Another Minnesota Republican Compares Public Health Measures to the Holocaust
Mountain Iron City Council Member Julie Buria, candidate for Minnesota House seat 6B, shared an image to her personal Facebook page containing graphic imagery from the Holocaust, in a post criticizing COVID-19 public health measures.
The graphic featured images of Nazi officials questioning Jews, paired with an even more disturbing photograph of a mass grave. The caption read: “Any government with enough power to demand that you carry papers in order to move around freely...is far more dangerous than COVID19.”
In an email to the Masabi Daily News, Buria apologized for the now-deleted post, and attempted to defend herself by stating:" “Everyone who knows me knows that I have always been a fervent supporter of Israel and the Jewish people.” Support for Israel is no indication of a person’s stance on antisemitism. Rather than countering the perception that she was antisemitic, Buria’s response treating American Jews and the State of Israel as one and the same was simply further engagement in antisemitic tropes. Buria’s invocation of Israel in response to the accusation of antisemitism is unsurprising; Republican legislators, including members of Congress, regularly do the same when facing similar accusations. Just ten days prior to Buria’s post, another Minnesota City Council Member and State House candidate, Paul Brandmire of St. Cloud, made a similar comparison and gave a similar — albeit less apologetic — response.
Just days prior, the Minnesota Republican Party was pressured to answer for a similar meme posted on the Wabasha County Republicans’ Facebook page. State Party Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan apologized for that post and stated that the board member responsible had resigned. As of Friday morning, July 31, Carnahan had not responded to the Masabi Daily News’ request for a comment.
Jewish Community Action, a Minnesota-based progressive Jewish organization, stated that the Minnesota Republican Party had endorsed Buria. The group pointed out the hypocrisy of Carnahan acknowledging the offensiveness of the Wabasha County GOP meme, while endorsing a candidate who shared a similar meme with even more graphic imagery.
The Minnesota Republican Party has also endorsed Jason Lewis (candidate for U.S. Senate), who has come under fire for claiming the “Jewish lobby” controls the GOP, and Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who ran antisemitic campaign advertisements in 2018.
Buria is running on a platform calling to restore mining to Minnesota, and protecting what she calls “our values and way of life.”
