(JTA) — Flyers with anti-Semitic messages directed against Chicago mayoral front-runner Rahm Emanuel were distributed on a train line that runs through the city.
The flyer, distributed at a Chicago Transit Authority Red Line station, shows a silhouette of Emanuel and reads: "I will run Chicago as I ran Freddie Mac, PROFITABLE (for me, me, me) thirty millions$$$$$$. I was entitled to it, being a Holocaust survivor (I mean my family)."
Emanuel is "unfazed" by the fliers, according to the NBC television affiliate in Chicago, which quoted him as saying "I have confidence in the people."
The nonpartisan election is scheduled for Feb. 22; and a runoff, if necessary, would be six weeks later.
On Sunday, fellow candidate Carol Moseley Braun compared Emanuel to a character in the Mel Brooks film "The Producers" who describes Hitler as "kind" and "gentle."
"I was not comparing him to Adolf Hitler; print that," Moseley Braun told reporters later. "I was trying to say … the kind, gentle concern for the public that is being portrayed in these ads does not square with the record."
Emanuel in a debate Monday said he thought Braun’s words were taken out of context.
Emanuel served for two years as President Obama’s White House chief of staff and also was a congressman.
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