State Senator Zack Taylor (R-Seminole) has stated his opposition to a social media post from the Oklahoma Republican Party that compares COVID-19 vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.

On Friday, the party made a post to its official Facebook page urging people to call Lieutenant Governor Matt Pinnell and ask him to call a special session to prohibit employers from requiring their employees to get vaccinated. A picture of a yellow Star of David with the word “unvaccinated” on it accompanied the post along with the caption, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”

Within hours of the state party’s post, Taylor released a statement criticizing it, adding that Oklahoma will not require its citizens to provide proof of vaccination.

“After a long day working in the heat I came home and read the statement the Oklahoma Republican Party put out. I am very disappointed that the state party has equated the current vaccine situation with the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a terrible atrocity in world history and what the Jewish people endured should never be compared to businesses seeking to require a vaccine. To clarify, I support an individual’s right to choose whether or not to take the vaccine. In Oklahoma there will not be ‘vaccine passport’ requirements. A business seeking to require a vaccine, which there are still exemptions to, should never be equated to the events of the Holocaust. That is not leadership,” Taylor said.

On Sunday, Republican Party Chairman John Bennett released a six-minute video in which he took credit for Friday’s controversial post and continued to criticize vaccine mandates.

“This is communist, totalitarian, and if we don’t do something now, it’s going to end in the same exact result as we saw when nobody stood up whenever the Jews were told that they had to wear that star,” Bennet said in the pre-recorded video.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City called the post “highly inappropriate” and issued a statement on Sunday, thanking the GOP leaders who have stated their opposition to the Holocaust analogy. The statement appears below:

“Holocaust analogies are never appropriate for anything other than referencing the Holocaust. These analogies always have a hurtful impact to Holocaust survivors, families of those murdered in the Holocaust, loved ones who risked their lives to save Jews, and loved ones of liberators. Regardless of one’s views about COVID-19 health discussions related to masks, vaccines and/or social distancing, to compare the actions taken by Nazi Germany to a public health discussion is ill-informed and inappropriate. It is sad and ironic that anyone would draw an analogy from the largest recorded genocide in the 20th century with public health attempts to save lives. Let us each strive to learn from the atrocities of the Holocaust by treating each person with dignity and respect - when we agree and especially when we disagree.”