George Soros
George SorosReuters

An American rabbi and chief of a political activist group defended the Republican candidate in the upcoming Virginia gubernatorial election from accusations of anti-Semitism, following the candidate's criticism of billionaire Democratic donor George Soros.

Caucus For America president Rabbi Aryeh Spero said in a statement Friday that criticism of Soros was being unfairly labelled as anti-Semitic, calling attacks on GOP candidate Glenn Youngkin "chutzpah".

“The charge by Terry McAuliffe’s supporters that his opponent, Glenn Youngkin, is anti-Semitic because he criticized George Soros is preposterous," said Rabbi Spero.

“No person is beyond criticism simply because he is a member of a minority community,” stated Rabbi Spero. “Mr. Soros actively and openly engages in politics and in influencing state and local governments and is, therefore, a legitimate object of criticism, especially concerning the leftwing policies he’s tried to force on America through his massive underwritings. Thus, this accusation is just another dishonest attempt to win an election by playing the ‘anti-Semitism card.’ It is specious chutzpah."

“Furthermore, those who point to Soros do so not because he is Jewish but because he is Soros, Soros being the most high profile and effective opponent today of American traditional values,” added Rabbi Spero. “As is well documented, he is by far the primary funder of radical leftist candidates and groups vowing to transform America into a transnational entity. Most people don’t even know the ethnic background of George Soros.

Rabbi Spero concluded, “Most ironic and disingenuous is casting Mr. Soros as a symbol of Jewish peoplehood when, in fact, Mr. Soros has spent a lifetime working against Israel’s defense and Jewish survival and needs. He has been proud of his disassociation from the Jewish community. To make him into a Jewish martyr is ludicrous inasmuch as he has spent a lifetime distancing himself from anything identifiably Jewish. Those on the left who too often abandon Israel and never care about the rampant anti-Semitism within their own political left are showing themselves to be hypocrites and putting victory at all costs above truth.”

Youngkin came under fire after accusing Soros of “inserting” political activists into the school system “disguised as school boards.”

“The blame for these wrongs and the present chaos in our schools, lay squarely, squarely at the feet of 40-year politician Terry McAuliffe,” Youngkin said to cheers Tuesday night at a rally in Burke, a town in northern Virginia. “But also, George Soros-backed allies. These allies that are in the liberal progressive movement, they’ve been inserting political operatives into our school system disguised as school boards.”

Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., a congresswoman from Virginia Beach, accused Youngkin of promiting an "antisemitic conspiracy theory."

“I call it out in my own party and I’m calling it out now,” Luria said Wednesday on Twitter. “Evoking George Soros as a shadowy funder is an antisemitic conspiracy theory. This is an unacceptable statement from Glenn Youngkin.”