Are Jewish Politicians Facing the End of Their Place in the Democratic Party?

Brad Lander appeared to have everything going for him. At 57, the politician and urban planner defeated incumbent Representative Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th Congressional District primary. With strongly progressive positions, including support for undocumented immigrants and opposition to federal immigration enforcement, he seemed well placed for November’s midterm election.

Then came the problem the author says cannot be solved: Lander is Jewish. Only days earlier, he was targeted with insults and told to leave Madison Square Garden over allegations that he was a Zionist. One person confronted him and called him a “filthy ball sack,” followed by an expletive, because of that label.

The article argues that Lander’s other positions did not protect him. He has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, described Judea and Samaria as occupied, criticized Israel over human rights, supported recognition of a Palestinian state and stood up for Muslims facing Islamophobia. Yet, in the author’s telling, none of those positions could erase his Jewish identity in the eyes of antisemites.

Lander is presented as part of a wider group that includes Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, presidential hopeful Rahm Emanuel, Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. The author says they risk being pushed aside simply because they were born Jewish.

The piece also singles out influencer and streamer Hasan Piker as a potential force in Democratic Socialist politics, suggesting that Jewish politicians may find little protection from increasingly open hostility on the far left. Bernie Sanders is described as a possible exception, protected by his stature but too old, in the author’s view, to seek public office again.