Jewish Ohio Senate Candidate Compares Biden’s Vaccine Mandate To The Gestapo

By Times of Israel
Posted on 09/12/21 | News Source: Times of Israel

The latest politician to compare government vaccination efforts to Nazi Germany is Josh Mandel, a Jewish Republican candidate for US Senate in Ohio.

In a video Thursday protesting President Joe Biden’s upcoming requirement that a large portion of private sector employees either get vaccinated against COVID or get tested weekly, Mandel instructed his social media viewers not to comply with the requirement. In doing so, he compared Biden to the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police force that played a major role in carrying out the Holocaust.

“I call on my fellow Americans: Do not comply,” he said. “Do not comply with the tyranny, and when the Gestapo show up at your front door, you know what to do.”

Mandel is among the latest in a lengthening list of public figures, including Republican lawmakers, who have compared vaccine mandates and other public health regulations to the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. Holocaust scholars are united in categorically opposing such statements, explaining that there’s no comparison between public health measures and the genocide of six million Jews.

Mandel, Ohio’s former state treasurer and an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, has crafted an inflammatory presence on Twitter during his Senate campaign. His video drew outrage from other Jewish activists and organizations. The American Jewish Committee tweeted that Mandel’s statement was “disgraceful” and “hateful.”

“This statement is deeply offensive and trivializes the horrors of the Holocaust,” the group said. “Mandel should know better.”