Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson has decided to backtrack on his heavily criticized support for some unhinged anti-maskers who wore yellow stars of David to a meeting about mask mandates this week. Some residents wore the stars—a reference to the badges imposed on Jewish people by the Nazis during the Holocaust—to protest a proposed mask mandate at a wild meeting where four people were arrested. Initially, Bronson defended the use of the symbol, claiming that it’s “actually a credit to” to Jews. However, he recanted in a Thursday statement that apologized for the offense caused. “I understand that we should not trivialize or compare what happened during the Holocaust to a mask mandate and I want to apologize for any perception that my statements support or compare what happened to the Jewish people in Nazi Germany,” said the mayor. The Anti-Defamation League called Bronson’s initial comments “disturbing and offensive.”
