Congressman Jerry Nadler a the Hmaptons Synagogue. Photo: Jerry Nadler.

Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind chided New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler’s response to some of the criticism the Democratic lawmaker has received since coming out in favor of the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran.

“I’m sending him a sympathy card. A big sympathy card with a little, what do you call it? A teddy bear,” Hikind told The New York Observer on Wednesday at a rally in Crown Heights. Nadler told Haaretz that the criticism has been “emotional” and “hurtful.”

The Brooklyn assemblyman said he believed there would be a challenger to Nadler’s seat in the next election (Nadler’s been the representative of the 8th district since 1993). “I believe there will be a challenger, someone to the left of me who can actually win and I think there will be tons of money to help that person,” he said.

He said Nadler’s decision to throw his weight behind President Obama’s Iran deal was the straw that broke the camel’s back: “This is the defining issue for me. I would never support him.”

The Anti-Defamation League condemned the tone of criticism leveled against Nadler since he announced his decision, calling it “hateful” and “viscous.”

“The comments section of Congressman Nadler’s Facebook page is replete with Nazi analogies, vulgarities and obscenities, including references to him as a ‘stinking kapo,’ a coward and traitor to the U.S. and Israel, and one particularly appalling statement that read, ‘When you die there no place for you on Jewish cemetery,'” said the ADL.

Nadler’s announcement came just a few days before another New York Democratic representative, Carolyn Maloney, broke with her party’s majority support for the deal and said she would vote against adopting the Iran deal. Maloney said she could not accept the deal as is “out of conscience.”

Maloney joined New York representatives Eliot L. Engel, Nita M. Lowey, Steve Israel, Grace Meng and and Kathleen Rice in opposing the deal.