Nathalie Kanani, the Democratic Party's candidate for the US Senate seat representing Georgia, published a Passover greeting ad in the Atlanta Jewish Times on the eve of the holiday – only for the ad to contain a deeply embarrassing error.
Alongside the text "Have a blessed Passover – wishing you a holiday rich in love and divine blessing," the ad featured an illustration with Shabbat candles, what appeared to be the Israeli flag, and a Star of David. But where matzo (the unleavened flatbread eaten during Passover) would customarily appear, the ad instead showed challah.
Bless her heart, someone put challah in a Passover ad. This candidate wants to be my senator. As the only Jewish member of the Georgia General Assembly, I am available for holiday consults — or you could just consider a candidate who knows the difference, whose ad is just a few… https://t.co/Fr4FIuXaeR pic.twitter.com/9Q707QCLXp
— Rep. Esther Panitch (@epanitch) April 4, 2026
The ad set off a wave of mockery online, directed squarely at Kanani, who, it seems, may never have read the Haggadah – or may simply have forgotten it. Some compared the ad to recommending food on Yom Kippur. "There is nothing better than challah on Passover," The Dispatch editor Jonah Goldberg wrote sarcastically. "It's almost as good as eating a sandwich on Yom Kippur."
Georgia state Representative Esther Panitch (Democrat) added on X, "This candidate wants to be my senator. As the only Jewish member of the Georgia General Assembly, I am available for holiday consults — or you could just consider a candidate who knows the difference," the post read.
The Senate candidate published an apology, but placed the blame for the ad squarely on her campaign consultant. In a post she published Saturday on Facebook, Kanani wrote: " I want to sincerely apologize for the mistake in my recent ad. A photo of challah (bread) was mistakenly included in a Passover message. It's an oversight that should not have happened.
