August 31, 2012

(JTA) — A Jewish politician from Brazil said he would sue a colleague for suggesting he was a Nazi.

Isaac Tayah, president of the city council of Manaus, said he would file charges in a federal court for racism, libel and defamation, according to A Crtitica, a Brazilian news site.

Earlier this month, councilman Mario Frota published in his blog a photomontage of Tayah’s face on the body of Adolf Hitler wearing a Nazi uniform.

Frota told several newspaper that it was a “bad joke,” but Tayah said he would not let it go.

“I can’t just ignore this. Even of the trial goes on for 10 years, Frota will have to answer for this,” he told A Critica. If Frota wanted to make a joke, Tayah added, “he could have presented me as a ballerina. He wanted to create a polemic.”

The umbrella organization of Jewish communities of the Brazilian state of Amazonas – the capital of which is Manaus – expressed “solidarity” with Tayah.

“Comparing Jews to Nazism is offensive to the Jewish people and religion,” a recent statement by the organization, CIAM, read. It added Tayah was a “prominent member” of the Jewish community of Amazonas.

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