RIGHT OUT OF DONALD'S PLAYBOOK:

A campaign mailer showing a Jewish candidate for state Senate with a fistful of money is a drawing condemnation for what critics say is its blatant anti-Semitic imagery.

It was sent out by Republican Ed Charamut and targets state Rep. Matthew Lesser, a Democrat who gave up his seat in the House to vie for an open Senate seat representing Middletown, Wethersfield, Newington, Cromwell and Rocky Hill. [...]

The photo on the "VOTE NO ON MATT LESSER" flyer shows Lesser's face bearing a greedy grin while clutching a few $100 bills in his hands. The image is recognizable as Lesser, but is clearly edited heavily. He said he has already heard from local Republicans who are also outraged about the Charamut team's decision to mail the flyer.

"It's imagery used to depict Jewish people going back hundreds of years," he said. "Whether that was intentional or not I can't say. That's not what our community is about. On Sunday evening in Middletown we had a community gathering on the South Green in light of what happened in Pittsburgh, and it was the best of our community and it was really heartening. It's demoralizing to see the campaign go in this direction."

Stuart S. Miller, the academic director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at UConn, expressed his disgust over the mailer.

"I personally find this reprehensible, deeply offensive and inexcusable," Miller said Tuesday. "I cannot believe that it is an innocent allusion to a supposedly money-spending Democrat. It just leaves me shaking my head as to the lengths some people will go to get elected or to stay in office, particularly in the present climate."

Miller said the mailer recalls the anti-Semitic stereotyping that went on in the U.S. in the 1920s and 1930s, from Henry Ford funding the printing of 500,000 copies of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" to the radio commentary of Father Coughlin.

Donald Trump's vigorous defense of an image widely regarded as anti-Semitic has alarmed many Jewish Americans, who are growing increasingly fearful that someone who could be the next president is willing to stoke the kinds of stereotypical attacks that have haunted Jews around the world for generations.

Rabbis and other Jewish community leaders point to a moment of reckoning following a Wednesday night appearance in which Trump, with his voice raised, defended the use of a six-pointed star, which resembled the Star of David, mounted over a pile of $100 bills as part of an attack against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The image previously appeared on a website popular with white supremacists.

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