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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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Jewish Democrats back Michigan AG Dana Nessel’s decision to skip state party convention
(JTA) — Local and national Jewish Democrats say they are sympathetic after Michigan’s Jewish attorney general, Dana Nessel, said she would skip the state Democratic Party’s nominating convention over concerns about antisemitism and harassment.
“I don’t blame AG Nessel for not wanting to go and basically put herself in situations that feel untenable in this moment of time and don’t add any value politically, personally,” Jessica “Decky” Alexander, the Michigan Jewish Democratic caucus chair, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Friday.
Alexander’s comment came a day after Nessel announced during a televised antisemitism roundtable that she would be skipping the convention next month, where party leaders will finalize the state’s Democratic candidate for Senate following a divisive primary that has focused in part on Israel and antisemitism.
“I don’t feel safe going. I feel like my presence isn’t going to be welcome. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying,” Nessel said during the roundtable. “And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen because it’s been happening to me.”
She said she had filed a formal complaint within the party about a party official who had called her a neo-Nazi because of her beliefs. “Why is this person more accepted in our party than me?” she asked without naming the official. Her office responded to a request for comment by referring to the recorded livestream of the antisemitism roundtable.
Nessel’s declaration comes in the final days of the primary between Rep. Haley Stevens, a pro-Israel stalwart, and Abdul El-Sayed, a democratic socialist who is deeply critical of Israel. El-Sayed is surging in polls despite a reported $30 million spent against him by AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, and its supporters, whom he has made a target of criticism from the campaign trail.
Nessel’s comments also follow turmoil at the Michigan Democratic Party’s endorsement convention in April, where Stevens was booed by attendees. A third primary candidate who later dropped out of the race, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, said a convention attendee had targeted her Jewish husband with an antisemitic slur.
The incident has fueled alarm among Jewish Democrats, according to Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
“She’s not alone,” Soifer told JTA about Nessel on Friday. “We’ve heard from other Jewish Democrats who attended the Democratic Party convention earlier this year in Michigan, and there was a sense of discomfort amid what felt like a pro-Palestinian protest [that] may have even blurred the line for some into antisemitic sentiment — and it’s really concerning.”
Nessel has raised the alarm about antisemitism within the party for years, alleging in 2024 that Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a prominent pro-Palestinian voice, had been antisemitic when criticizing charges Nessel filed against pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Michigan.
For her part, Alexander said she would be participating in the nominating convention and said she believed the chair of the state Democratic Party, Curtis Hertel, had been “very accessible and very open to making sure that we, including our Jewish elected officials, feel safe in that space.” But she said she understood why Nessel was staying away.
“It would never even occur to me, but I’m not an elected official,” Alexander said. “It’s a different stake for me than it is for Dana. I understand her completely.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Jewish Democrats back Michigan AG Dana Nessel’s decision to skip state party convention appeared first on The Forward.
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Maine rabbis call for peace, urge politicians to stop calling Gaza war a ‘genocide’
(JTA) — Every congregational rabbi in Maine has signed onto a statement calling for peace and urging the state’s political leaders to stop using the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s war in Gaza, following a Democratic primary in which several candidates used the label for the first time.
But the rabbis also indicated that they, too, were unsatisfied with conditions in the Middle East and called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to work toward a peaceful future.
“We call upon Maine’s leaders, and particularly its political leaders, to reject the irresponsible usage of the term in describing the Israel-Hamas War,” said the statement released on Friday. “We also call upon Israeli and Palestinian leaders to end the cycle of violence and to create a better world for both Palestinian and Israeli children.”
The statement, titled “A Call for Peace and Responsible Rhetoric,” argues that using the term as a “political slogan does not advance peace in the Middle East.” The term “erases essential moral and legal distinctions, diminishes the meaning of genocide, and inflames hatred for the local Jewish community,” the rabbis say.
“Compassion for Palestinians does not require the adoption of hateful and misleading language,” they continue. “Advocating for peace does not require participation in a ‘Holocaust inversion’ against the Jewish community. And political leadership does not require demonizing one community in the service of another.”
The statement comes days after Troy Jackson, a former logger and state Senate president, secured the Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nomination Saturday at the party’s nominating convention to replace Graham Platner, a staunch Israel critic who dropped out of the race earlier this month. Platner faced a sexual assault allegation, which he denies. Jackson now faces Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in November’s general election.
Platner’s romp to the primary victory featured routine use of “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions. And ahead of the convention to replace him, Jackson and several other Democratic hopefuls who later exited the race began using the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s war in Gaza for the first time, a shift that drew scrutiny from some Jewish leaders and voters in the state.
The use of the term has become a “currency for acquiring power and position in Maine’s Democratic party,” Rabbi Rachel Isaacs, the leader of Beth Israel Congregation in Waterville, who also signed the statement, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“Too many Maine Democrats are cynically willing to trade in that currency at the expense of our safety and dignity,” she said in an emailed statement. “We decided we needed to say something collectively, both about the specious and dangerous nature of the claim, and about how much damage has been done to our families and congregants.”
The statement Friday was spearheaded by the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine and signed by every congregational rabbi in the state, including Rabbi Bill Siemers of the Conservative Congregation Beth Israel in Bangor and Rabbi Erica Asch of the Reform Temple Beth El in Augusta. (Rabbis affiliated with the Chabad movement in Maine did not appear on the signatory list.)
Zach Schwartz, the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council at the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine, said the federation hoped the “unity displayed here in Maine can inspire Jewish communities across the US to also unite against the extremist rhetoric harming our community and our children.”
Rabbi Josh Stanton, the associate vice president of interfaith and intergroup initiatives for Jewish Federations of North America, also hailed the joint statement.
“Maine’s Jewish clergy are setting an important example with their call to put aside inflammatory rhetoric and look to the common good,” Stanton said in an emailed statement. “At a time of rising polarization and declining civil discourse, the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine’s efforts to unify the community around this important message are a mark of true leadership.”
Isaacs told JTA that she hoped Jackson would “support, understand, and advocate for all of Maine’s citizens, including the totality of Maine’s diverse Jewish community.”
“Work with us to figure out how to express outrage and legitimate critique of Israel’s government without succumbing to language that you might not know is an ancient antisemitic trope, or dismissing the security needs of Israel’s citizens,” Isaacs said of her message to Jackson. “Please have the courage to forge your own path, and not follow in the footsteps of Graham Platner, a man who should have never been normalized, endorsed, or empowered.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Maine rabbis call for peace, urge politicians to stop calling Gaza war a ‘genocide’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Boy George cedes role of King Herod in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ production after releasing pro-Israel song
(JTA) — Boy George has withdrawn from his run as King Herod in London’s West End revival of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” days before he was due to take the stage and 24 hours after releasing “We Will Dance Again,” dedicated to the victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Nova music festival in Israel.
The 80’s pop star was scheduled to appear at London’s Palladium starting Monday as part of the production’s rotating cast playing King Herod, the Judean king who is best known by Jews for his expansion of the Second Temple and to Christians for his efforts to stave off the arrival of a challenger — the story of which is reflected in the rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.
Boy George will be replaced by actor Richard Armitage in the London production.
In announcing the cast change, Paul Kelmsley, the singer’s manager, did not directly mention the blowback the former Culture Club frontman was receiving for releasing a pro-Israel song but alluded to it.
“George has never been afraid to stand by his personal convictions, and I have always respected him for that,” he said. ”In this instance, I felt it was right to step aside, allowing the production to remain the focus, while ensuring everyone involved can move forward with mutual respect and goodwill.”
Boy George is defending his decision to release the song, saying he believes artists should be free to express their views even when they are unpopular. In “We Will Dance Again,” the singer rejects claims of genocide against Israel and proclaims, “If you’re ever confused, I stand with the Jews.”
Earlier Friday, Boy George lashed back at the vitriol he was getting online. “What is most shocking is the amount of gay folk attacking me, ” he posted on X. “If you support terrorism you can in the words of Divine ‘Take your toolkit and go f—_ a garage,’” he said, referring to a quote attributed to the taboo-breaking transgender artist.
“When I say ‘they want to kill every last one of us’ I am also talking about us queers, not just the Jewish community,” Boy George said. “When will you wake up?”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Boy George cedes role of King Herod in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ production after releasing pro-Israel song appeared first on The Forward.
