New Jersey – Today, the New Jersey Regional Office of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, representing more than 50 Orthodox Jewish congregations in the state, added its voice to those offended by the comments made by Mr. Craig Shelton of the CWA at a rally in Trenton on June 16th.
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OU Regional Director of Public Policy Josh Pruzansky issued the following statement:
“While political debate is not only acceptable, but a right, we insist and expect such debate be conducted with civility. Comparing the Governor and Legislative Leadership to Hitler, a man guilty of genocide and leader of those who perpetrated a Holocaust, is repugnant. On behalf of our Garden State Jewish community members, we expect and we insist that Mr. Shelton, union officials, public officials and community leaders never resort to such offensive rhetoric.”
Below from the ADL:
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reacted to a statement made by Christopher Shelton, a union official at the Communication Workers of America speaking at a protest in Trenton yesterday in which he compared Governor Chris Christie to Adolf Hitler.
Etzion Neuer, Regional Director of ADL’s New Jersey Office, issued the following statement:
No matter how strong one’s objections to any government policy, invoking the Holocaust and the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jewish people is grossly offensive and has no place in civil political discourse.
Using the Holocaust as an analogy for the frustration of union negotiations displays an ignorance of history and an insensitivity to the tragedy in human history that saw the murder of six million Jews and millions of others.
We were pleased to read that Mr. Shelton subsequently apologized for his offensive statement and we remind all public officials that regardless of the issue, we need to rise above the demeaning rhetoric and to encourage advocacy that is vigorous but never personal or hostile.
Ironic when union thugs attack others as nazis!
The OU is right, and, moreover, is right to speak up about this. Regrettably, the term “nazi” is overused to describe pretty much anything folks disagree with. You may like or dislike Gov. Christie’s views on unions, but until he proposes rouding them up, putting them in camps, and having them murdered, he’s really not in the same league. Flippant and inappropriate use of the term cheapens it, and undermines the argument one is trying to make.
Gee…innumerable times I have read Yidden on this site call Obama either a Socialist, a Muslim, or a Communist…all of it, the Nazi comment too, is over the top, disrespectful and frankly stupid. But we could take a lesson from this – the cracks against are no less stupid and offensive.
Union thugs. Typical
I have an assignment for VINNEWS, please check which union he represents and what it does, to make sure that not only don’t we ever hire any of those thugs and low life buffoons who applauded what he said.
BUT, a mass boycott on everything this union is involved, and it should be done by all the children of Holocaust survivors like me.
This guy looks like a NAZI, acts like a NAZI and speaks like a NAZI, Jew in New Jersey and New York especially, get rid of the union in every way.
As for the ADL, cut the bull I don’t need an apology from this moron and neither does my family, I want all these people that applauded him, to suffer what my grandparents suffered then I will applaud. Did they think of an opology? you are damm right that NO.
We must stand up to these Union thugs, blackmailers, extortionist and thugs all over the nation, every company that produces kosher products start by removing the union, and if you need help fighting them, reach out to VINNEWSand we will be there in mass.
Before unions there were no labor laws protecting the basic empoyee rights that we all take for granted. I am a public sector attorney (non-union, by the way), and I’d be the first to go on, intelligently and with detailed knowledge I hope, about how public sector unions and their cozy government employers have gone too far – how public sector unions in too many cases (but not all by any stretch) make a mockery out of meaningful collective bargaining…
BUT…that is not the same thing as condemning collective bargaining across the board, or feeling gloatful and triumphant when lower middle class workers, firefighters, and teachers are made to pay for decades of abuses that include willful diversions of pension funds by Governor and legislature, after Governor and Legislature…after Governor and legislature.
I have a friend who makes $78,000 in a human resources State job in NJ…he has 26 years in. He told me last night that he now pays a little over $52 every two weeks for medical insurance for himself and his wife, a figure that will grow to $258 in three years under the legislation that Christie and Sweeney are selling as essential “reform” – his TAKE HOME pay will be reduced by som