Bruce Blakeman, who will face off against Gov. Kathy Hochul, called a Democratic congressional candidate “antisemitic” over his views on Israel. The candidate is Jewish.
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The Republican nominee for New York governor prompted outrage among Democrats after saying that a Jewish congressional candidate “would be a camp guard in the concentration camp if he could.”
Bruce Blakeman, who will face off in November against Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), took aim in a Newsmax interview at Brad Lander over his views on Israel. Lander, who has called Israel’s war on Gaza a “genocide,” emerged Tuesday as the Democratic nominee for a New York congressional seat.
Lander, in his victory speech, said that he will be “one of the Jewish members of Congress most willing to stand up for Palestinian human rights.” He has called for ending all American aid to Israel, including defense funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
Both Lander and Blakeman are Jewish.
“Brad Lander, he’s a disgrace. He’s anti-American, he’s antisemitic. Even though he’s Jewish, this guy would be a camp guard in the concentration camp if he could,” Blakeman said in a Wednesday night appearance on Newsmax.
Outgoing Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-New York), who is also Jewish, described Blakeman’s comments a “grotesque desecration of the memory of 6 million Jews.”
“For Bruce Blakeman to invoke the Holocaust to smear a fellow Jewish man is beyond the pale,” Nadler said.
Hochul urged Blakeman to apologize for what she said were “absolutely despicable” comments.
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Lander denounced the remark as “far-right MAGA bigotry” and defended his Jewish identity, saying that he named his son after Warsaw ghetto uprising leader Marek Edelman.
“I don’t know where Bruce Blakeman went to Hebrew school, but I was taught that ‘Never Again!’ means never again to anyone,” Lander said in a statement. “Standing up for Palestinian human rights doesn’t make me any less proud to be Jewish, or any less serious about fighting antisemitism.”
In a statement issued Thursday, Blakeman continued his criticism of Lander, saying “maybe camp guard was too strong, but certainly collaborator.”
J Street, a liberal Jewish organization that describes itself as “pro-Israel, pro-peace,” condemned the comments as “corrosive and wrong” in a post on X.
Lander is one of three congressional candidates in New York City backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, who won contested Democratic primaries. The other two are Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier.
Lander ran to the left of incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman (D), whom he defeated in the Democratic primary fight for New York’s 10th Congressional District.
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