For Some Democratic Jews, Heightened Worries About Antisemitism

Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who is Jewish, was subjected to intense opposition as Vice President Kamala Harris considered him for running mate.

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Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania addressed a rally in Philadelphia last week before Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage with her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota.

For many American Jews, the prospect of Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania as a running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris prompted elation — a balm for the feelings of alienation and anger they have harbored amid a wave of anti-Israel sentiment and rising antisemitism.

But the process ended as abruptly as it began, leaving many Jewish Democrats with a heightened sense of anxiety. Their concerns were not with Ms. Harris’s choice — Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, an affable Midwesterner who has warm relationships with the Jewish community in his state — but with an activist-driven campaign against Mr. Shapiro, who is Jewish.

For some, it confirmed or inflamed simmering fears about antisemitism on the left.

Jews have been a loyal Democratic constituency dating back at least to the 1930s. But after an extraordinarily challenging 10 months following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Israel’s devastating military response in Gaza and an explosion of antisemitism, some are warning that in corners of the Jewish community, close ties to the Democratic Party may be fraying.

The worries intensified during the vice-presidential search process as left-leaning activists pilloried Mr. Shapiro, considering him too sympathetic to Israel and overly and unfairly critical of campus Gaza-war protests, among other concerns unrelated to foreign policy. But Mr. Shapiro’s defenders noted that he holds mainstream Democratic views on the Middle East that were generally seen as in line with the other — non-Jewish — top contenders.

“There’s a kind of suspicion that was in the back of our minds, and it’s creeping more to the center of our minds, that maybe it had something to do with the Jewishness of Governor Shapiro,” said Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, who leads the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on Manhattan’s liberal Upper West Side, stressing that he was not making any critique of Ms. Harris. (As a clergy member, he declined to discuss his personal views of the election.)

“Even if it didn’t,” he added, as he detailed concerns about antisemitism and anti-Zionism, “that perception is not healthy for the Democratic Party, and it is not healthy for the well-being of the American polity.”

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