U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner will host a Passover seder Thursday in Maine with Jewish group leaders, together with the state chair of the liberal pro-Israel foyer J Avenue, in a present of Jewish outreach following months of controversy over his Nazi-symbol tattoo and robust condemnation of Israel.
The seder was Platner’s thought and can embody a customized haggadah that pulls from Jewish custom throughout denominations, organizers stated.
In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Company previous to the occasion, Platner stated he had intensive private connections to the Passover vacation.
“All through my life I’ve simply had a direct household connection to Judaism, and I’ve attended a number of seders,” Platner, an oyster farmer and army veteran, informed JTA on Tuesday. “Truthfully, it’s one among my favourite of the spiritual traditions: sitting down, having this very ritualistic approach of discussing oppression and discussing freedom and discussing what all meaning in relationships to individuals and spirituality.”
Within the interview, Platner revealed new particulars about his prolonged Jewish household and his views on Israel. He additionally mirrored on his look on a podcast whose host posts derogatory memes about Israel and “goyim” — in addition to on the controversy over his tattoo.
Seth Frantzman, an Israeli coverage analyst and stepbrother to Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner, discusses Israel’s army offensive in Gaza on Fox Information, Aug. 29, 2025. (Screenshot by way of YouTube)
Platner’s stepfather is Jewish and his stepbrother is Seth Frantzman, an Israel coverage analyst, former Jerusalem Publish editor, fellow on the conservative suppose tank Basis for Protection of Democracies, and creator of “The October 7 Battle: Israel’s Battle for Safety in Gaza.” Platner stated he stays “very shut” with Frantzman’s household, who dwell in Jerusalem, and has largely prevented mentioning them on the marketing campaign path out of concern for his or her privateness.
The Democratic candidate stated his personal views on Israel, which embody his push for an finish to U.S. army support to Israel and his view that the nation dedicated genocide in Gaza, are knowledgeable partially by these relationships.
“I need him to be protected. I need his youngsters to be protected. I need his spouse to be protected,” Platner stated of Frantzman, who didn’t return a JTA request for remark however wrote favorably of Platner on social media in 2021.
“I don’t suppose that they’re going to have the ability to dwell in security whereas Palestinians live underneath immense quantities of repression, as a result of repression begets intense resistance, which is precisely what we’re seeing,” Platner continued. “I feel that one of the best ways to have my stepbrother and his household dwell in security is to have everybody within the area additionally dwelling in security.”
Platner has ties to a different Jewish household by his brother. In truth, the candidate stated, the video that first revealed he’d sported a Totenkopf tattoo on his chest for 17 years (unaware of its symbolism, he’s lengthy insisted) was taken at his brother’s Jewish marriage ceremony.
That, he informed JTA, ought to be seen as additional proof that nobody in his circle knew, previous to media stories on its origins, that his skull-and-crossbones tattoo, which he obtained whereas deployed abroad, was a Nazi image.
Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner sports activities a Totenkopf tattoo on his chest, in an archival video launched by Platner himself. The skull-and-crossbones image is usually related to the Nazi SS. Platner later retouched the tattoo to take away the Nazi affiliation. (Screenshot by way of YouTube)
“I took my shirt off on the marriage ceremony and carried out a quite ridiculous dance for them as their marriage ceremony current,” he informed JTA. “If I assumed that I had one thing that had clear white supremacist or antisemitic connotations, I might not have taken my shirt off in entrance of my prolonged Jewish household, as a result of that will have been ridiculous.”
Platner retouched his tattoo to take away the Nazi symbology after its origins got here to gentle, resisting calls to drop out of the race over it in addition to his previous derogatory Web posts about sexual assault, rural Individuals and LGBTQ individuals.
Since then, he has gained in polling in opposition to his main rival, Gov. Janet Mills, with an Emerson Faculty ballot launched final week discovering him up 55% to Mills’ 28%. (13 p.c of respondents had been undecided.)
Extra Democrats are endorsing him, together with key senators Elizabeth Warren, Ruben Gallego and Jewish progressive Bernie Sanders, the latter of whom has dismissed considerations about Platner’s tattoo.
Platner’s unconventional rise has positioned him as a vanguard for modern progressivism in a state the celebration sees as a must-win, whilst some Jewish teams have expressed concern. His seder plans come as his marketing campaign has just lately staffed up in a present of power; its new communications director beforehand labored on Jewish Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2022 marketing campaign.
Maine’s small Jewish group, which numbers round 19,000, is combined on Platner. Final yr the state’s sole Jewish federation arm, the Jewish Group Alliance of Southern Maine, stated it was involved by Platner’s “broader messaging,” including that his “repeated, singular concentrate on not taking cash from AIPAC performs into acquainted, dangerous tropes that Jews or organizations like AIPAC management the federal government.”
The Jewish Group Alliance didn’t return a request for remark about whether or not its views had modified, and Platner’s marketing campaign didn’t say whether or not representatives would attend the seder. Some nationwide Jewish leaders, together with Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, have expressed concern that Platner’s tattoo might characterize a “flirtation with Nazism” — a cost amplified by Republicans together with Sen. Ted Cruz and the Republican Jewish Coalition.
These prices don’t mirror the true Platner, based on one among his lifelong Jewish associates.
“I feel that every one these questions on his Nazi stuff or no matter, I feel it’s actually far-fetched and tremendous inaccurate,” Avi Gabel-Richards, a childhood buddy who’s serving to to arrange the seder, informed JTA. “So long as I’ve identified him he’s principally been one of the tolerant and accepting individuals. He’s just about the overall reverse of what these accusations are saying, in my view.”
A staffer at Acadia Nationwide Park who stated he’s not organizationally concerned in Jewish causes at this time, Gabel-Richards recalled that Platner attended his bar mitzvah at a Bangor synagogue. After tales about his buddy started circulating, Gabel-Richards stated, he steered Platner plan some sort of occasion with the Jewish group.
Platner then got here up with the seder, however, Gabel-Richards stated, “I used to be by no means considering of it as some political commercial for him in any approach.”
Former State Division advisor Steven Koltai delivers the TED discuss “World Peace By means of Entrepreneurship,” impressed by his work with Israeli and Palestinian entrepreneurs, in Maine, Nov. 23, 2012. Koltai, a chair of J Avenue Maine, is organizing a Passover seder with progressive Senate candidate Graham Platner. (Screenshot by way of YouTube)
One native Jewish determine who has embraced Platner is Steven Koltai, a enterprise guide who suggested Hillary Clinton’s State Division on entrepreneurship and is the chair of J Avenue Maine. Koltai stated in an interview that Platner had approached him immediately about placing on the seder, which isn’t an official J Avenue occasion.
“My main curiosity in Graham is as a Mainer, not as a Jew,” stated Koltai, a son of Holocaust survivors and a Hungarian refugee. He additionally serves on the board of the Jewish immigrant support group HIAS and authored the ebook “Peace By means of Entrepreneurship,” impressed by his work with Israeli and Palestinian entrepreneurs.
He stated Platner was one of the best candidate to beat Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins.
On his weblog final fall, Koltai had expressed reservations about Platner’s tattoo and feedback on Israel. “I used to be alarmed by his hyperbole on the Gaza disaster, calling Israel’s actions a genocide,” Koltai wrote on the time. “However, as I defined to fellow Jewish associates who know the way deeply dedicated I’m to the Jewish individuals and to Israel, Gaza isn’t on the record of prime 15 issues Mainers voting for his or her senator most care about.”
At the moment, Koltai stated, Platner had pacified his considerations “in broad strokes.”
Koltai stated he believed he and Platner had been largely aligned on Israel, together with on eager to see a two-state resolution.
“I’m very excited by the USA utilizing its affect to rein in, if not assist change, the federal government of Israel. And Graham could be very a lot in live performance with that view,” Koltai stated. “I view Graham as any person who is aware of and understands rather a lot about worldwide politics, notably battle. And I feel he shares my view that the Israeli authorities, the present Israeli authorities, operates approach past the bounds of not solely legality, however frankly, in my opinion, what’s within the curiosity of long-term peace with the Palestinians.”
Koltai stated he could be crafting a customized haggadah, or Passover liturgy, for the seder; he normally does so for his personal seders, anyway. Platner’s marketing campaign stated round 50 individuals had been anticipated to attend, although Koltai stated the demand was a lot increased.
“I hope that not less than half the individuals are Jews,” he stated.
Platner stated his personal views on Israel don’t precisely align with J Avenue’s: “I don’t let organizations dictate my opinions or politics to me. However I’m completely happy to work with of us who I feel broadly, very a lot, share related values and an analogous outlook on the longer term.”
Requested to elaborate, he responded, “To ensure that the longer term to be one among security and justice and decency, I firmly consider that everybody within the area, everybody who’s at present present inside, I might say, the safety boundaries of what’s at present the State of Israel — to incorporate the occupied territories as a result of I feel that, at this level, it’s exhausting to say there isn’t any Israeli energy in these areas — I feel completely everybody must be given the very same rights and freedoms.”
He continued, “And what that appears like, I’ll be sincere, I don’t have the reply. I don’t suppose anyone has the reply at this level.”
Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner seems on the podcast “Valhalla VFT” with host Nate Cornacchia, Jan. 27, 2026. (Screenshot by way of YouTube)
Platner additionally defended his January look on a veterans’- and gun-themed podcast whose host, Nate Cornacchia, has unfold quite a few conspiratorial memes about Jews and Israel. Cornacchia final week posted memes depicting a conservative Israel supporter in a “Greatest Goy” shirt and an Uncle Sam recruitment poster studying “I Need You to Die for Israel.” On the identical episode through which Platner appeared, after the candidate left, Cornacchia signaled his help of far-right Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback, a proponent of the antisemitic “groyper” motion.
Claiming he by no means checked the host’s Instagram, Platner stated his objective was to construct outreach for his progressive insurance policies to new constituents.
“That podcast is listened to by virtually each single man I served within the army with,” Platner stated. “I went on an avowedly right-wing present, and I talked about how immigrants are a key to our group right here in Maine. I advocated for a authorized pathway to citizenship for people who find themselves already right here. I talked about how ICE was primarily a Gestapo group that’s killing Americans, and that it must be absolutely defunded and destroyed and was one thing else.”
He continued, “If we don’t try this, then we’re going to cede floor to those that are going to have the ability to simply lean into issues like antisemitism and xenophobia and racism.”
Platner added that his outreach technique has limits: “There’s a distinction between occurring a present like that, that has some tangential points, and, for example, occurring Nick Fuentes. F–okay that man.”
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