By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – The Jewish Democratic Council of America has released a videotape of its questioning last week of the three major Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate seat that was long held by Dianne Feinstein and is now occupied on an interim basis by Laphonza Butler.
Congressman Adam Schiff of Burbank had a homecourt advantage, telling of his Jewish upbringing and values, whereas Congresswomen Barbara Lee of Oakland and Katie Porter of Orange County had to introduce themselves less familiarly.
Schiff told interviewer Halie Soifer, the JDCA’s CEO, that he, Adam, has a wife named Eve; that his father was in the shmata (textiles) business , that he was bar mitzvahed in the San Francisco Bay area at Temple Isaiah (a Reform congregation in Lafayette, California), and then added: “I have been very much guided by my Jewish faith , certainly in terms of tikkun olam but even more by a passage from Micah: ‘What is required of us but to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.’ To me, those are great inspirations for my work.”
The candidates were interviewed separately, with each being asked general questions on such issues as abortion and immigration, and two questions relating specifically to Jewish community concerns. These were what can be done about the explosion of antisemitism in this country, and what should U.S. policy be toward Israel, especially in light of calls for a ceasefire.
The most significant difference among the candidates was their answers to the ceasefire question. While she favors eliminating Hamas as the power controlling Gaza, Lee said, “what I don’t think will assure Israel’s security is killing 26,000 women and children and civilians.”
“I believe in the two-state solution and I believe that the path to a two-state solution and peace and security for Israelis and the Palestinian people is calling for a permanent ceasefire,” she said. “We’ve got to make sure that the hostages are released and we can’t do that while this war is taking place.”
Porter said the conflict is unlikely to end “if we don’t get the hostages released.” She said that the United States, “as Israel’s ally, [should] push Israel’s leadership to focus squarely on this issue. We should all want a ceasefire.”
“I think we need to identify what are the conditions, what needs to happen on the ground, to bring the parties in this conflict, Israel and Hamas, to a permanent ceasefire,” Porter said. “I think that means we need to push for things that include not only the release of the hostages, plans to rebuild Gaza, but we need to think how we can eradicate Hamas as leaders of Gaza. I don’t see a path for a permanent ceasefire with regard to that.”
Schiff said: “I don’t support a permanent ceasefire while Hamas is continuing to control Gaza while Israeli and American citizens are continuing to be held hostage. I don’t know how you can ask a nation which has both a right and a duty to defend itself like Israel to cease fire under these conditions. I do support humanitarian pauses to get aid in and to get hostages out. … Hamas, it’s tragic, are using civilians as human shields and I grieve the loss of so many Palestinian lives as a result of Hamas using them as human shields.”
The candidates were quizzed in alphabetic order, with Lee, Porter and Schiff being interviewed separately and recorded via Zoom.
On the antisemitism issue, Lee said she understood the impact of hate on a community, having experienced it as a Black woman. She said she favored legislation enhancing penalties for hate crimes. With UC Berkeley part of her district, she said she has “fought back” against “antisemitism, white supremacy, Islamophobia, LGBTQ+ hate. “I have held meetings with members of the Jewish community to really figure out how we can, first of all, protect people in terms of federal investments if security is needed from the federal government.” She noted that as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, she is in a position to make money available for the protection of synagogues and other Jewish sites. She also said that it is important for elected officials “to bring people together so that we understand each other’s backgrounds and understand that antisemitism is not allowed. It is hate and we will never stand for allowing that to happen in any form.”
Porter commented: “Hate has no place in our community and it is on all of us to combat that in all forms of hate that we see on the rise. .. Antisemitism has often been the most pernicious, the most base form of hate that is often linked and used to then foment hate and hate crimes towards others, including the LGBTQ population and the Black population.”
She said that she fought for and delivered “more federal funding for our community-based organizations to combat hate crimes.” She said she also was “an early backer of President Biden’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.” As a representative of Orange County, she requested that the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. bring to her district an exhibit on American attitudes toward Jews preceding and during World War II.
Porter added that “I have a new bill that I am working on and will roll out shortly that would require social media companies to do more on content moderation and make those policies work so that we can address antisemitism on line as well as in our communities.”
Schiff said he personally has been the subject of antisemitic hate on line, and rued the fact that Jewish students do not feel safe on college campuses. “I have talked to parents who say their kids are taking a year off from some of the most elite universities,” he said.
“I am going to continue taking on the social media companies. I have taken Twitter (now called ‘X’) to task over their explosion of haters. .. I received a response on Twitter from Elon Musk that said, ‘Glad you lost your chairmanship; you have a very small brain.’ This is what we are up against.”
Additionally, he said, “I am going to continue to provide resources to the FBI and also oversight of the FBI to make sure that they are cracking down on antisemitic hate and in every other respect push back against this terrible scourge…”
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via sdheritage@cox.net
i am particularly pleased with Adam Schiff s responses and hope he wins the election for senator from California.