6 | JULY 6 • 2023
1942 - 2023
Covering and Connecting
Jewish Detroit Every Week
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DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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Founding Publisher
Philip Slomovitz, of blessed memory
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PURELY COMMENTARY
perfunctory, procedural gesture
of support for a community
alarmed by an uptick in antise-
mitic violence. While this might
seem to be uncontroversial and
worthy of unanimous support
by design, it was passed in
spite of direct “no” votes from
two council members and four
“abstentions” from Democrat
council members who conclud-
ed that fighting antisemitism
was a controversial position
unworthy of their unqualified
support.
This was followed in May
by five Democrats (all DSA-
endorsed) in the New York State
Assembly introducing a bill,
“Not on our dime!: Ending New
York funding of Israeli settler
violence act,
” to prohibit New
York nonprofits “from engag-
ing in unauthorized support of
Israeli settlement activity,
” vio-
lation of which would provide
authorization to the state attor-
ney general to revoke tax-ex-
empt status. This activity could
include support for victims of
terror attacks occurring in the
West Bank or East Jerusalem.
“Not on our dime!” was
introduced by Zohran
Mamdami of Queens, whose
mother is prominent film
director Mira Nair and whose
father, Harvard-educated
Ugandan academic Mahmoud
Mamdani, has a long history
of voluble anti-Zionist rhet-
oric. The bill was sponsored
by State Sen. Jabari Brisport, a
teacher and DSA activist from
Brooklyn. They were joined by
three DSA-member cosponsors
who immigrated from Nepal,
Haiti and Peru. But note, these
elected officials represent DSA
and adjacent left-wing, anti-co-
lonialist ideology rather than
a groundswell of anti-Zionist
fervor in New York’s immigrant
communities.
JEWISH ‘PROGRESSIVES’
While Jews are still well-rep-
resented among Democratic
elected officials, they have
struggled to recruit progres-
sives to join them in simple
condemnations of antisemitism
or in support of the victims of
terrorism. Instead, progressives
have formed their own osten-
sibly Jewish organizations like
Jews for Racial and Economic
Justice (JFREJ), and the Jewish
Vote, far-left anti-Zionist enti-
ties created for the purpose of
inoculating anti-Zionist radicals
against accusations of antisem-
itism while also supporting the
general policies of the hard-left
progressive movement and
Democratic Socialists.
With the star-making elec-
tion to Congress of Queens
Democratic Socialists of
America member Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez in 2018, DSA
has vastly increased its mem-
bership and influence, especially
in New York. While becoming
younger and more ethnically
diverse, DSA reoriented in favor
of a harder-left, anti-imperialist
stance. Today’s DSA-backed
candidates seem to agree with
Leo Strauss’ observation that
antisemitism (in the form of
anti-Zionism) is a useful tool
for socialists who see fools as an
important constituency.
The relationship between
anti-Israel pressure groups, the
Progressive movement, and
hard-left politicians is easy to
trace. For example, the director
of the New York City Council’s
Progressive Caucus is Emily
F. Mayer, co-founder of If
Not Now, yet another far-left
anti-Israel pressure group. Her
husband is Democratic opera-
tive Waleed Shahid. They were
married in a wedding officiated
by New York City Comptroller
and self-described Democratic
Socialist Brad Lander, who was
instrumental in forming the
very first Progressive Caucus
while serving in the Council.
Lander is an able politician
almost certain to run for mayor
in the next cycle with the full
support of NYC’s formidable
Progressive elections appara-
tus, including the DSA and
Working Families Party. A
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