The head of Washington, D.C.’s Jewish Community Relations Council called a political questionnaire from the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America an “anti-Jewish loyalty oath” on Wednesday after the DSA demanded that political candidates pledge to boycott Israel, avoid meeting with Zionists and support “Palestinian liberation.”
Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, a Democrat who is running to replace Mayor Muriel Bowser, was one of the candidates who secured a DSA endorsement earlier this month after she declared that Israel has committed “genocide” in the Gaza Strip and agreed to divest from the Jewish state.
During a question-and-answer session with the DSA in January, Lewis George said that if given the opportunity, she would take back her 2022 vote supporting the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred.
“If this vote came up today, I would not vote for it,” she said. “I firmly believe that anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel is not antisemitism.”
Asked if she would support legislation to end municipal contracts with or divest public funds from Israel or “companies complicit in the genocide in Gaza,” Lewis George replied, “Yes.”
Lewis George is the only elected Democrat running to succeed Bowser in the June primary.
Former council members Kenyan McDuffie and Vincent Orange are also running to replace the D.C. mayor, who decided not to seek a fourth term. The crowded Democratic primary is likely to determine the next mayor of Washington, given the district’s status as a party stronghold.
In her responses to the DSA’s written questionnaire for candidates, Lewis George also pledged to refrain from “any political junkets to Israel,” though she cited her attendance of a Jewish Community Relations Council legislative breakfast to push back on the DSA’s demand that candidates not attend meetings “whose content or purpose contravenes DSA’s stated platform and positions on anti-Zionism, apartheid, occupation or boycott, divestment and sanctions.”
“Attending that JCRC event was not an endorsement of JCRC and does not signal that I agree with their stance on Israel or Zionism,” Lewis George wrote. “I did not go to the JCRC event to talk about Israel, and that was not the focus of the event.”
“I went to the event to advocate for an end to ICE collaboration, seek allies in that effort and build on our shared goal of ending the inhumane treatment of our neighbors who are being taken by ICE,” she added, of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ron Halber, CEO of the JCRC of Greater Washington, called the questionnaire “revolting” and said that it encourages “the systematic erasure of Jewish and pro-Israel Americans from public life.”
“JCRC urges candidates for political office not to engage with this anti-Jewish loyalty oath in any form, or otherwise seek the DSA’s endorsement,” Halber stated.
“In a time of unprecedented hostility towards Jews in America, the DSA’s Metro DC Chapter is codifying antisemitism into its party platform,” he said.
“Any political candidate abiding by these guidelines is agreeing to shun Jewish people and institutions in the communities they would represent,” he added. “It is the opposite of democratic, a blight on our social contract, and dangerously un-American.”
