Arizona Republican shares ‘Shtisel’ image to rebuke colleague’s antisemitic comments
Arizona state Sen. Kelly Townsend chose a publicity shot from the TV series “Shtisel” to illustrate her opposition to antisemitism.
(JTA) — An Arizona state senator wanted to make it clear that she reviled the antisemitism of one of her colleagues, so she shared an image of the cast of the Israeli family drama, “Shtisel.”
Kelly Townsend, a Republican, no longer wants the endorsement of her colleague, Wendy Rogers, after Rogers drew national attention for a slew of antisemitic and white nationalist statements this week.
“The silver lining in the most recent unpleasantry at the AZ Senate is that it is flushing out the true antisemites,” Rogers said Thursday on Twitter. “I am surprised, not surprised, by the people on our side who can’t bring themselves to condemn such hate speech. #Israel #Chosen #PrayForThePeaceOfJerusalem”
The illustration she chose was a cast photo of “Shtisel,” the drama about a dysfunctional haredi Orthodox family in Jerusalem. In the publicity still, Nukhem Shtisel, played by Sasson Gabbay, is staring balefully at the brother he despises, Shulem Shtisel, played by Doval’e Glickman.
Although it would certainly be accurate to state that Jews love “Shtisel,” it wasn’t clear why Townsend, who is running for the U.S. House of Representatives, chose the image to illustrate that she stands with the Jewish people.
Townsend soon took down the tweet, and replaced it with another, with the same text, this time illustrated by the Israeli flag.
The Arizona Mirror noted that Townsend and Rogers once were close, but Townsend was determined Thursday to make clear that is non longer the case.
“I emphatically reject @WendyRogersAZ endorsement of my campaign for Congress,” she said. “I do not wish to accept financial donations that she solicited & will respectfully return them.”
—
The post Arizona Republican shares ‘Shtisel’ image to rebuke colleague’s antisemitic comments appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
