(Jewish Group) State Senate Candidate Julia Salazar Claims Racism After Jewish Identity Questioned

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

It’s not your average state senate politician running in a local primary who can spark an impassioned national conversation around race, religion and identity, setting Jewish Twitter on fire.

But Julia Salazar, by any measure, isn’t your typical local politician.

The candidate vaulted into the spotlight on the coattails of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old Democratic socialist who toppled party heavyweight Rep. Joe Crowley in June’s primary for the 14th Congressional District. Ocasio-Cortez’s victory inspired journalists to seek out other young female powerhouses of the progressive left affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America. And Salazar, running in the party primary for New York’s 18th State Senate District, was at the front of the line.

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But more importantly, Salazar is one of the first politicians to embody the new breed of far-left Jewish activist engaged in “Jewish resistance” politics. Uncomfortably for the Jewish establishment on the right, center and even the liberal-Zionist left, that includes embracing the DSA’s endorsement of the boycott, sanctions and divestment movement against Israel.

So when Tablet Magazine published an article last Thursday documenting what it described as misrepresentations of Salazar’s political journey as well as her identity, the Jewish Twitterverse exploded with right-left sniping. While Salazar’s opponents called her a liar, her allies charged that the article author was engaged in a racist smear campaign that exposed the worst in exclusionary Jewish tribalism.

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Sounds like someone got playing games and is acting like an asshole. Not good. Here is The Tablet article.

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Shady.

Julia Salazar In Her Own Words

JULIA SALAZAR'S high-profile bid to unseat the New York state senator in the district that includes Brooklyn’s trendy Bushwick neighborhood took a hit last week after a Tablet magazine article raised three central questions about her self-portrayal throughout the campaign.

The piece questioned her Jewishness, her political transformation from the right to the left in college, and the claim, one the campaign has repeated at various times, that Salazar is an immigrant.

Salazar became a lightning rod for attention in June when the 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated Queens’ longtime establishment Democrat US Rep. Joseph Crowley. Salazar’s platform is similar in many ways to that of Ocasio-Cortez, as is her background; both are Latina, members of the Democratic Socialists of America, and from working class families. The candidates endorsed each other, propelling Salazar’s local race onto the national stage as a media blindsided by Ocasio-Cortez’s victory watches to see whether another socialist woman in New York can win: whether Zephyr Teachout for attorney general, Cynthia Nixon for Democratic gubernatorial nominee, or Salazar in the state senate.

But part of what makes Salazar especially interesting is that she emerged directly from the Jewish community’s own rejuvenated left. Until her campaign, Salazar served as organizer for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, a grassroots New York City nonprofit, and previously spent years as an outspoken Jewish critic of the Israeli occupation.

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N.Y. State Senate Hopeful Julia Salazar ‘Lied About Being Jewish’

New York State Senate hopeful Julia Salazar admitted Monday that her identification as a Jew is based largely on family lore.

In an in-depth interview with Jewish Currents, Salazar, 27, responded at length to the controversy surrounding her representation as both an immigrant and a Jew, but said the source of her Jewish identity “has nothing to do with me or my race or with my campaign or with whether I’m qualified to run.”

A former fellow student at Columbia University, meanwhile, told Haaretz that the Democratic socialist had “lied about her immigrant identity and she’s lying about being Jewish.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the former student said Salazar first spoke with him in 2010, expressing a desire to be involved in pro-Israel activism, and “stated unequivocally that she wasn’t Jewish.”

The former student said Salazar became active in the Christians United For Israel organization around this time. “In July 2011, she attended the CUFI summit and in the fall semester she nominally founded CUFI at Columbia University.”

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