NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A Republican candidate for New York governor came under fire this week after demonstrators displayed Nazi symbols at an anti-vaccination rally that he organized outside a Jewish lawmaker’s office on Sunday.
Demonstrators were protesting outside the Kingsbridge office of state Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz in opposition to his proposal to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of mandatory vaccines for New York schoolchildren.
Photos posted to Dinowitz’s social media showed at least one woman holding a sign with a swastika at the end of a needle and a man wearing a yellow Star of David on his coat.
Dinowitz called the symbols as “repugnant” and “despicable,” and slammed rally organizer, former Republican Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, for failing to condemn the imagery at the rally.
“Rob Astorino stood right next to these anti-Semitic symbols and said NOTHING,” Dinowitz wrote. “All Republican leaders should condemn this unacceptable use of anti-Semitic imagery.”
Astorino, who is currently making his second bid for governor, however, told WCBS 880 that he did not see the swastika sign or the Star of David until Dinowitz posted the photos.
“There's a picture of me beforehand where she came and said hello and she had a different sign that said, ‘fear is the real virus,’” he said. “So at some point, she either switched, or quite frankly, she showed up on behalf of other people.”
It a tweet, Astorino insisted that he would have demanded the symbols be removed had he seen them prior to the rally.
“If I’d seen it, I’d have told them to take the sign down. No comparison to those atrocities & yes, I’ve always condemned anti-Semitism,” he wrote.
Astorino says there's no place for something like that but noted that there is political fervor on both sides of the aisle when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Dinowitz said it is difficult to believe that Astorino was unaware of the imagery.
“It's a little hard to imagine that he was not aware that there were swastikas at that rally,” Dinowitz said. “And he should have simply told those people ‘I don't want to here, that's a horrible thing.’ But he didn't do that, and I think that's really unfortunate. Is this the state of the modern Republican Party?”
Dinowitz also insisted that the protest regarding his proposal was premature, as he does not plan to introduce the measure until the Food and Drug Administration grants full approval for the COVID-19 vaccine for children.
Meanwhile, dozens of local politicians and community officials – including New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams and New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie – have come out in support of Dinowitz, with many shaming those who participated in Sunday’s protest.