Jackie Mason Links Votes for Blacks to Guilt

Comedian Jackie Mason was dropped Wednesday as a high-profile advocate for Republican mayoral nominee Rudolph W. Giuliani after telling the Village Voice that Jews are voting for Democrat David N. Dinkins out of guilt and that Dinkins “looks like a black model without a job.”

The comments in an interview published Wednesday caused an immediate uproar by directly raising the issue of Dinkins’ race in a way that Giuliani has avoided.

Mason, a former rabbi who performs stand-up routines with a Yiddish accent and stars in the new ABC-TV comedy “Chicken Soup,” was denounced by the American Jewish Committee and other Jewish groups.

Mason’s presence in the campaign was meant to humanize the generally dour Giuliani. The 57-year-old comedian told reporters Wednesday that his comments had been taken out of context and in some cases misquoted and that he meant them to be off the record. But he repeated some of the remarks during a news conference.

“There is a sick Jewish problem of voting for a black man no matter how unfit he is for the job,” Mason told the Village Voice. “All you have to do is be black and don’t curse the Jews directly, and the Jew will vote for a black in a second.

“Jews are sick with complexes. They feel guilty for the black predicament as if the Jews caused it. . . . The Jews are constantly giving millions of dollars to the black people. Have you ever heard of a black person giving a quarter to a Jew?”

At another point, he said: “You don’t need a guy like Dinkins, who spends his whole life putting on shirts and jackets and parting his hair. Dinkins looks like a black model without a job. The man has accomplished absolutely nothing in his life. . . . If Dinkins was white and you put his track record against Giuliani’s track record, he wouldn’t get a single Jewish vote.”

Giuliani, whose campaign recently aired a television ad featuring Mason, said he found the remarks as published “offensive.” Dinkins, the Manhattan borough president, called Mason’s comments “nonsense.”