, who called them “vile.” Amos Hochstein, an Israeli-born former Biden and Obama official, called Fine’s comments “reminiscent of German anti Jew rhetoric.”
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in a statement late Tuesday, called Fine “a disgrace to the United States Congress.” And California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has been positioning himself for a likely 2028 presidential run, was even more direct. “Resign now, you racist slob,” he tweeted at Fine. (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a frequent Fine critic, said he had made “genuinely one of the most disgusting statements I have ever seen issued by an American official.”)
Few Republicans have publicly criticized Fine for his remarks. “I appreciate Randy Fine for many things, but I don’t agree with this. We should be respectful to others,” GOP Rep. Don Bacon, of Nebraska, told Axios, before adding, “You need to remember he’s frequently targeted by Code Pink and pro-Hamas types.” Far-right Jewish activist Laura Loomer, meanwhile, has leapt to Fine’s defense.
This is not the first time Fine has faced blowback over his tweets about Muslims. And, as he has been in the past, the congressman was unapologetic. In a series of posts, he defended himself by saying he was standing up for dogs.
“My post was in response to a major Muslim leader saying dogs should be forbidden from New York City because, to some Muslims, it bothers them,” Fine told the far-right network Newsmax. “Well, if they’re going to make us choose between dogs and them going home, the choice is easy.”
Fine’s reelection campaign is currently endorsed by AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group — as is Goldman’s.
The post More Jewish officials are rebuking Rep. Randy Fine over tweet comparing Muslims to dogs appeared first on The Forward.
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Andorra’s tiny Jewish community reels after local carnival features mock execution of Israeli effigy
(JTA) — An annual festival in Andorra drew condemnation from the country’s small Jewish community after an effigy bearing the Israeli flag was staged in a mock trial and then hung and shot.
The incident was part of the traditional Catalan festival Carnestoltes, which occurs yearly before Lent, the 40-day period that precedes Easter. At Monday’s festival in Andorra, where a mock king is typically tried and burned, organizers instead used an effigy wearing blue with the Israeli flag painted on its face.
During the festivities, the Israeli effigy was symbolically tried, hung, shot and burned, according to social media posts and a report in the Israeli outlet YNet.
ABERRANTE muestra de antisemitismo en Andorra durante el carnaval. pic.twitter.com/GeIdF635wd
— Dani Lerer (@danilerer) February 16, 2026
The incident drew outcry from the microstate’s tiny Jewish community, which only just got its first full-time rabbi, a Chabad emissary, in the last two years.
“This is a ritual they perform every year as part of carnival, where they mock many things,” Jewish Andorra resident Esther Pujol told YNet. “This time they dressed the effigy in the colors of the Israeli flag, with a Star of David on its face. They put it on trial, sentenced it to death and carried out the sentence by shooting and burning it. It is completely unacceptable.”
Pujol told the outlet that it was the first time she had seen the festival include anti-Israel or antisemitic elements, and that she had contacted Andorran lawmakers to express her outrage. The mayor of Encamp, the city where the incident took place, and local politicians took part in the ceremony, according to YNet.
The European Jewish Congress also decried the display in a post on X, writing that the mock-execution was a “deeply disturbing act that risks normalizing antisemitism and incitement.”
“This incident requires unequivocal condemnation, full clarification of responsibilities and concrete measures to ensure that antisemitism is never tolerated in public celebrations or institutions in Andorra or anywhere in Europe,” the post continued.
Other Lent festivities have also been the site of antisemitism in recent years, with Belgian celebrations in 2019 featuring antisemitic caricatures and a Spanish parade in 2020 featuring a Holocaust-themed display.
The incident marks a rare instance of open turmoil for Jews in Andorra, which is nestled between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains. While France and Spain have seen widespread pro-Palestinian protests and antisemitic incidents in recent years, Andorra has largely avoided similar tensions.
In September, Andorra formally announced its recognition of Palestinian statehood alongside a host of other European nations during the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
But local Jews have also sought to remain under the radar, considering that Andorra officially prohibits non-Catholic houses of worship. The Jewish community calls their gathering place a community center rather than a synagogue. In 2023, Andorra’s parliament elected a Jewish lawmaker for the first time.
The post Andorra’s tiny Jewish community reels after local carnival features mock execution of Israeli effigy appeared first on The Forward.
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British woman who removed an Israeli hostage poster from a memorial site is convicted of theft
(JTA) — A British woman who is married to a Jewish anti-Zionist activist has been convicted of theft in connection with a 2024 incident in which she removed an Israeli hostage poster and threw it in the trash.
Fiona Monro, 58, of Brighton, England, was found guilty of theft, but not convicted of criminal damage for charges stemming from a February 2024 incident in which she took a large laminated poster of Israeli hostage Tzachi Idan and disposed of it.
A relative of Idan who lives in a neighboring town, Howe, returned the poster to the memorial site after Monro threw it away. A week later, Monro also wrote the phrase “Pray for the 30,000 murdered Palestinians” on the memorial but was acquitted of charges related to the vandalism, according to Brighton and Hove News.
The incident came at a time when Israeli hostage posters were being vandalized frequently by activists across the globe who said they were protesting the war in Gaza. The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Idan was killed in Hamas captivity and his remains were returned to Israel a year ago during a negotiated ceasefire.
“This crime was one out of 50 times the memorial was vandalised and it took two years to get justice. But it is possible to get a win,” Heidi Bachram, one of the memorial’s organizers, told the Jewish News following Monro’s convict. “We cannot let hateful people get away with attacking us.”
Monro told police that the memorial located in Brighton’s Palmeira Square “did not represent the Jewish community,” citing her marriage to the prominent activist Tony Greenstein. Greenstein was expelled from Great Britain’s Labour Party in 2018 over his social media comments about Israel, which his party deemed antisemitic.
“The board was clearly there to justify the genocide that was happening,” Monro said in the police interview. “A large laminated board with a photograph of a hostage was highly inflammatory to many people in that community clearly found it very upsetting to have that constantly thrust in our face daily.”
After Monro’s lawyer, Hamish McCallum, requested that the jury consider whether it was proportionate to convict her on the basis she was exercising her right to express her political views, Judge Stephen Mooney rejected the proposal.
“This is not therefore a case of the state seeking to prosecute the defendant disproportionately for expressing her own views or otherwise interfering with her rights,” said Mooney. “It is a case of the state prosecuting the defendant for putting her views above those of others and causing them wholly unnecessary distress by so doing.”
Mooney gave Monro an 18-month conditional discharge and ordered her to pay $1,637 in prosecution costs.
The post British woman who removed an Israeli hostage poster from a memorial site is convicted of theft appeared first on The Forward.
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Community Leaders Slam Campaign in Canada Targeting Accreditation of Jewish Summer Camps
Illustrative: People take part in “Shut it down for Palestine!” protest outside of Tyson’s Corner as shoppers participate in Black Friday in Vienna, Virginia, US, Nov. 24, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
Jewish community leaders across Canada are pushing back against a campaign by anti-Zionist activists that seeks to pressure accrediting bodies to reconsider recognition of several Jewish children’s summer camps.
The controversy centers around at least 17 overnight camps in provinces including Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia, according to a statement circulated by the activist group. A coalition of leftist and pro-Palestinian groups has identified the camps and is urging provincial associations to review and potentially revoke their accreditation.
Members of the anti-Israel coalition — which includes the Palestinian Canadian Congress, Just Peace Advocates, the Ontario Palestinian Rights Association, PAJU Montreal, and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign — claim that some of the camps promote or normalize support for Israel.
Organizers say institutions connected to Israel, which they falsely accuse of committing genocide against Palestinians, should face scrutiny.
“We have identified at least 17 overnight summer camps throughout Canada that support the State of Israel in some way,” the campaign says. “These camps are not problematic because they encourage connection to Jewish identity. Rather, they pose a problem because they encourage support for a genocidal, settler-colonial state.”
Among the claims cited are that camps celebrate Israeli national holidays, incorporate Israel-focused educational content, or employ staff members who have previously served in the Israel Defense Forces, including in non-combat capacities.
The messaging reflects themes commonly associated with the BDS movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination. The campaign against Jewish camps has been endorsed by the official Canadian BDS Coalition.
The campaign appears to represent a new front in a broader pattern of activism that has targeted universities, cultural organizations, and other institutions over perceived ties to Israel.
Camp leaders and Jewish organizations say the effort singles out Jewish institutions and risks politicizing spaces designed for children, while presenting a threat to effectively dismantle Jewish life.
The UJA Federation of Greater Toronto described the campaign as harassment and intimidation directed at Jewish families. Community leaders have emphasized that summer camps are focused on youth development, cultural enrichment, and recreation, not political advocacy
“This direct targeting of Jewish campers and staff is a deliberate act of intimidation,” UJA wrote in a statement.
The Ontario Camps Association, which accredits camps in that province, also condemned the initiative. The association said accreditation decisions are based on health, safety, and program standards, not political views, and characterized the coalition’s allegations as discriminatory.
The dispute has unfolded amid a surge in antisemitic incidents over the past two years, following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.
According to the Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada, which tracks antisemitism across the country, antisemitic incidents in 2024 rose 7.4 percent from 2023, with 6,219 adding up to the highest total recorded since it began tracking such data in 1982. Seventeen incidents occurred on average every day, while online antisemitism exploded a harrowing 161 percent since 2022. As standalone provinces, Quebec and Alberta saw the largest percentage increases, by 215 percent and 160 percent, respectively.