Hail mail sent to Republican presidential hopeful Arlen Specter has warned the Pennsylvania senator that he would pay in “blood of Jews, every man, woman and child” if he continues his bid to “take over” America.
In addition to about a dozen hate letters, Specter has received two physical threats, his campaign office revealed last week.
Specter, a moderate Republican, is the first Jew to make a serious run for the White House in decades.
Specter’s campaign office has released copies of several of the letters, some of which are riddled with obscenities, others which espouse anti-Semitic rhetoric.
But officials refused to discuss the nature of the physical threats.
“It’s real nasty, negative, personal hate mail,” campaign spokesman Charles Robbins said.
Specter has received “unpleasant” letters in previous campaigns, but they are more prevalent in this campaign because it is national, Robbins said, adding that his office does not respond to such letters.
Most of the letters released focused heavily on Specter’s pro-choice stance on abortion. One meandering letter that was released was glaringly anti-Semitic.
A nine-page diatribe against Israel and Jews from M. Winfield of San Francisco named about 30 prominent Jews on a list of things the writer was “so sick of.”
“We are entering a period of unprecedented anti-Zionist, anti-Jewish public sentiment that no amount of labeling, threats, rhetoric, etc. will allay,” the handwritten letter read.
Winfield singled out film director Steven Spielberg; World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman and his family; and Martin Indyk, the U.S. ambassador to Israel.
Mr. and Mrs. W.D. Ferguson of Applegate, Ore., called the senator a baby killer and said, “It’s time pro-life, Christian America takes over.” They signed it: “Filled with revulsion.”
A postcard from Richard Wagener of Dubuque, lowa, depicted an aborted fetus, and quoted an article on Specter’s campaign trip to area. It was addressed to “Adolph Specter.”
Jupiter, Fla., resident ray “Shali” Beesch asked Specter to “please drop dead.”
One unsigned, obscenity-ridden letter suggested that Specter choose “that other Russian Jew Allen [sic] Dershowitz” as his running mate and lambasted the senator’s campaign announcement. Robbins said the letters had not prompted any extra security precautions, though the physical threats were reported to the “proper authorities.”
“Clearly, attempts and attacks on the president and presidential candidates are not unheard of,” he said.
“We’re just moving along, business as usual,” Robbins said, adding that the campaign would continue to report additional threats if they are received.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
