Wiesenthal Center Condemns Madonna Comparison of Presidential Candidate as Villain Comparable to Hitler

WIESENTHAL CENTER CONDEMNS MADONNA COMPARISON OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AS VILLAIN COMPARABLE TO HITLER

The Simon Wiesenthal Center sharply criticized pop star Madonna’s new stage show for a video portion that unfairly portrays presidential candidate John McCain as a villaincomparable to Hitler and other perpetrators of human rights.

“As someone who strongly criticized the attempts to label Barack Obama a Muslim extremist, I find Madonna's attempt to compare John McCain with Hitler beyond the pale and aninsult to all Americans, Democrats as well as Republicans,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center. “There ought to be no place in the political andsocial discourse of American culture for such deliberate distortions and lies sure to be viewed by hundreds of thousands of young people around the world.”

During the 2004 elections, the Center condemned the targeting of political opponents as Nazis by both sides as an insult to the victims of the Holocaust.

Earlier this year, Rabbi Hier was one of the Jewish leaders who signed an open letter by Jewish leaders that criticized a widespread e-mail campaign that portrayed Senator Obamaas a Muslim extremist.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO atinternational agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.