‘I Don’t Want to be His Court Jew’: Constituent Reveals House Democrat Asked For Picture to Prove He Has Jewish Friends

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) is embroiled in a tough primary race to hold on to his seat in Congress, and a new article from Jewish Insider is sure make that race tougher.

According to the piece, headlined “No more bridges to burn in Jewish Westchester,” Bowman asked a Jewish community leader in his district “Do you have any pics of us?” before explaining that he wanted to “show the world I’m friends with Jewish People” during his last primary campaign in 2022.

The Jewish leader in question had such a photograph on hand, but ultimately decided against sending it to him because of Bowman’s record on Israel, which included a vote against a bill aimed at encouraging efforts to improve relations between Israel and the manifold Arab states around it.

“I don’t want to be his [Bowman’s] court Jew,” said the man with the photograph of himself and Bowman.

Bowman is facing a strong primary challenge from Westchester County Executive George Latimer and the congressman’s anti-Israel positions have become a burden on his campaign. Bowman has argued that Hamas’ slaughter, rape, and kidnapping of Israeli civilians on October 7 of last years was not “unprovoked” and expressed his opposition to Israel’s Iron Dome defense system in recent days.

The freshly retired president of the Westchester Jewish Council, William Schrag , said that while his group repeatedly invited Bowman to its events, Bowman persistently ignored such invitations.

“He chose not to attend and frankly, by that point, I didn’t care whether he attended or not because it was obvious he was on a path antithetical to the mission statement of the Westchester Jewish Council,” Schrag told Jewish Insider.

“That is not someone who wants to build bridges with Jews and the Jewish community,” a Democratic city councilman from White Plains said in an interview with the outlet. “He doesn’t reach out. He doesn’t reach back. He’s not interested at all in the Jewish community.”