Congressional candidate launches anti-Semitic Twitter attack — and he’s Jewish

JTA
Published August 14, 2018

Jewish congressional hopeful Mark Roberts has drawn fire for apparently anti-Semitic tweets. (Twitter)

(JTA) — An independent congressional candidate from Oregon who recently called first lady Melania Trump a “hoebag” and tweeted that she “works by the hour” has stirred controversy by aiming apparently anti-Semitic remarks at a prominent Jewish Twitter personality.

Mark Roberts launched an attack on Shoshana Weissmann, the digital media director at the conservative R Street Institute think tank, after she tweeted that he was an “idiot” who didn’t “understand how the “First Amendment works.”

In response, Roberts tweeted “Shalom mein #Yenta,” a Yiddish term for a gossipy woman, and later a YouTube video of the “Dreidel” song.

Weissmann is well known for her support of licensing reform, her rainbow-colored hair and her love of sloths.

“I admire how smart Mark is. He figured out I’m Jewish!!! GENIUS! And I try so hard to hide it!!! Great pick for Congress,” Weissmann retorted, prompting Roberts to declare that he was Jewish as well.

“Yeah it was tough, the face gave it away, if only you were smart enough to figure out I’m Jewish #nitwit,” he wrote.

“If you’re Jewish and also attacking other people for being Jewish, then you’re just even more pathetic than I thought,” Weissmann countered.

Asked by one twitter user why “anti-Semitism like yours [is] all the rage these days,” Roberts replied, “Off with your #Yarmulke and I’ll take a ginsu to your pe’ah too! #oyveyismere you people are so stupid.”

Roberts, who has described himself as “independent, a conservative and a disgruntled life-long Republican,” is given little chance of unseating the nine-time Republican incumbent in the 2nd Congressional District race, Greg Walden.