BRUCE SCHREINER
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday there is no place for antisemitism in the state after a Republican state lawmaker expounded on the sexual habits of Jewish women during a legislative debate, a monologue several Jewish groups characterized as “bizarre."
The governor did not specify the target of his comments but spoke in general terms on social media after the third recent instance of remarks by GOP lawmakers that were widely condemned as antisemitic.
“There is no place for antisemitism in Kentucky," the Democratic governor wrote on his official Twitter account. “Not in our communities and not in our government. We are all equal and wonderful parts of Team Kentucky where we love our neighbors as ourselves."
The outcry hit a crescendo after Rep. Danny Bentley commented Wednesday on the Holocaust and his perception of the sexual habits of Jewish women during a long House debate on legislation to regulate the dispensing of abortion pills.
During a committee hearing last month, Rep. Walker Thomas and Sen. Rick Girdler both used an anti-Jewish slur that drew criticism from some of the same Jewish groups.
All three legislators later apologized for their remarks, but Jewish groups said the comments exposed a problem that should be addressed. The groups offered to provide training to legislators about understanding and combating antisemitism.
“The Kentucky General Assembly has an antisemitism problem,” said Melanie Maron Pell, chief field operations officer with the American Jewish Committee.
“They need to fine-tune their sensibilities” and speak out a
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