Josh Shapiro need not apply

“Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics/ And the Catholics hate the Protestants/ And the Hindus hate the Muslims/ And everybody hates the Jews.” -Tom Lehrer

When it mainly comes to politics and Jewish issues, my wife says I am “Old School”. It is not meant as an insult or compliment, but merely an observation. My wife is also old school in many ways, but I am much, much older when it comes to that category.

I am proud of being an old schooler. I take history very seriously when arriving to a decision. Not the scant history that pontificators resort to when trying to make a point, but academic history. The type of history one learns by reading and even talking to those who lived (and many times survived) a unique part of world and American history.

Which brings the subject at hand to Josh Shapiro, a highly respected Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Reportedly, Governor Shapiro and Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona are the top two candidates on Kamala Harris’ short list to be selected as vice president.

I hope Kamala Harris does not choose Josh Shapiro. Without “beating around the bush” the reason is because he is Jewish. I am not saying this as a self-hating Jew, or an antisemitic Jew, but as a concerned Jew. I know I am not the only Jewish person who feels this way. The highly regarded Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)1 quoted CNN anchor John King, who is Jewish, as saying, “He’s a first term Governor, he’s Jewish, there can be some risks on putting him on the ticket.” There are risks given the times we are living in.

Do not misunderstand me. I supported George W Bush when he ran for president in 2000. However, as soon as Candidate Al Gore announced that Senator Joseph Lieberman was his vice president running mate, I switched preferences. I was excited that this committed Jewish man was running for the nation’s second highest office. To me it meant that as Jews we made it in America.2

To give it some context, in an interview with Bari Weiss, Jerry Seinfeld said he never thought that his jokes in Seinfeld were particularly Jewish. He said that Jews made it in American society, and he thought his jokes were funny and the fabric of American society appreciated them. How true he was. That was, however, in the nineties.

How shocking that that view of America was so short sighted at that time. Who would have expected that the terrible head of antisemitism would show itself in America and the world twenty-five years later? Antisemitism is no longer on the fringes of opinion, but in the mainstream. It has deeply infiltrated the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

I look at the Leon Blum the first Jewish president and devoutly progressive president of France before the War. I look at Matyas Rakosi, the devoutly Stalinist (and Jewish), Prime Minister of Hungary, also after the War.3

The above two cases are two examples of how the citizens of their respective countries blamed them for their countries’ misery because of their Jewish background. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, many blamed the Jewish Bolsheviks for turning their countries into communist states. In France there was an expression during the War, “Better Hitler than Blum.”

Even today, there are veiled antisemitic references from Democrats regarding Shapiro. In one panel discussion sponsored by The Hill the other day, Jessica Burbank said that “Shapiro equated pro-Palestinian peace protesters to the KKK.” We know what she is saying, “Jews Need Not Apply.”

We are living in dangerous times. America has showed that Jews are not welcome anymore. I am concerned about the ramifications should a Jew take the second highest high office. This is not the year 2000 anymore.1