This Just Makes It Worse

When Congressman Dave Min addressed the Jewish Community in a forum last month, he said much that should have made us hopeful:  he recognized the recent spike in antisemitism and acknowledged the human cost of harassment and threats of violence.  He promised he would “continue to call it out.”

Yet, in those moments when we have needed leadership most, our Congressman has been silent.

To take one stark example:  the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)–a group that was an unindicted co-conspirator in one of the largest terror finance trials this country has ever seen–doxxed my Rabbi earlier this year.  As a result, he was threatened and targeted in ways that left our community shaken.  [To prevent drawing still more internet traffic to the hateful campaign targeting him, I have omitted his name from this piece and referred to him only as “my Rabbi.”]

For those unfamiliar with the group:  CAIR’s founder and current Executive Director Nihad Awad, put it plainly, saying: “I am in support of the Hamas movement.”  Since 2009, the FBI taken the position: “until we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and HAMAS, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner.”  To date, that relationship has not been restored.

Multiple CAIR leaders around the United States, including Executive Director Nihad Awad, celebrated the October 7 attacks.  And, just earlier this year, the group made headlines again when reporters uncovered that CAIR was promoting a K-12 curriculum that included Usama bin Laden’s letter justifying the September 11 attacks as a recommended resource for students.  (CAIR retracted the recommendation only after the curriculum was exposed by a national publication.)

CAIR targeted my Rabbi because he had insisted that a statement condemning Islamophobia should not also include libelous smears against Israel.  Rather than remove the libels, the decision was made to paint my Rabbi as “Islamophobic.”  To anyone who knows him, the claim is absurd.  He has led years of interfaith efforts, visiting local mosques and supporting our Muslim neighbors in times of crisis.  Our shul—under his leadership—rallied to support Muslim Afghan refugees arriving in this country.  Our congregation paid a year’s worth of rent, got them jobs, schooling, medical care, therapy, and had them speak at Temple on more than one occasion.  His perspective was: “Human life is human life – no matter one’s religion – it was our honor to help this family in need.”

On the handful of occasions when I have heard a fellow congregant make a remark that might be unfair to our Muslim neighbors, my Rabbi gently but firmly corrected the congregant and tried to educate him or her.

In sum, my Rabbi is warm-hearted, fair-minded, and generous.  To call such a leader Islamophobic is beyond dishonest; it is grotesque.  And it serves a purpose.  Doxxing him puts the rest of our community on notice:  if we dare to speak in defense of Israel, we too can expect doxxing, threats, and harassment.

Yet in the face of CAIR’s hateful targeting of a beloved Jewish community leader—and though the Congressman knows my Rabbi well enough to know that CAIR’s claims are just defamatory bullying—Congressman Min has said nothing at all.

This is not the result of ignorance.  My Rabbi alerted the Congressman when the doxxing occurred, and the Congressman was silent.  He could easily have spoken of my Rabbi’s leadership in interfaith efforts, and his decades of service in Orange County.  He could also have spoken out against the ugly practice of doxxing and CAIR’s public intimidation campaign.  He did neither.

Instead, when we raised the subject in a meeting, Congressman Min claimed ignorance and acted shocked.  My Rabbi sent him the troubling video again, and again the Congressman was silent.

To the contrary, when CAIR identified Congressman Min as their preferred candidate in their voter guide—using his likeness in their materials—he did nothing to distance himself from the group.  Our community reached out to him and walked him through the group’s alarming history; the FBI’s disassociation; the doxxing of my Rabbi and many other troubling facts, any one of which should have been sufficient to cause a leader truly committed to fighting antisemitism pause about the association.  Yet, again, Congressman Min was silent.

At the same meeting, I flagged a remark demonizing Israel, by CAIR LA’s leader— on Congressman Min’s own Facebook page—explaining:  a real step to fight antisemitism would be responding to and correcting that comment.  To this day, the smear remains online and unrebutted.

Just a couple weeks later, when a community member attending the Jewish community candidate forum inquired about CAIR LA’s leader, the Congressman claimed ignorance and quickly changed the subject.

His silence has been disappointing, and his speech on Israel has been worse.

The Congressman has been careful to say that he supports Israel’s right to exist and defend itself.  But, in the next breath he repeats astonishing falsehoods about the war.

For example, when he posted a statement explaining his co-sponsorship of legislation that would block the sale of certain arms to Israel, he declared that “an unprecedented number of civilians” had been killed in Gaza.  The total number of deaths he cited was 70,000, including combatants and civilians.  The claim that this represents an “unprecedented number” of civilian deaths is demonstrably false.  In the Korean War, about 54,000 civilians were killed each day.  Nearly 200,000 civilians were killed in the Syrian Civil War.  Over 180,000 civilians were killed during the Iraq War.  The list goes on.  This is tragic, but it is the reality of war.

We had this conversation.  And yet, the Congressman’s claim that the IDF is doing something uniquely evil in Gaza, that there is an “unprecedented” civilian death toll in Gaza, remains on his website.

Moreover, the Congressman appears not to know that Hamas intentionally imbeds in civilian infrastructure.  When he addressed the Jewish community, he characterized Israel as using “excuses” to attack Gazan hospitals.  An audience member pointed out that her son had served in the IDF and seen weapons embedded in a hospital.  In response, the Congressman doubled down:  “You’re telling me there’s one. That was not something that I’ve been advised by or briefed on, you know?  I’m just saying I’m sure there are some, right?  But like, are we saying that every hospital in Gaza has that?”  He asked the question with disbelief, as if the claim were absurd on its face.  Much of the audience rose to its feet for emphasis: “YES!”  But to no avail.  Even after that exchange, the Congressman persisted in characterizing Israel as using “excuses” to destroy Gazan hospitals.

When a Congressman repeats such libels, he effectively endorses the view that Israel is a uniquely evil actor in the world.  This is especially so when he claims to stand with the Jewish community and supports added funding for our communal security, for example, via the Jewish American Security Act.  Observers can conclude that, if even someone so friendly to the Jews believes Israel to be uniquely evil, then it must be true.

This only strengthens the conviction of our attackers.  And when they do attack us—as CAIR has done with my Rabbi—and the Congressman is silent, this invites still more attacks.

I spent much of Yom Kippur with one eye on the perimeter of our shul, thinking of the synagogue shooting that had occurred the night before as congregants had arrived for Kol Nidre.  Around lunchtime, a child dropped a book, and half the room jumped at the resultant “bang.”

All of us can feel the charged, changed atmosphere today.

We need our elected officials, now more than ever.  This does not mean declaring opposition to an amorphous concept like “antisemitism” or “hate.”  Our adversaries rarely think that they hate us for no reason.  Rather, there is some terrible (and fabricated) sin of which our tribe is accused.  In prior centuries, it was often the alleged murder of Christian children. Today, those calling us “baby killers” and the shouters yelling “Free Palestine” cite Israel’s alleged depravity.  Each day, there is some new headline about an arson; a planned poisoning; someone thinking they are doing the world a favor by trying to rid the world of its Israel-supporting Jews.

To tackle this aggressive hate movement, we need leaders willing to learn and correct the record.  (“No, Jews do not use the blood of gentiles to make matzah.”  “No, Israel is not looking for excuses to destroy Gazan hospitals.”)  Otherwise, there may come a time when no level of security funding is enough.

Julie Heiman is director of policy, legal, and government affairs for the Jewish Community Action Network (JCAN) in Orange County.