A Jewish deli owner in suburban Chicago came under fire for a cartoon of a Trump-like figure giving the Nazi salute displayed prominently on it’s High Holidays Menu.

Max’s Deli of Highland Park posted the menu on it’s Facebook page on Aug. 23, but it only began to gain notice Thursday.

The cartoon figure is wearing a military uniform, a red swastika armband and a T-shirt proclaiming “I’m With Alt-Right.” The frowning Nazi sports blonde hair, resembling the appearance of President Donald Trump.

In a Facebook post accompanying the menu, the Deli wrote “Here’s a hard question: what do they really mean by Alt-Right? I’ll tell you what they really mean … Nazi.”

Referencing the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the post reads: “Look how easily we pretend nothing’s happening. Or the problem is Steve Bannon instead of Donald Trump.”

Deli owner Greg Morelli posted an apology on Friday, a day after the story was reported by several local media outlets and he had begun receiving backlash.

Under the heading “Atonement,” the post reads: “3 Little Words. I Was Wrong. To those of you who called, who reached out, who saw me against the ropes, who offered a hand instead of a fist, L’Chaim! To those of you who bashed, who reacted without thinking, who fed on the indignation of others, who threatened my business, L’Chaim!”

The post concludes: “We’re all in this. We’re all still here. Trump is still president. This might surprise you, but I don’t want Impeachment. I don’t want Censure. I don’t want President Pence. I want a robust conversation. Then in the next election, I want the vote to show us who we really are. I want us to own it!”

Morelli, who co-owns the Highland Park diner with his brother, told the Chicago Tribune the deli had been inundated with angry calls about the post, and even his own family is “done with him.”

In an interview with NBC Chicago, he explained that his Judaism led him to speak out after the deadly events at Charlottesville. “I’m a Jew. I cannot pretend, in this movement, that I’m not afraid—but I’m also afraid of being afraid,” he said. “I’m not going to go quietly on a train.”

“I have a Jewish deli, I am a Jewish man,” Morelli told the Tribune. “I am the first person that’s going to get a brick through the window if this plague is not stopped immediately.”

Morelli told NBC he decided to use the High Holidays catering menu to send his message because Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana are about atonement and learning from your mistakes.

“I just couldn’t help but feel like, if this president could learn anything from the High Holidays, it’s that it’s OK to be wrong,” he said. “You’re making me uncomfortable, man, you’re supposed to be the president.”

Morelli said he hopes that people realize that racism and anti-Semitism aren’t a thing of the past.

“Whenever someone’s quiet, as a group, people get away with terrible things,” he said.

(Nat Golden – YWN)