‘Tweet dripping with antisemitism’: Progressive political group mocks Jewish names

The group apologized after being called out for using tropes about Jews, but many doubted its sincerity.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A Progressive New York Democratic organization was accused of antisemitism Saturday after it mocked two local Jewish politicians’ names and tied them to money, the New York Post reported.

“The jerk buying a House seat with inherited money is ‘Goldman’ … the IDC-adjacent Assembly member is ‘DINOwitz.’ Who came up with these names, Dickens?” a staffer of No IDC NY tweeted.

The New York liberal group was established several years ago to defeat the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) – a group of eight members of the New York State Senate from the Democratic Party who were elected as Democrats but formed their own coalition to give the Republicans the majority in the chamber between 2013 and 2014.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who has represented a Bronx district since 1994, was never a member of the group.

“I’ve been the target of antisemitic attacks from both the far right and the far left,” he tweeted in response to the jibe. “This tweet from an extremist, anonymous account selectively singles out two Jewish politicians and is disgusting. It’s a classic display of antisemitism and should be condemned.”

Dinowitz’s Bronx colleague in the House, Rep. Ritchie Torres, answered the call, tweeting himself, “A tweet dripping with Antisemitism. The normalization of Antisemitism is a sign of how poisonous our politics has become.”

A tweet dripping with Antisemitism.

The normalization of Antisemitism is a sign of how poisonous our politics has become. pic.twitter.com/j3hdW39Qo7

— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) August 28, 2022

Dan Goldman is heir to the giant Levi Strauss & Co. clothing manufacturer, with a personal net worth of up to $253 million, according to financial disclosure forms. The former federal prosecutor led the legal push to impeach then-president Donald Trump in the House of Representatives in 2019.

He defeated a host of candidates in the Democratic primary for an open seat in the city’s 10^th District, including Jewish octogenarian Elizabeth Holtzman, who had last been in the House 50 years ago. His campaign spokesman declined to comment on the matter.

No IDC NY deleted its tweet early Sunday morning and apologized, posting in response to Torres, “We’re sorry — no anti-Semitism was intended and we took this down when folks expressed concerns it could be taken the wrong way.”

A long line of reactions expressed doubt about the apology, with one typical response being, “You knew what you were doing. There is no other way this could be taken or intended. Hate groups are hate groups even when called out and deny it.”

No IDC NY answered the critics, posting, “It was a joke about the names that certainly would have been better not made, e.g. DINO stands for “Dem in name only,” and was not supposed to be riffing off their Jewishness, we do not tolerate anti-Semitism.”

In a separate tweet, the group said that “the steering committee of No IDC NY has suspended the social media account manager who sent this tweet.”

This also did not garner plaudits, with people immediately responding that the employee should have been fired, not suspended.

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