Under the Dome: What Josh Stein and Mark Robinson say about SHALOM Act on antisemitism

Welcome to your governor’s race edition of our Under the Dome newsletter. I’m Dawn Vaughan, Capitol bureau chief at The News & Observer.

An antisemitism bill took center stage at the General Assembly this past week, as the House passed the SHALOM Act with significant bipartisan support. It also drew attention to the governor’s race because of past social media comments from the Republican nominee, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, as my politics team colleagues Avi Bajpai and Kyle Ingram noted in their coverage of the legislation.

The Democratic nominee, Attorney General Josh Stein, if he wins the general election, would be North Carolina’s first Jewish governor.

Stein applauded the bill, which may soon be taken up by the Senate, in a statement his campaign sent me.

“Attorney General Stein applauds the legislature’s efforts to combat antisemitism and protect Jewish people from acts of hate and violence,” said campaign spokesperson Kate Frauenfelder.

She also brought up Stein’s opponent.

“While Josh is confronting hate crimes across North Carolina as Attorney General, Mark Robinson refuses to apologize for denying the Holocaust and spreading dangerous, antisemitic conspiracy theories,” Frauenfelder said.

Soon after the attack on Israel by Hamas in October, Robinson used his authority as acting governor while Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper was out of the country to issue a proclamation in solidarity with Israel. He announced it at a news conference where reporters, including me, asked him about his previous antisemitic comments on social media.

Robinson said in October that he has “never been antisemitic” and did not apologize for Facebook posts including one in 2017 in which he wrote: “I am so sick of seeing and hearing people STILL talk about Nazis and Hitler and how evil and manipulative they were. NEWS FLASH PEOPLE, THE NAZIS (National Socialist) ARE GONE! We did away with them,” and then continued talking about Communism.

Another Facebook post in 2018 from Robinson said: “The center and leftist leaning Weimar Republic put heavy gun ownership restrictions on German citizens long before the Nazis took power. This foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash. Repeating that hogwash makes the conservative argument against the current attempts by liberal Marxist to push Unconstitutional gun control measures in this Nation look FOOLISH.”

Robinson said in October that “there have been some Facebook posts that were poorly worded on my part, did not convey my real sentiments, and I have addressed those issues and moved on from those issues.”

This past week, Robinson said in a statement that he “wholeheartedly” supported the SHALOM Act, which adopts the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

Robinson said amid the “recent surge in antisemitism,” the bill “demonstrates proactive measures in tackling this worrying trend.”

Stein campaigns during Teacher Appreciation Week

Stein was in Western North Carolina this week and met with several educators, including Teacher of the Year Heather Smith of Waynesville Middle School in Haywood County.

Stein shared photos of the visits on social media, saying, “I couldn’t be more grateful to our public school educators for everything they do to prepare our children for the future.”

As governor, Stein has said he would work to reinstate extra pay for teachers with master’s degrees and supports additional raises.

New podcast on Monday

Don’t forget to follow our Under the Dome tweets and listen to our Under the Dome podcast to stay up to date. Our new episode posts Monday morning. I’m joined by Avi Bajpai and Korie Dean as we talk more about the SHALOM Act, legislation about masks and how all of that connects to the recent pro-Palestinian protests at UNC-Chapel Hill.

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