Firebrand Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has been ridiculed online after appearing to confuse the Jewish holidays of Hanukkah and Yom Kippur.
On Sunday Ms Taylor Greene, who has previously been criticised for alleged antisemitic remarks, posted in support of Yom Kippur - using an image of a Jewish menorah candle holder.
Yom Kippur, regarded as the “holiest day of the year” by the Jewish community is a “Day of Atonement” and this year took place from the evening of Sunday, September 24 to Monday, September 25.
In a now-deleted post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Ms Taylor Greene wrote: “For all those preparing for the solemn day of Yom Kippur, I wish you a meaningful fast.”
Alongside the words, the image also featured a picture of a menorah, the Jewish Hanukkah candle holder.
She added: “Gamar Chasima Tova!” - an attempt at a traditional Hebrew greeting on Yom Kippur, which was misspelled.
The phrase - “g’mar chatima tovah” - means “a final good sealing” and refers to the belief that one’s fate is decided on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year festival, and sealed on Yom Kippur.
In response to Ms Greene’s Sunday post, Florida democratic congressman Jared Moskowitz wrote: “That’s a picture for Chanukah.
“Different Jewish Holiday. Yom Kippur is where you atone for your sins. Lord knows you will be very busy.”
Ms Greene subsequently deleted the post, later replacing it with one that did not feature an image, but that was still spelled incorrectly.
The far-right Republican politician has been criticised previously, following remarks she made in 2018 in which she speculated on alternative causes for wildfires in California, saying that they were not natural.
In a lengthy Facebook post at the time, Ms Greene claimed people had seen “lasers or blue beams of light causing the fire” from space.
She said the blazes could have been started by a natural gas company and the Rothschilds, a wealthy Jewish banking family that often features in such conspiracy theories.
Replying to her original Yom Kippur post on Sunday, liberal action committee MeidasTouch, referenced her alleged conspiracy theory in 2018, and described the mix-up as “wildly offensive”.
“Ms Jewish Space Lasers got her Jewish holidays mixed up (that is a Chanukah menorah). Wildly offensive — especially on the holiest day of the year in Judaism,” the account wrote on X.
Brett Meiselas, who co-founded MeidasTouch, added: “Menorah? Wrong holiday, you anti-Semitic POS.”
On Sunday Ms Greene posted in support of Yom Kippur - using an image of a Jewish menorah candle-holder— (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
US television writer Bill Prady, co-creator of sit-com The Big Bang Theory, also replied to the post, writing: “Here we have @RepMTG, the antisemitic genius who screamed about Jewish space lasers, offering us a Hanukkah menorah for Yom Kippur.”
Earlier this year, Ms Greene claimed her 2018 Facebook post was not antisemitic as she didn’t know the Rothschilds were Jewish.
Appearing on an episode of Donald Trump Jr’s podcast “Triggered with Don Jr” in February, she discussed the controversial post and said she had never used the phrase “Jewish space lasers”.
“Some reporter had written an article about the post I had made in 2018 and he titled it “Jewish space laser”. That’s how I got labelled with it. But I have never... never even said Jewish,” Ms Greene said.
She added that she “didn’t know anything about the religion” of the people she named in the post.
“The names I mentioned I didn’t know about the people. I just knew their names. But I didn’t know anything about their religion or anything like that,” she said.
