Friday, Aug. 2, 2024 – As TC Jewfolk and other local outlets have reported this week, St. Paul City Council President Mitra Jalali took to Twitter/X to warn Vice President Kamala Harris against picking a “hardcore Zionist” running mate – specifically Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Shapiro, who is Jewish, is among those on Harris’ shortlist per media reports.

As JCRC Deputy Director Ethan Roberts pointed out, “All three [leading contenders] hold positions on Israel and the Hamas War which align with the Biden/Harris Administration.

“Apparently, it is not divisive when non-Jewish politicians such as Gov. Walz or Sen. Kelly hold mainstream pro-Zionist positions. However, when a Jewish elected official holds those same positions — which are shared by most Jews — he becomes for the left the wrong kind of Jew who must be ostracized from the party and disqualified from holding national office.”

Councilmember Jalali’s tweets couldn’t be more timely in reinforcing Yair Rosenberg’s latest in The Atlantic, which published the same day:

“It has become hard to escape the conclusion that some activists have a problem not just with Israel or Zionism but with Jews, who they assume are serving a foreign power, no matter what they’ve actually said or done. Historically, this is nothing new. The white-nationalist right has long sought to stigmatize American Jews as subversive and exclude them from political life, arguing that Jews are loyal only to their own kind. In this case, however, some on the progressive left are the ones treating Jewish identity as inherently suspect and holding Jewish political actors to a different standard.”