J Street, the Pro-Palestinian Jewish group which markets itself as pro-Israel, was the leading donor to Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s (D-NY16) 2022 race for congress. It proudly touted that it poured $100,000 into Bowman’s campaign in August 2022, even though he was a shoe-in as an incumbent in a primary race with multiple candidates. The extreme left-wing group had taken Bowman on a visit to Israel in 2021 and doubled down on its investment.
J Street’s activities with Bowman is seemingly worthless, as it cannot get the congressman to attend liberal Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to a joint session of congress next week.
Herzog is a J Street favorite. The group congratulated him on his appointment in 2021, writing “We have deeply appreciated our engagement and relationship with President-elect Herzog over the years, during his tenure as chairman of the Israeli Labor Party, as Knesset opposition leader and as Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel. It has been our honor to host him for addresses at several J Street conferences and to meet with him regularly with J Street delegations visiting Israel.” Herzog has shown his appreciation to J Street, giving televised addresses to the group’s large gatherings.
If J Street cannot get an alt-left congressman which it heavily supported to attend a speech by a liberal Israeli president, there is only one conclusion: Bowman’s anti-Israel sentiments are so profound that he cannot even accept talking to liberal Jews or Israelis. It remains to be seen if he will start to reject their money.
ACTION ITEM
EMAIL J STREET: “If you cannot get Rep. Jamaal Bowman to attend Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to a joint session of congress, we expect the organization to back his primary rival next year.”
EMAIL REP. JAMAAL BOWMAN: “Israeli President Isaac Herzog is a liberal pro-peace activist. Boycotting him along with radical colleagues is not a protest against Israel but against coexistence.”
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16) told left-wing Israeli media Haaretz that he will be boycotting Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to a joint session of Congress next week. He offered “I’ve been very outspoken regarding the treatment of Palestinians. The United States is important in ensuring accountability and uplifting the human rights of Palestinians.”
It is a remarkable statement in light of Palestinian polls showing the prevailing attitude pushing for violence rather than peace.
In June 2023, Palestinians said the two most positive Palestinian events since the “Nakba,” the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 were the creation of the terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and the first and second Intifadas. A majority support another intifada and 57% support or strongly support killing Jewish civilians inside of Israel.
Not only is Bowman ignoring Palestinian thirst for Jewish blood, he is choosing to boycott a left-wing leader Israeli leader, who speaks to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas frequently. Such action sets back the cause of peace and empowers the Islamic Republic of Iran.
ACTION ITEM
EMAIL REP. BOWMAN “Israeli President Isaac Herzog is in favor of peace and dialogue with Palestinians. A decision to boycott him is not just an insult to the Jewish State and to a future of peace with Palestinians but is a vote to empower the dangerous genocidal regime in Iran.”
Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY17) has been very active supporting his constituents, particularly those interested in combatting antisemitism and promoting peace in the Middle East.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY17)
It may make him a target of powerful left-wing politicians in New York State.
Lawler: Pro Peace and Bi-Partisan
On June 12, 2023, Lawler took to the House floor to promote a bill he co-sponsored with Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY15). He spoke about H.R.3099 to create a “special envoy for the Abraham Accords in the U.S. Department of State… to coordinate efforts across the United States government to expand and strengthen the Abraham Accords with key allies and strategic partners… making clear that the United States government prioritizes our relationship with Israel and the advancement of peace and prosperity.”
Rep. Torres also took the floor and discussed the bill he co-sponsored and led with the importance of bipartisanship. “I want to thank the gentleman from New York, Mike Lawler, for his legislative partnership and leadership. If there is one cause that should transcend partisanship, it is the cause of peace in the Middle East. Building a bridge between Israel and the Arab world is neither a Democratic value nor a Republican value; it is an American value.”
Lawler concurs, and is proud of his willingness to work with Democrats saying “you need to be able to build relationships within your own conference and across the aisle, especially coming from a district like mine. My objective is to get things done.”
Not everyone agrees.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the anti-Israel and Jew-ambivalent congressman whose district sits between Lawler and Torres, voted against the measure. Bowman is among the most partisan members of Congress, almost never voting with Republicans, ranking #396 out of 435 by the Lugar bipartisanship index.
Bowman is the male version of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (ranked #401 by the Lugar Index), part of the emerging extremist wing taking over the Democratic party. They are the anti-Lawlers, highly partisan and anti-Israel.
Lawler: Fighting Antisemitism
Lawler has been active fighting for peace elsewhere.
On June 1, 2023, he introduced legislation, H.R.3773, to rescind federal funding for colleges that promote antisemitism on their campuses. It was drafted in reaction to the horrible wave of antisemitic incidents taking place on City of New York (CUNY) and State of New York (SUNY) college campuses. Lawler said that “CUNY should be ashamed of itself for allowing insidious anti-semitism to permeate on its campuses, and my bill will ensure they face stiff penalties if they continue to let hate have a home.”
Unfortunately, Jew hatred has been given a home in New York by the growing horde of left-wing radicals.
How sad and frightening that condemning Jew hatred has become a partisan issue.
Lawler: In the Democratic Crosshairs
In the 2022 elections, Lawler defeated Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. With his powerful position, Maloney poured $6.7 million into his losing campaign to Lawler who barely spent $1.5 million. The loss was a stinging embarrassment for New York Democrats, and helped the Republicans take a majority of the House.
The powerful Democratic machine is now intent on taking out this Republican, with millions of dollars in negative ads with fake news about him being deeply unpopular, as well as actions hidden from sight, through the most partisan of actions, the gerrymander.
New York’s new liberal court may soon take the pen and rework district lines to make Lawler vulnerable, as he only won with only a 2,000 vote margin in 2022. Slight alterations to his district lines could make his tenure in congress very short.
Democrats will soon decide whether they care more about power and politics in using gerrymandering to try to oust Rep. Lawler, or working for a future of peace and bipartisanship.
I am not optimistic.
ACTION ITEM
EMAIL GOVERNOR HOCHUL: “Do not gerrymander NY17, Mike Lawler’s district. The courts put forward a fair New York map in 2022 and we do not want to see a bipartisan, pro-peace, fighter against antisemitism be removed from Congress with political trickery.”
On March 9, 2023, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16) spoke in Congress about his views on discrimination, specifically against what he thought were attempts to harm the transgender community with a proposed bill to prevent trans-women from competing in sports against biological women. He spoke about the history of discrimination in the United States saying “whether they are Black, Latino, Asian, LGBTQ, poor, people with disabilities, women, we have an ugly history of discrimination in this country.”
In calling out eight groups of people facing discrimination, he omitted the most targeted people of hate crimes: Jews.
Not only did Bowman ignore the most prevalent form of hate crimes in his denouncement of discrimination, he implied that most of the offenders are White. Meanwhile, according to FBI statistics, it is Black people who are disproportionately the attackers of the LGBT community, accounting for 27.2% of such hate crimes even though they are 13.6% of the overall population.
Bowman’s antisemitism and race baiting is so ingrained, that he cannot fathom facts, and instead promotes himself with political theater performed for a narrow slice of his constituents.
A mural in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, NY, which was meant to celebrate Black history has instead become a symbol of the Black community’s anti-Jewish sentiments: that the rise in Black power will come at the expense of Jews.
Farrakhan in Greenburgh
Louis Farrakhan is a notorious antisemite and Black supremacist. He is the current leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI), which the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) – a group devoted to defending Black people – labels as a hate group where “seeds of antisemitism are deeply rooted.” It listed just a few of his vile comments such as calling Hitler “a very great man” and Judaism a “dirty religion,” but the list is extensive. At a rally in 2020, he said “Those of you that say that you are Jews, I will not even give you the honor of calling you a Jew. You’re not a Jew. You’re so-called. You’re Satan. And it’s my job now to pull the cover off of Satan.”
A portrait of Farrakhan is now in public, on government property, paid for by local Westchester taxpayers.
In response to the Black Lives Matter movement, the town of Greenburgh hired a local artist to paint a mural on Manhattan Avenue on Black history. The town approved the initial sketches but town supervisors were later upset to see that the final version included Farrakhan, with hand raised, screaming over the U.S. Capital building. On August 25, 2022, the town said that it “voted to remove the unauthorized imagery. The Artist has agreed that Louis Farrakhan will be taken off of the mural and the image will be removed this week.” That never happened as the pictures above attest (taken June 9, 2023). Instead a barrier was placed at the platform’s stairs making it difficult for people to ascend to view the mural up close, while the platform’s rails obstruct the view for passers-by.
Black Westchester Magazine wrote an article about the mural and defended it with arguments that Farrakhan was an instrumental part of fighting for Black rights, and as there was no specific commentary against Jews in the mural, Jews should not get overly offended. The author added that he would be more sympathetic to Jews if they spoke out forcefully when Blacks were offended, curiously making sympathy an emotion with preconditions.
A few months later, in December 2022, the New Rochelle Public Library hosted an event to discuss Black-on-Black gun violence after a local rapper was shot and killed in October. Two politicians attended, including Council Member Yadira Ramos-Herbert who is running to be the next Mayor of New Rochelle and former New Rochelle Board of Education President Lianne Merchant who is running to replace Ramos-Herbert as the representative for Council District 3. Several speakers took the stage including NAACP President Minister Mark McLean, New Rochelle Municipal Housing Authority Executive Director Angela Farrish and City of New Rochelle Director of Economic Development Jorge Ventura.
Then Brother Arthur Muhammad of the Nation of Islam and a “drill team” performed. They recommended that the “FOI” – Fruit of Islam, the armed wing of the Nation of Islam – manage New Rochelle’s streets. They chanted “War! War! Farrakhan! Salute Elijah! Raise Front Farrakhan! There’s a time for peace, there’s a time for war! Hear the guards! Hear the guards knocking at your door! You need the FOI to the day we die!”
Members of the Nation of Islam at the New Rochelle Public Library, December 2022
As described by the “Talk of the Sound”, The Fruit of Islam (FOI) is the security and disciplinary wing of the Nation of Islam (NOI). It has also been described as its paramilitary wing. The FOI was created at the founding of the Nation of Islam and existed until the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975 when it was disbanded. The FOI was reestablished by Louis Farrakhan with him as Commander-in-Chief.
Congressman Jamaal Bowman (NY16)
Jamaal Bowman is the congressman who now serves the newly redrawn NY District 16 which covers lower Westchester County. He won principally on the strength of the turnout in the predominantly Black areas, including Greenburgh where the Farrkhan mural hangs in public. While that town is less than half the population of the city of Yonkers, it had more votes in the Democratic primary, with 8.1% of the residents coming out to vote, a remarkable 20% of all primary voters. Bowman’s tally in Greenburgh, Yonkers, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle (13,918) was more than enough to sail to victory in 2022.
On June 6, 2023, Bowman endorsed Working Families Party candidate for New Rochelle mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert. She was one of the attendees at the New Rochelle Public Library as the Nation of Islam performed who has refused to comment about the event.
Bowman has a long history of upsetting his Jewish constituents, both within the former contours of District 16 and in the current borders of lower Westchester. He has failed to support resolutions condemning antisemitism and supported anti-Israel initiatives. In 2020, he replaced Jewish congressman Eliot Engel in the Bronx, and Bowman now serves the region which had been represented by Jewish congresswoman Nita Lowey for decades.
Lower Westchester County is home to some of the wealthiest towns in the country, including Scarsdale, Bronxville and Larchmont. It is also becoming the home of left-wing and radical Muslim extremism, as those communities put forward extremist candidates in local elections (like those backed by the Working Families Party), and organize to get out the vote, as much of the county ignores local primaries – next one on June 27 – to their own detriment.
Email Rep. Jamaal Bowman Mount Vernon Office (914) 371-9220, White Plains office (914) 323-5550, D.C. office (202) 225-2464
Rep. Bowman,
I understand that you are co-authoring a letter to President Biden “to investigate whether Israel is using U.S. weapons to commit human rights abuses against Palestinians.” In the current draft of the letter made available by Jewish Currents, you made reference to recent attacks in the West Bank as well as a claim that the “Israeli government’s anti-democratic mission to dismantle the rule of law… is attempting to destroy the independent Israeli judiciary.” You also claimed that there is an Israeli “military siege of Gaza.”
Allow me to give you information that you may have missed or decided to ignore.
The Palestinians poll themselves every quarter, something they have been doing since 2000. The latest poll came out on March 14, 20231 and details frightening sentiments of Palestinian Arabs about their Jewish neighbors:
68% support the formation of armed groups, such as the Lions’ Den, and 87% believe the Palestinian Authority (PA) does not have the right to arrest members of these groups
71% support the Palestinian point blank shooting of two Israeli brothers who drove into the town of of Huwara
61% of Palestinians support armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside of Israel
57% support the return to an “armed intifada”
Support for a two state solution stands at just 27%
If presidential elections were held, 52% would vote for the leader of the political-terrorist group Hamas
Those are the latest figures of the Palestinians polling themselves. It is because of that rejection of coexistence and preference for violent attacks that Israel launched a daytime raid into Nablus on February 22, to stop an upcoming terrorist attack. The Israeli defensive action killed nine terrorists and saved an untold number of lives – which your letter disgracefully omitted. Are you in favor of allowing terrorists to target and kill innocent Jewish civilians in Israel?
Even according to the biased United Nations reports, West Bank Arabs committed more attacks2 than Israeli Jews living in Israeli territory of Area C in every month of 2022.
As for terrorist enclave of Gaza,3 the situation is more horrific. The territory is controlled by a US-designated foreign terrorist organization, Hamas.4 The March 2023 poll figures show that 36% and 31% “strongly support” and “support” armed attacks against Jews in Israel, respectively. A frightening 71% of Gazans support armed groups like the Lions’ Den and Jenin Battalion which do not take orders from the PA (question 40). Your inversion of this terrorist enclave to being the victims of an “Israeli military siege” is outrageous.
As to the assertion that Israel is “pushing repressive, anti-democratic policies,” let me remind you that Israel held five in elections in the past four years. This in a region that doesn’t hold any, including the PA, where the president’s four-year term ran out in 2009, fourteen years ago. Further, after each Israeli election, there was a peaceful transition of power, more than can be said for these United States.
Currently hundreds of thousands of citizens are peacefully protesting in the streets of Israel for months, in sharp contrast to the bloodshed and civil wars in neighboring countries.5 And both side of the Israeli protests are in favor of putting checks-and-balances for the government and judiciary.
Your refusing to acknowledge the radical jihadi violence currently prevalent in Palestinian society – as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran march towards nuclear weapons – while simultaneously calling for the U.S. to consider pulling back military support for the only Jewish State, is alarming.
Rep. Bowman, anti-Semitism is brewing in your district, in your state and your country. At the same time, more Israeli Jews have already been killed by Palestinian terrorism since President Biden took office than in the full four years of the prior American administration.
Amidst such backdrop, you’ve decided that America should open an investigation of the Jewish State and show its enemies that the sole liberal democracy8 in the Middle East is losing its main supporter.
Not satisfied with penning such letter with Senator Bernie Sanders, you are seemingly agitating to get other members of congress to join your assault.
Congressman, you defeated Rep. Eliot Engel, one of the authors of the Taylor Force Act which restricted funds to the Palestinian Authority as long as it continued its “martyr payments.” Are you now using your power to strip Israel of funding for its defensive operations? Did congress not only lose a defender of human rights in the Middle East, but did it gain a member which tramples on them?
There are indeed “gross violations of human rights” happening now. And you are aiding and abetting the perpetrators.
On September 23, 2022, six liberal members of Congress wrote a letter to Yeshiva University denouncing its decision to not officially recognize a LGBTQ+ club. The letter is full of inaccuracies and fuels anti-religious hatred at a time that anti-Semitic crimes are already at record highs.
Penned by outgoing Congressman Mondaire Jones, and cosigned by Representatives Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Paul Tonko (D-NY), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), it contends that Yeshiva University prohibited the formation of a Pride Alliance Club which is completely false. The club already exists. YU just did not give it official recognition as it runs counter to the school’s religious mission.
I could not disagree more with your letter to Yeshiva University, both in tone and summary of your impressions on the matter.
1. The school does not discriminate against any student, counter to your claims. There is no team, club, class, event or any activity that is available to some students and not others. It is a disgraceful slur to state that the school does not treat some of its students “as full human beings.”
2. There is already a Pride Alliance at the school. There is membership and events that have been going on for years. The school took no actions to ban the group.
3. The existing group asked for official recognition by the school, which the school declined to do – as it does for all groups that run counter to its beliefs as a religious institution. That is not selective discrimination against the LGBT community. It would have rejected a Cheeseburger Club as well. It is outrageous for a member of Congress to suggest, let alone dictate, how and what a religious institution can approve and sanction.
4. The courts sided with the Pride Alliance solely because it does not believe that YU is a religious institution and thinks it a secular one. The fact is that YU is non-binary, being both religious and secular, a situation that does not fall neatly into the legal charter boxes. It is a position that members of the LGBTQ+ community should understand.
5. This case has nothing to do with discrimination but the government’s refusal to recognize the religious character of a leading Jewish modern Orthodox institution. Your letter feeds a false narrative targeting religious Jews as discriminating against LGBT students and fuels anti-Semitic sentiment which is already at terrible levels. In fact, it is the government that has refused to recognize the university’s non-binary status, and now you are attempting to dictate how a religious institution should operate.
Over the past weeks, we have followed the Supreme Court’s rulings affecting LGBTQ+ students at Yeshiva University who wish to form a peer support club, the YU Pride Alliance. Many of these students are our constituents.
We write to express our support for these students and for the rights of all LGBTQ+ students to equal treatment in New York State’s educational institutions. We urge the University to do everything possible to care for its LGBTQ+ students as full human beings in the campus community, including to recognize their student group.
We understand the LGBTQ+ students at Yeshiva University seek to form a student group that provides a safe space for discussion and connection. Research confirms that LGBTQ+ students face discrimination, isolation, higher rates of mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, and other challenges as they navigate their college years. Gay-straight alliances and student-led clubs that provide safe spaces for LGBTQ+ students to support each other and discuss issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity are critical to student health and success. Other proudly religious universities in New York have navigated this terrain, recognizing LGBTQ+ student groups as a critical resource for their students; it is time for Yeshiva University to do the same.
We are disappointed with the University’s recent decision to suspend all student groups in order to avoid recognizing the YU Pride Alliance. This move pits students against each other and risks further isolating LGBTQ+ students at Yeshiva University. We also believe this action to be in tension with your recent statement that Yeshiva University’s “commitment and love for [its] LGBTQ students are unshakeable.”
As members of Congress representing New York, we believe that the equal treatment of LGBTQ+ students and the provision of safe spaces for their well-being are consistent with established federal public policy. We know our concerns for the well-being of LGBTQ+ students at Yeshiva University are shared by many who care deeply about the institution—Jewish clergy, University faculty, alumni, current students, and local elected officials.
We encourage the University to extend its hand to its LGBTQ+ students, and their allies, who have bravely come forward telling you what they need to flourish as students and community members at Yeshiva University.
The final results are now in, and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16) won the Democratic primary with a slim 52% majority. It’s an embarrassing showing for an incumbent, who might have lost had he faced a single opponent. The result is actually not surprising, as his district was redrawn just a few months earlier, with many voters unfamiliar with him and many not coming out to vote in the final weeks of summer.
He is also disliked by a huge portion of the district.
A lot of money was raised by one of Bowman’s opponents, Vedat Gashi, who came in second with 27% of the vote. Catherine Parker, well known in her local town came in third with 20%, while Mark Jaffe, who had dropped out of the race, gathered 2%.
Much of lower Westchester is slightly left-of-center, way to the right of the extreme left-wing views of Bowman. As such, people are beginning to assess how to replace this representative in the next election in two years.
A deeper dive into the numbers yields some clues.
Bowman won a majority of only five of the 12 towns and cities in his district. He managed to secure the overall win because those five municipalities accounted for 64% of the Democratic voter turnout. Greenburgh and Yonkers had 20% and 19% of the votes, respectively, and Bowman took them with 56% and 61% of the vote, respectively. New Rochelle was the third largest municipality with 13% of the primary votes, and Bowman took it with 51% of the votes.
Gashi won Scarsdale with 60% of the votes, but the town only accounted for 4% of the total votes. Parker took her hometown of the City of Rye with 64% of the votes, and also beat the other candidates in Mamaroneck with 44% of the votes, however, those two municipalities only accounted for 10% of the total votes. Factoring the large amount of money raised by Gashi, and Parker having a local base of constituents and being the only woman in the race right after the Supreme Court threw out the constitutional right to abortion, both candidates did much worse than should be expected against such a poor incumbent.
So if the answer is not to back either of these candidates next time, how do moderates beat Bowman in 2024?
1. Back a single candidate, EARLY
Politicians are politicians, so they will always be running for office and fund-raising. If a politician thinks they have some shot at winning and can build political capital, they will enter the race. After all, they are spending other people’s money at the end of the day.
If there are multiple moderates running against Bowman, the split in the vote all but assures Bowman’s victory. In the 2022 race, had Parker not entered the race late as a spoiler, Gashi might have prevailed.
The key is therefore to get centrists out to push local politicians and community leaders to back a single candidate early. With enough endorsements from mayors and local officials from lower Westchester, it could prevent lesser known politicians from entering the fray lest they be tarred as a spoiler, and hand Bowman a victory once again.
2. Get Harrison to register Democratic and vote
As the chart below demonstrates, the average voter turnout in each municipality was 6.4%. Mamaroneck, part of Parker’s County District 7, led with 9.4% voter turnout – but she barely won on her home turf with 44%, compared to 35% Bowman / 20% Gashi. Scarsdale also had a great turnout with 9.2%, with an impassioned Jewish vote backing Gashi where he won with 60% of the vote compared to just 18% for Bowman.
Municipality
Votes
Population
Turnout
Eastchester
1,737
33,033
5.3%
Greenburgh
7,395
91,338
8.1%
Harrison
731
28,363
2.6%
Mamaroneck
2,770
29,563
9.4%
Pelham
940
12,470
7.5%
Town of Rye
1,727
Scarsdale
1,642
17,890
9.2%
Mt Vernon
3,367
67,623
5.0%
New Rochelle
4,885
79,367
6.2%
City of Rye
1,070
15,769
6.8%
White Plains
3,864
58,171
6.6%
Yonkers
7,168
200,183
3.6%
TOTAL
37,296
633,770
6.4%
Voter turnout for August 2022 Democratic Primary
Meanwhile, Harrison had just a 2.6% voter turnout, the worst in the district. With 67% of the town’s voters opting for someone other than Bowman, a concerted effort must be placed to get Harrison voters (really everyone) to register with the Democratic Party and get out to vote during the primaries. Recall that this district is now D+40, meaning Biden beat Trump in the last election by roughly 40 points, so the Democratic primary is the battlefield, not the November election.
3. Support a centrist minority from Greenburgh, Mount Vernon or Yonkers
The Jewish vote stands at roughly 25% of the district, Hispanics at about 28% and Blacks at 21%. As the overall Jewish vote does not vote as a block, chipping away at Bowman’s base in the Black community could be part of a winning strategy.
Bowman won a whopping 86% of the vote in Mount Vernon. It is the fourth largest municipality with a population of 67,000, trailing Yonkers at 200,000, Greenburgh at 91,000 and New Rochelle at 79,000. Backing a Black centrist politician from one of those cities, or a Hispanic woman, could peel away important votes away from Bowman.
4. Build a loud Orthodox Jewish voting block
The Orthodox community coalesced late in the 2022 campaign around Gashi. He won 60% of Scarsdale, 35% of White Plains and 33% of New Rochelle – the towns where he secured the highest percentage of votes were those with the greatest number of Orthodox Jews. The community should continue to build upon that political momentum and become a reliable block to bring the district more towards the center.
The community should also become more active locally. For example, it should lead the charge in getting Westchester County to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. Leaving local politics and organizations to progressives, mainstreams some extremists’ opinions and fractures society. That historic approach brought anti-Israel speakers to local synagogues where local rabbis serve on boards of directors of far left-wing groups. The intersectional bonds the progressive Jewish community leaders are cementing with anti-Semites and anti-Zionists should be denounced by members of the synagogues and the local community.
In addition to bringing the non-Orthodox Jewish community towards the center, Westchester’s Orthodox community should build relationships with the local Hispanic, Asian and religious Christian community which sends their children to parochial schools. They are more conservative than the Black and liberal non-Orthodox communities, and can expand the sphere of influence in local elections.
Here are just a few actions for the people of lower Westchester to retire Jamaal Bowman, the extremist congressman who now mis-represents them.
There are no people as persecuted as the Jews. Subject to pogroms, ethnic cleansing, blood libels and genocides throughout history and around the world, they have been the victims of the powerful and of the weak.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman represents New York State’s 16th Congressional District which covers lower Westchester County, just north of New York City. It is estimated to be over 20% Jewish and has one of the largest Jewish populations in the United States.
From his powerful podium, Bowman deliberately insults Jewish history and incites hatred for the Jewish State.
“There’s so much we’re dealing with within our own borders that it’s often difficult for Americans to turn our attention to the problems of people overseas, but it’s hard at this moment not to be struck by the extent of suffering around the world. Whether it’s the infringement of human and civil rights of Palestinians living in Sheikh Jarrah, the violence against those praying in the Al-Aqsa mosque during the holy month of Ramadan in East Jerusalem, police violence against Colombians, a military coup in Myanmar, an ignored genocide in Ethiopia, or the ethnic cleansing of the Uyghurs in China, my heart is breaking for people around the world experiencing oppression and hurt.”
Bowman started with events in Israel – twice. He only referenced the perceived wrongs against Arabs, not the violent Arab attacks against Jews exercising their basic human rights to pray with dignity at their holiest location.
He then compared those relatively minor events to vicious global activities.
In Colombia, police attacked and killed peaceful demonstrators protesting income inequality
In Myanmar, the military essentially took over the entire government and arrested public officials
In China, hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs were imprisoned and shipped to “re-education camps”
How are any of these horrible actions against hundreds of thousands of peaceful civilians remotely close to Israel protecting Jews who want to visit the Temple Mount? Bowman deliberately abused language to stir up anger and violence against the Jewish State. Which is exactly what happened over the next days, with Jews around the world being attacked.
Further, to use words like “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” against the Jewish State, when Jews just suffered a true genocide in Europe, and ethnic cleansing in Israel at the hands of the Jordanian and Egyptian army who expelled all of the Jews from Judea and Samaria and the eastern part of Jerusalem, is to spit in the faces of actual victims.
Jamaal Bowman standing in the center of the alt-left “Squad”, with Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar on the left, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush and Ayanna Pressley to the right
Jamaal Bowman helped inflame violence against Jews around the world with malicious smears against Israel. He is unfit to serve in congress.
On August 2nd, shortly after J Street-endorsed candidate Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) lost in the Democratic primary, J Street lambasted AIPAC and Democratic Majority For Israel for supporting Rep. Haley Stevens. The progressive group took particular aim at the two groups’ “aggressive outside spending…[which] is harmful to American foreign policy, to the Democratic Party and ultimately to the State of Israel. (J Street’s emphasis)
It was obvious sour grapes coming from a group that had endorsed and funded a campaign just like AIPAC and DMFI, but lost.
Not three weeks later, J Street has entered the race of New York’s 16th Congressional District, in lower Westchester County. And in a very hypocritical and disgusting fashion.
Neither the bipartisan group AIPAC nor the centrist Democratic DMFI spent one dollar on the NY-16 race. Neither group even endorsed any of the three candidates running. While both groups strongly dislike the anti-Israel Rep. Jamaal Bowman who is the incumbent, they have refrained from engaging in the race as the odds of defeating him are low, so have opted to focus elsewhere.
J Street endorsed Bowman early but did not put in any money into the race. Until now.
Wealthy and Poor Voters Split
After witnessing the near loss of another anti-Israel incumbent member of “the Squad”, Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on August 9th, J Street became nervous. Omar won her Democratic primary by 2,400 votes out of 110,000 cast. Omar won the poorer, densely populated city area of Minneapolis but lost the wealthy suburbs. If AIPAC and DMFI had put resources into the race, Omar would likely have been defeated.
There are potential lessons for the NY-16 race, where Omar’s close colleague Bowman is the far-left incumbent.
J Street endorsed Bowman in January 2022 when NY-16 included a large section of the Bronx section of New York City. In May, the district was redrawn, removing almost the entirety of the Bronx which had been in the district, and replacing it with wealthier suburbs of lower Westchester. This dynamic could theoretically swap the rank-and-file reliable liberal voters of the Bronx with more moderate ones, threatening a far-left incumbent like Bowman.
A review of the 2020 presidential voting offers some color on how the new NY-16 towns of Westchester (many of which were in NY-17 previously), vote compared to the sections of the Bronx (now in NY-15) which were replaced.
There are a couple of takeaways from the voting patterns of the poorer sections of the Bronx which were removed from NY-16 relative to the wealthier sections of Westchester which were added. The biggest one is that Westchester was much more content to put in “protest” votes in leaving the choice blank (+6.9%), rather than follow the front-runner, Joe Biden (-6.4%).
The second is that the wealthier towns of Westchester, a county which is roughly 20% Jewish, did not rally to Michael Bloomberg. This observation should be discounted by the Bronx having him as mayor for three terms while Westchester did not.
Lastly, Westchester and the Bronx voted in a similar pattern for the far-left. While Westchester backed Warren more than the Bronx did (+1.0%), the Bronx voted in a similar percentage favoring Bernie Sanders (-0.8%).
The political strategists at J Street know these things: that Westchester is just as likely to vote liberal BUT is also likely to stay away and not support the frontrunner incumbent, especially in an off-cycle end of summer primary. The lower voter turnout and Westchester’s challenge to the frontrunner could spell the end of Bowman’s political career.
Westchester Jewish Community Rallying For Vedat Gashi
There are specific reasons for Bowman to be concerned beyond macro trend lines, which brought J Street into the action.
Bowman’s positions are very unpopular in lower Westchester. Those include:
Call to “Defund the police”
“Abolish ICE”, the immigration and customs enforcement department, and a call for “open borders”
Push for teaching “Critical Race Theory” in schools
Voting against the Infrastructure Bill, and then lying to constituents that he supported it
Sponsoring a bill that called the founding of Israel a catastrophe
Not signing a bipartisan letter to fight anti-Semitism on campuses
Not supporting the Abraham Accords which set peace and normalization agreements between Israel and four Muslim countries
His vote to condition aid to Israel, in contrast to President Biden’s pledge not to do so
Bowman’s being one of the least bipartisan members of congress, going into a session that will likely see a split in Democratic and Republican control
The vast majority of the Westchester Jewish community is against these policies. Further, reading of Bowman’s tight relationship with the noxiously anti-Israel group IfNotNow where he said “I couldn’t be more grateful that IfNotNow Movement has had my back in Congress this year and I know that our partnership is just beginning,” made people search for an alternative.
J Street wasn’t initially concerned by the anger of the Jewish community, as there were three candidates running against Bowman. His victory was a near certainty as people were likely to split the vote. With AIPAC and DMFI concluding the same and staying out of the race, J Street opted to place its money bets on other races.
However, over the last few weeks, Jewish grass roots efforts led to coalescing behind Vedat Gashi, a secular Muslim immigrant from Kosovo. The Jewish community was pulled in by his powerful story, his pledge for “commonsense” policies which would NOT defund the police, which would support investments in infrastructure and would support Israel. Gashi lawn signs began dotting the suburban landscape. The easy Bowman victory was now hotly contested.
So J Street came in to fight the local Jews.
J Street Pours Money Into Campaign Against The Local Jewish Community
With primaries scheduled for August 23rd, J Street announced on August 17 that it would pour $200,000 into the races of Rep. Jerry Nadler and Rep. Jamaal Bowman. The hypocrisy of funding Bowman in a race without any PAC involvement after slamming “aggressive outside spending” is just the beginning.
J Street’s flood of money in the final days of the race is not only going against the desires of the local Jewish community; it is trying to get the non-Jewish community out to vote. Its press release states that its “Bowman ad running across streaming platforms including ESPN, Vevo, MLB, NBC, CBS, ABC and BET.” BET is predominantly watched by the non-Jewish African-American community.
The Westchester Jewish community is rightfully outraged.
J Street is attempting to undermine the local Jewish community’s desire for a moderate pro-Israel candidate to represent them in congress, by spending tons of money to get the non-Jewish community to vote for a far-left anti-Israel candidate. It’s appalling, and the ramifications will likely last well beyond this immediate election.
Member of the far-left anti-Israel “Squad”, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MN), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
First One Through 