“Because there is so much lack of facts in the accusations, I am surprised to see them extinct,” Knapp told JTA.”One of the wonderful things about Madison is that he is a user who looks at the user and not the race, religion, sexual orientation.He is a devout Christian, so he has his beliefs, yet he is a friend of the Jewish community.”
Knapp said Cawthorn has not been in communication with the Jewish network in the district because “it’s not a giant network.”
According to a 2010 network population study, western North Carolina has 3,000 to 4,000 Jews.Members of the network said that Jews in the region, like American Jews as a whole, had a liberal inclination.The largest concentration of Jews in the region is in Asheville, a liberal city of nearly 100,000 more people in a district that has elected Republican congressmen in each and every election since 2011.There are 3 synagogues in Asheville.
Knapp sent JTA a position paper that Cawthorn wrote about Israel that calls Israel an “ideal ally” and echoes the pro-Israel positions that are of rigor among Republicans.Cawthorn supports the army’s help to Israel, supports the move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, and rejects the boycott of Israel, according to the newspaper.
Manheimer said that Cawthorn’s reference to Hitler as a Fuhrer, meaning “boss” and that it was Hitler’s German honor throughout his life, makes her think.
“What matters to me is his inability to recognize the seriousness of his actions,” he said.”I think other people can give explanations, and it’s very difficult to tell if they’re true when they happened.”
He added: “It is a great effort to pass and stop at the post where Hitler spent his vacation.The mixture of the Fuhrer’s reference and the fact of moving to this post from North Carolina to make a stopover on it and say it was on his wish list, even calling the statements Hitler made wrong, is not transparent to me that it is someone he condemns.Sounds much more like a sure point of admiration.”
Other Jewish leaders in the region said they were also involved with Cawthorn’s language given the rise of anti-Semitism at the national level in recent years.In December, a mural by pop star Tina Turner in Asheville was vandalized with a stika painted red.
“In a climate where we are, where there has been a lot of hate speech and a lot of code and sophisticated white nationalism, I think Jews are naturally a little more sensitive,” said Rabbi Batsheva Meiri of congregation Beth HaTephila.a refrified synagogue in Asheville.” And I think it’s up to those who run for the workplace to be very careful with their messages, because those kinds of movements and this kind of and all those things are signs, and they don’t play well with Jewish hearts and minds, whether they intend to do it or not.
Justin Goldstein, a local Jewish teacher, said that although he disagreed with Cawthorn’s policy, he felt that the message and the other symbology did not necessarily imply that Cawthorn was a white supremacist.
“My non-public opinion is that it’s nothing,” said Goldstein, a researcher living at Yesod Farm Kitchen, a Jewish farm in the area.
It’s probably a smart lesson for a 25-year-old Congressional candidate that their possible options count, but it’s also a lesson for us on the left not to read too much in a language that may not be a dog whistle.
“This is indicative of the state in which we find ourselves as a nation, which is how we speak all the languages of others without entering the flesh from another point of view,” said Goldstein, who until recently was the rabbi of the Beth Israel Congregation.an egalitarian synagogue in Asheville.” Probably he could have better selected his words, too.It’s probably a smart lesson for a 25-year-old Congressional candidate that their possible options count, but it’s also a lesson for us, the left, not to read too much in a language that may not be a dog’s whistle.”
Judy Leavitt, chair of the guidance committee of Carolina Jewish for Justice West, a progressive advocacy group, said she was “dismayed” by data on Cawthorn, especially as she felt the region had experienced anti-Semitic activities.
“There’s a foundation that has this perspective,” he said. As a Jew, this is incredibly worrying.”