Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears on “Fox & Friends” in July 2023.Photo:John Lamparski/Getty
John Lamparski/Getty
Ashkenazi Jews generally have ancestors who settled in parts of Eastern Europe, and the majority of American Jewsdescribe themselves as Ashkenazi.
“It cannot be ignorance because he is not ignorant, so he must believe it,” Foxman toldThe New York Times.
Robert F Kennedy Jr. speaks during a campaign event to launch his 2024 presidential bid in Boston on April 19, 2023.JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty
“I understand the emotional pain that these inaccurate distortions and fabrications have caused to many Jews who recall the blood libels of poison wells and the deliberate spread of disease as the pretext for genocidal programs against their ancestors,” Kennedy wrote in thetweet.
“Myfatherand my uncles,John F. Kennedyand SenatorEdward Kennedy, devoted enormous political energies during their careers to supporting Israel and fighting antisemitism. I intend to spend my political career making those family causes my priority," he continued.
Kennedy also cited astudy from the Cleveland Clinic, which said the virus’ structure made Black and Caucasian people more susceptible, and “ethnic Chinese, Finns and Ashkenazi Jews” were less receptive. The July 2020 study did not mention any lower susceptibility for Chinese people and only stated that one receptor for the virus did not appear to be present in Amish and Ashkenazi Jews.
“Jewish or Chinese protease consensus sequences are not a thing in biochemistry, but they are in racism and antisemitism,” tweetedAngela Rasmussen, a prominent virologist at the University of Saskatchewan.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. poses with his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, at the RFK Ripple of Hope Awards in 2019.Dia Dipasupil/Getty
The son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy haspreviously had to respond to backlashfrom the Jewish community — andhis own wife— after he compared vaccination requirements and COVID-19 restrictionsto the plight of Jews in the Holocaust.
“Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did,” he said at an anti-vaccine rally in 2022. “Today the mechanisms are being put in place so none of us can run and none of us can hide.”
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source: people.com
