The Simon Wiesenthal Center has condemned remarks by a West Virginia Senate hopeful, who compared anti-smoking laws with the yellow stars Jews were forced to wear in World War II. Senate candidate John Raese criticized his state’s indoor smoking ban, saying in a speech that requiring venues to post smoke-free decals on windows was akin to how “Hitler used to put a Star of David on everybody’s lapel.” Raese has since refused to apologize for the remarks. Now, the powerful Holocaust trust …More

A US Senatorial candidate from West Virginia recently compared local smoking bans in the mountain state to the Nazi's persecution of Jews. Citing a local rule that required public buildings to display notification designating smoke free areas, John Raese linked the stickers to the yellow stars worn by Jews during the Holocaust. At a Lincoln Day dinner captured in a YouTube video, Rease told fellow Republicans, “In Monongalia County now, I have to put a huge sticker on my buildings to say this a smoke-free …More