Posted on 08/05/21
| News Source: Algemeiner
Leading American Jewish groups and a Jewish US Representative expressed concern on Thursday after a defeated Ohio congressional candidate made a statement they said carried antisemitic overtones, a charge denied by her campaign.
Nina Turner, who lost Tuesday’s primary race for Ohio’s 11th Congressional district to Councilwoman Shontel Brown, said in her concession speech, “We didn’t lose this race. Evil money manipulated and maligned this election.”
“See, I don’t want you to relent, because it took evil money,” she said. “They took evil money to come in here and do this.”
Jewish voters in the district played a major role in Turner’s loss to Brown, while pro-Israel Democrats and Democratic groups had campaigned for and donated to her opponent.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) tweeted in response, “We are extremely troubled by Nina Turner’s comments. Intentional or not, they echo long-standing antisemitic tropes.”
“Our local office is reaching out to her to discuss,” the organization said.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and global social director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told the Washington Free Beacon, “At the minimum, she owes the Jewish community in Cleveland an apology.”
“And if not, then unfortunately you have to put a person like that in the column of someone who is an enemy of your community, because in effect they’re justifying Jew hatred,” he said.
Democratic congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz commented on Twitter that Turner’s comments proved that support for Brown “was a mitzvah.”