(NewsNation) — Jewish Democrats are dismissing Republican suggestions that Vice President Kamala Harris “snubbed” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and “bowed to the antisemitic left” by choosing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate instead of Shapiro.
“The idea that Kamala Harris is antisemitic is pathetically stupid; somebody better tell her husband,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, R-Md., told The New York Times, referring to second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish.
“Was it anti-Hispanic bias for Trump to pass over Marco Rubio to choose the palpably unqualified JD Vance?” Raskin added.
The Shapiro “snub” narrative was advanced by former President Donald Trump on Wednesday. He told Fox News that Harris’ decision to pick Walz was “very insulting to Jewish people.” Trump also repeated his long-standing attack that any Jewish person who votes Democratic “should have their head examined.”
Mark Penn, an adviser to Bill Clinton’s 1996 campaign and current president of The Stagwell Group, believes Shapiro was an ideal candidate who was overlooked to avoid angering far-left, pro-Palestinian Democrats.
“I think they would have felt more reassured if Shapiro, the logical choice, had been picked to be vice president,” Penn said, calling Walz’s nomination a “puzzling” decision.
Ethan Roberts, deputy executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, told The Jerusalem Post he’s not happy with critics who called Shapiro “the wrong kind of Jew” for the Democratic ticket.
“We condemn that as being antisemitic,” he told the Post.
Rep. Daniel Goldman, D-N.Y., dismissed the idea that Harris’ choice was influenced by a “public antisemitic campaign.”
“The public antisemitic campaign from some within the Democratic Party against Governor Shapiro was unacceptable and regrettable,” Goldman, who is Jewish, said in a statement. But he added that, “I am confident after a number of conversations today that Vice President Harris was not influenced by them in her selection of Governor Walz.”
Morris Allen, rabbi emeritus at Beth Jacob Congregation, a Conservative synagogue in the suburbs of St. Paul-Minneapolis, said he and Walz have been on opposite sides of some issues over the years, most notably Walz’s 2015 support for the Iran nuclear agreement.
“We may have disagreed … but he was straightforward and explained his decisions,” Allen told The Detroit Jewish News. Walz “has always been a strong advocate for foreign aid for Israel, has been out front on those kinds of concerns, was a trusted vote on those issues, spoke out against hate and antisemitism, and I think is just a decent, caring human being. Tim Walz is a mensch, and his team was a pleasure to work with.”
“Mensch” is a Yiddish word meaning “a person of integrity and honor.” It is considered a high compliment.
The Iran vote notwithstanding, Walz voted many times with Israel during his 12 years in the House, including in 2017 to condemn a United Nations resolution declaring Israel’s settlements in the West Bank illegal.
But Walz, during a 2009 diplomatic tour throughout the Middle East, told the Israelis that he believed the increasing number of Israeli settlements in the West Bank was damaging prospects for brokering peace in the region, according to Business Insider.
The Hill contributed to this report.