Between the holiest days on the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, an anti-Semitic attack ad appeared on facebook and instagram directed toward Jewish candidate Adam Haber. Haber is running in SD-7 for the New York State Senate.

In the ad, Adam's face is placed in a Fiddler on the Roof costume. It also appears that the image was altered to make Adam's nose appear bigger and the lighting is used to make it seem like he is wearing a yarmulke. The ad includes an unrelated headline from Newsday about "fiddling with the tax cap" and calls Adam a "tax cap fiddler." As Adam explains,
“It’s the Jew and it’s the money and he’s going to play with your money, that’s the message they are sending.” The ad can be seen at this link: http://www.theislandnow.com/news/haber-slams-social-media-advertisement-as-anti-semitic/article_af1cae78-9157-11e6-b4f8-53fbe40937a6.html

Adam's opponent in the race, republican Elaine Phillips, has claimed she had nothing to do with the ad and had never seen it before.

Despite condemnations of this bigoted caricature from a variety of local elected officials, organizations and religious leaders, no one has taken responsibility for it, and no one has apologized.

The ad was created by the page "The Real Adam Haber." While it is impossible to tell who exactly is behind these pages, there is little doubt it is the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, as advertisements used there have turned into direct mail which says it comes from that committee. This article explains this further: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Dems-cry-foul-over-Facebook-pages-8562812.php 

We are demanding that NYS Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, Chairman of the NYS Republican Party Edward Cox, Chair of the NYS Senate Republican Campaign Committee Cathy Young, and whomever else may have had a role in this, take full responsibility for this despicable ad, and offer Adam and the Jewish community on Long Island a complete and thorough apology.

Elaine Phillips claims she has nothing to with the ad, yet according to recent election filings she has received over $400,000 in September alone from the NYS Republican Campaign Committee. She claims she has "never condoned bigotry in any form," so will she stand up to the people funding her campaign over this bigoted attack?

In the age of declining civility and respect in our politics, let's see if the NYS Senate Republican Committee is willing to rise above the tone set by Trump and national Republicans and admit they were wrong to run this offensive and demeaning ad. Trump has shown himself incapable of apologizing after each offensive attach, will the NYS Senate Republican Committee follow his lead?