(JTA) – A Fox Business Network host apologized after a U.S. congressman questioned whether liberal financier George Soros is Jewish and suggested that he betrayed Jews during the Holocaust. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, who is not Jewish, made the accusations, which were off the topic, during an appearance Dec. 8 on the Fox Business Network with Stuart Varney. Varney did not challenge the accusations and steered the conversation back to the topic they were supposed to be discussing.

In the following broadcast hour, Varney issued an on-air apology, saying: “In the last hour one of our guests, Congressman Louie Gohmert, for some reason went out of his way to bring up George Soros and made up unsubstantiated and false allegations against him. I want to make clear those views are not shared by me, this program or anyone at Fox Business.”

Gohmert’s statements echo accusations from Soros’ critics of his funding for left-wing and human rights groups in Israel, and unfounded allegations that Soros, a major supporter of liberal causes, collaborated with Nazis as a Jewish teen in Hungary during the Holocaust. Soros, who was 13 in 1944, survived the Holocaust in the care of a Hungarian official whose job included taking inventory of confiscated Jewish-owned property.

In response to the interview, the National Council of Young Israel tweeted: “What @replouiegohmert said was based upon this interview w/ 60 Minutes. Soros in his own words clearly implied he helped confiscate Jewish property during holocaust while posing as a non Jew & saying he felt no guilt doing so.” The tweet included a link to the interview, in which Soros noted that he was just a child and had no actual role in taking the property and therefore felt no guilt.

CAP: Rep. Louie Gohmert