Rep. Jerrold Nadler said New Yorkers will lose the only Jewish member in the House delegation if he does not win the upcoming Democratic primary for Manhattan’s newly drawn 12th congressional district.
Nadler — who is facing off against Rep. Carolyn Maloney and challenger Suraj Patel — made the argument during a debate co-sponsored Wednesday night by the Jewish Community Relations Council at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center on the Upper East Side.
“When I was elected to Congress in 1992, there were eight Jewish members from New York. There is now only one,” Nadler said.
“If I’m not re-elected the Jewish community will be the largest — the only large community — without representation.”
He said he’s been a proud Zionist supporting the cause of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people since he was 8-years-old.
“My history as a committed Jew and Zionist goes way back. When I was in college I formed a ZOA [Zionists of America] chapter. I have committed to Jewish values and Israel ever since,” said Nadler.
He also said he “led the fight” against BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] targeting Israel since 2001 and kept the boycott movement from taking hold on the political left in Congress.
“I’m progressive and pro-Israel,” said Nadler.
But his rival, Maloney, said “you don’t have to be Jewish to love Israel” and the Jewish people, citing her record in supporting the Jewish State.
Asked about losing Nadler as the only Jewish member in the New York’s House delegation, Maloney said, “We’re fortunate to have Senator [Chuck] Schumer” who is Jewish.
She said there are other Jewish candidates running for House seats.
Suraj Patel likened himself to the biblical “Josha generation” after Moses.
Patel, 38, who said he has opposed the BDS movement since college, said it’s important to have a new voice to speak to a younger generation of Americans, some of whom are more sympathetic of the Palestinian cause for land and are not as supportive of Israel.
Nadler and Maloney sparred over some of their votes on US Middle East policy.
Nadler supported the controversial Iran nuclear deal hatched by former President Barack Obama, claiming it helped keep the Shia mullahs from developing nuclear weapons.
Maloney defended her “no” vote, saying Iran continued to export terrorism in the region despite the deal.
All three candidates offered rare praise to former President Donald Trump and his son-and-law adviser Jared Kushner for hatching the Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors.
The debate got heated at times.
Maloney got hammered once again for championing a discredited movement that falsely claimed that child vaccinations cause autism.
Patel has made Maloney’s decade-old comments an issue. But Nadler piled on Wednesday night, claiming that the congresswoman introduced 9 anti-vaccination bills or resolutions.
Nadler said the anti-vax movement among parents took hold “because of the poison she helped plant.”
Maloney said “I’m pro-vaccine” and “I regret” raising any questions about them well before the coronavirus pandemic.
“I have a record. He’s a broken record,” Maloney, clearly annoyed, said.
The Democratic Party’s unforced gerrymandering debacle has left it with two congressional heavyweights — Maloney and Jerrold Nadler — vying for the same House seat.
The courts ruled earlier this year that the Democratic lawmakers engaged in illegal partisan gerrymandering to win more congressional seats and threw out their redistricted maps. Republican critics derisively called the illegally drawn redistricting the “Hochulmander” because Gov. Kathy Hochul approved it.
A court-assigned special master tasked with fixing the maps merged Nadler’s Upper West Side base with Maloney’s Upper East side turf as part of a new 12th Congressional
District.
Nadler immediately announced he would run in 12th CD against Maloney instead of his redrawn 10th district, which no longer included the Upper West Side and took in new neighborhoods in Brooklyn he had never represented.
Patel is the third candidate in the race, a dark horse looking to pull off an upset against the two septuagenarians who’ve served in the House since the early 1990s.
