FRANKFORT, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jewish groups from across Kentucky are calling for state lawmakers to take antisemitism training after several controversial comments in the last two weeks in Frankfort.
Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, chairman of the Kentucky Jewish Council, said it was antisemitic when two Kentucky legislators last week used the phrase “jew them down” in a committee meeting.
“We got a representative up here, (who says), 'See if you could Jew them down on the price," Sen. Rick Girdler, R-Somerset, said into the mic, repeating what Rep. Walker Thomas, R-Hopkinsville, said. "I don’t think that’s the right word to use. Drop them down, I guess.”
And then Wednesday, Rep. Danny Bentley, R-Russell, brought up Jewish people and the Holocaust during an abortion debate Wednesday, comparing an abortion bill to the cyanide gas used to kill Jews in concentration camps.
"The Holocaust has no place in the abortion debate," Litvin said. "The Jewish community has no place in an abortion debate."
Litvin said he has since met with each of the three legislators, and each expressed they didn’t mean any harm.
"(I wanted to) explain the history and the current harm that some of these expressions bring, that what my community hears when they hear these comments,” Litvin said.
On Friday, there was also an email blast to legislators from an outside hate group perpetuating antisemitism and asking for their help circulating various fliers. House Speaker David Osborne and Minority Floor Leader Joni Jenkins issued the following joint statement:
“On Friday, many legislators received a hateful, anti-Semitic email that was as false as it was disgusting. We are proud to stand together with the Jewish community, including the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Federation of Louisville, in denouncing this obscenity. We are also working with the Legislative Research Commission to ensure that legislators and staff alike are much less likely to see this type of bigotry. Kentucky was the first state to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, and a core component of that resolution is denouncing hatred whenever and wherever it happens. This is one of those times.”
The American Jewish Committee is now asking both chambers to take an antisemitism training, releasing a statement saying in part:
"Words matter, and leadership matters. We call on all elected officials and community partners to forcefully denounce anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, especially when they emanate from officials elected to serve the people of the Commonwealth.
We urge the leadership of the Kentucky House and Senate to accept our offer to provide anti-Semitism training to all members of the Kentucky General Assembly and their staff."
Gov. Andy Beshear released a statement Thursday morning on Twitter:
There is no place for antisemitism in Kentucky. Not in our communities and not in our government. We are all equal and wonderful parts of Team Kentucky where we love our neighbors as ourselves. ^AB
— Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) March 3, 2022
Litvin said he hopes leadership in both chambers will consider a training.
"When one community doesn't have that voice, the entire community suffers," Litvin said. "Antisemitism is not a Jewish issue. It's an American issue."
Information about who would lead the training or when a training would take place for the general assembly hasn’t been released yet.
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