
Daily Kickoff: Mastriano’s many Holocaust comparisons + Abraham Accords Caucus introduces first legislation
👋 Good Friday morning!
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent JI stories, including: The evolution of Blake Masters; Doug Mastriano’s history of Holocaust comparisons; Israel’s tourism minister is looking to jump-start a battered industry; Boston BDS map of Jewish groups has ‘potential to incite violence,’ Auchincloss says; Change to nonprofit security grant application weighing ‘social vulnerability’ raises questions; Washington remains committed to Middle East, says key U.S. diplomat; and The Israeli folk singer keeping Debbie Friedman’s legacy alive. Print the latest edition here.
The Mapping Project, a Boston-area pro-BDS activist group, is facing criticism from federal lawmakers in Massachusetts and beyond following the release of a map that ties Jewish and pro-Israel groups across the state with government entities, politicians, the police and the media.
Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), the assistant House speaker, expressed her concern about the project, telling Jewish Insider, “This ‘mapping’ of Jewish people, schools, organizations and academics is alarming and reminiscent of a dangerous history of identifying and tracking Jewish people. These maps have the potential to provoke attacks against the Jewish community. I condemn antisemitism and strongly urge that this map be taken down.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), who has frequently been critical of Israel, told JI, “It is not acceptable to target or make vulnerable Jewish institutions or organizations, full stop. There is no doubt that antisemitism and organized, violent white supremacy are at a boiling point in this nation and threaten our communities, so we must be vigilant when it comes to keeping each other safe… I take concerns about the safety of our faith houses and community organizations very seriously. Our community is reeling from acts of targeted violence, including the assault of a visiting rabbi just last summer.”
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) had earlier this week condemned the map, which he described to JI as “ just chilling,” adding that the map “is tapping into millennia-old antisemitic tropes about nefarious Jewish wealth, control, conspiracy, media connections and political string-pulling.” He called for the group to take down the illustrations and apologize.
Several other lawmakers, including Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey also condemned the project, with several calling it a potential danger to the Jewish community.
The House’s select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol held its first hearing — an emotionally charged two-hour event — yesterday evening. During the course of the hearing, members of the bipartisan committee aired previously unseen footage of interviews with top Trump administration officials.
Ivanka Trump said in a taped deposition that amid her father’s efforts to overturn the election results, she accepted then-Attorney General Bill Barr’s judgment that the election was not stolen.
In a separate deposition tape, Jared Kushner dismissed as “whining” threats by former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to quit in response to the former president’s attempts to overturn the election results.
The committee also alleged that Trump told aides during the riot that Vice President Mike Pence “deserved” to be executed for failing to stop the certification of the election results, and that several Republican lawmakers sought pardons from Trump following the riot.
scoop
Doug Mastriano’s history of Holocaust comparisons

Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano gives a victory speech at his election-night party at The Orchards on May 17, 2022 in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Doug Mastriano, a Pennsylvania state senator and the Republican nominee in the state’s gubernatorial race, once wrote that making comparisons between the Holocaust and modern events “betrays one’s ignorance of historic fact.” But a review of his past social media posts and public addresses reveals a history of doing just that — comparing the horrors of the 1930s and 1940s in Europe to current political events in the United States, on topics including gun control, election fraud, cancel culture, abortion and the preservation of historical monuments, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Freedom fight?: In August 2019, Mastriano, a military veteran who has a doctorate in history, posted a graphic to his public Facebook page that compared supporters of gun control to the perpetrators of the Holocaust.
Memorial metaphor: A June 2020 Facebook post, shared amid a summer of racial justice protests that led to Confederate monuments being taken down across the country, featured the caption, “Never forget” above an image of Auschwitz. “Over 1.1 million people were murdered in Auschwitz, and it still stands 72 years later,” read the text that appeared underneath the photo. “Why? Because Jews who survived wanted it preserved, as it is a reminder to never let the evil that was Nazism ever happen again. Never tear down memorials!”
Get educated: Robin Schatz, director of government affairs at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, said that he needs to learn why such remarks are problematic. “I don’t think this is coming from a place of deliberately antagonizing the Jewish community. I think, as with many people, it’s not understanding, and hopefully he will sit down with us sooner rather than later,” said Schatz, who added that representatives of the state’s Jewish federations have been trying to arrange a meeting with Mastriano.
No apology: Mastriano, who did not respond to a request for comment, has stood by his use of Holocaust comparisons on at least one occasion. Earlier this month, after The Forward reported that Mastriano once compared gun control policies to actions Hitler took in the 1930s, Mastriano reposted the video of him making those remarks to his Twitter. “Historically, this is accurate,” he wrote.