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In Turkey, a festival revives a jewel of the Sephardic world and aims to break stereotypes
IZMIR, Turkey (JTA) — Prague has the dubious honor of being chosen by Adolf Hitler to be a record of what he hoped would be the vanquished Jews of Europe. The Nazis left many of the city’s synagogues and Jewish sites relatively intact, intending to showcase them as the remnants of an extinct culture.
That has made Prague a popular tourist destination for both Jewish travelers and others interested in Jewish history since the fall of the Iron Curtain: the city provides an uncommon look into the pre-war infrastructure of Ashkenazi Europe.
Could Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city, become a Sephardic version, in terms of history and tourism? That’s the goal for Nesim Bencoya, director of the Izmir Jewish Heritage project.
The city, once known in Greek as Smyrna, has had a Jewish presence since antiquity, with early church documents mentioning Jews as far back as the second century AD. Like elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire, though, its community grew exponentially with the influx of Sephardic Jews who came after their expulsion from Spain.
At its peak, the city was home to around 30,000 Jews and was the hometown of Jewish artists, writers and rabbis — from the esteemed Pallache and Algazii rabbinical families, to the musician Dario Marino, to the famously false messiah, Shabbetai Zevi, whose childhood home still stands in Izmir today.
Today, fewer than 1,300 remain. The establishment of the state of Israel, coupled with a century of economic and political upheaval, led to the immigration of the majority of Turkish Jewry.
“From the 17th century, Izmir was a center for Sephardic Jewry,” Bencoya told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We can’t recreate that, but we cannot forget that either.”
Izmir is located on Turkey’s Aegean coast. (David I. Klein)
Celebrating in the former Jewish quarter
Bencoya, who is in his late 60s, was born in Izmir but spent most of his adult life in Israel, where he led the Haifa Cinematheque, but he returned to Izmir 13 years ago to helm the heritage project, which has worked to highlight the the culture and history of Izmir’s Jewish community.
Over nine days in December that included the week of Hanukkah, thousands attended the annual Sephardic culture festival that he has organized since 2018. The festival included concerts of Jewish and Ladino music, traditional food tastings, lectures on Izmir’s Jewish community, and — since it coincided with Hanukkah and also a Shabbat — both a menorah lighting ceremony and havdalah ceremony were conducted with explanations from Izmir’s leading cantor, Nesim Beruchiel.
This year’s festival marked a turning point: it was the first in which organizers were able to show off several of the centuries-old synagogues that the project — with funding from the European Union and the local municipality — has been restoring.
The synagogues, most of which are clustered around a street still called Havra Sokak (havra being the Turkish spelling of the Hebrew word chevra, or congregation) represent a unique piece of cultural heritage.
Nesim Bencoya speaks from his office next to the restored Sinyora Synagogue in Izmir. (David I. Klein)
Once upon a time, the street was the heart of the Jewish quarter or “Juderia,” but today it is right in the middle of Izmir’s Kemeralti Bazaar, a bustling market district stretching over 150 acres where almost anything can be bought and sold. On Havra Sokak, the merchants hock fresh fruits, and hopefully fresher fish. One street to the south one can find all manner of leather goods; one to the north has markets for gold, silver and other precious metals; one to the west has coffee shops. In between them all are other shops selling everything from crafts to tchotchkes to kitchenware to lingerie.
Several mosques and a handful of churches dot the area, but the synagogues revive a unique character of the district that had been all but lost.
“The synagogues here were built under the light of Spain. But in Spain today, there are only two major historic synagogues, Toledo and Cordoba, and they are big ones. You don’t have smaller ones. Here we have six on one block, built with the memory of what was there by those who left Spain,” Bencoya said.
Those synagogues have been home to major events in Jewish history — such as when Shabbetei Zvi broke into Izmir’s Portuguese Synagogue one Sabbath morning, drove out his opponents and declared himself the messiah (he cultivated a large following but was later imprisoned and forced to convert to Islam). The synagogue, known in Turkish as Portekez, was among those restored by the project.
Today, only two of Izmir’s synagogues are in regular use by its Jewish community, but the others that were restored are now available as exhibition and event spaces.
Educating non-Jews
Hosting the festival within Izmir’s unique synagogues has an additional purpose, since the overwhelming majority of the attendees were not Jewish.
“Most of the people who come to the festival have never been to a synagogue, maybe a small percentage of them have met a Jew once in their lives,” Bencoya said.
That’s particularly important in a country where antisemitic beliefs are far from uncommon. In a 2015 study by the Anti-Defamation League, 71% of respondents from Turkey believe in some antisemitic stereotypes.
The festival included concerts of Jewish and Ladino music, traditional food tastings and lectures on Izmir’s Jewish community.(David I. Klein)
“This festival is not for Jewish people to know us, but for non-Jews,” Bencoya said. Now, “Hundreds of Turkish Muslim people have come to see us, to listen to our holidays and taste what we do.”
Kayra Ergen, a native of Izmir who attended a Ladino concert and menorah lighting event at the end of the festival, told JTA that until a year ago, he had no idea how Jewish Izmir once was.
“I know that Anatolia is a multicultural land, and also Turkey is, but this religion, by which I mean Jewish people, left this place a long time ago because of many bad events. But it’s good to remember these people, and their roots in Izmir,” Ergen said. “This is so sad and lame to say out loud, but I didn’t know about this — that only 70 years ago, 60% of this area here in Konak [the district around Kemeralti] was Jewish. Today I believe only 1,300 remain. This is not good. But we must do whatever we can and this festival is a good example of showing the love between cultures.”
“I think it’s good that we’re respecting each other in here,” said Zeynep Uslu, another native of Izmir. “A lot of different cultures and a lot of different people. It’s good that we’re together here celebrating something so special.”
Izmir’s history as a home for minorities has not been all rosy. At the end of the Ottoman period, the city was around half Greek, a tenth Jewish and a tenth Armenian, while the remainder were Turkish Muslims and an assortment of foreigners. In the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-1922 — remembered in Turkey as the Turkish War of Independence — the Greek and Armenian quarters of Izmir were burned to the ground after the Turkish army retook the city from the Greek forces, killing tens of thousands. A mass exodus of the survivors followed, but the Jewish and Muslim portions of the city were largely unharmed.
Izmir is not the only city in Turkey which has seen its synagogues restored in recent years. Notable projects are being completed in Edirne, a city on the Turkish western border near Bulgaria, and Kilis, on its southeastern border near Syria. Unlike Izmir, though, no Jews remain in either of those cities today, and many have accused the project of being a tool for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government to assuage accusations of antisemitism, without actually dealing with living Jews.
Losing Ladino and a ‘quiet’ mindset
Bencoya lamented that he is among the last generation for whom Ladino — the Judeo-Spanish language traditionally spoken by Sephardic Jews, but only spoken by tens of thousands today — was at least a part of his childhood.
“When you lose language, it’s not only technical, it’s not only vocabulary, it’s a whole world and a way of thinking,” Bencoya said.
The project is challenging a local Jewish mentality as well. Minority groups in Izmir, especially Jews, “have for a long time preferred not to be seen, not to be felt,” according to Bencoya.
That mindset has been codified in the Turkish Jewish community’s collective psyche in the form of a Ladino word, “kayedes,” which means something along the lines of “shhh,” “be quiet,” or “keep your head down.”
“This is the exact opposite that I want to do with this festival — to be felt, to raise awareness of my being,” Bencoya said.
The Bikur Holim Synagogue is one of the few still functioning in Izmir. (David I. Klein)
One way of doing that, he added, was having the festival refer to the community’s identity “as Yahudi and not Musevi!” Both are Turkish words that refer to Jews: the former having the same root as the English word Jew — the Hebrew word Yehuda or Judea — while the latter means “follower of Moses.”
“Yahudi, Musevi, Ibrani [meaning Hebrew, in Turkish] — they all mean the same thing, but in Turkey, they say Musevi because it sounds nicer,” Bencoya said. “To Yahudi there are a lot of negative superlatives — dirty Yahudi, filthy Yahudi, and this and that. So I insist on saying that I am Yahudi, because people have a lot of pre-judgements about the name Yahudi. So if you have prejudgements about me, let’s open them and talk about them.”
“I am not so romantic that I can eliminate all antisemitism, but if I can eliminate some of the prejudgements, then I can live a little more at peace,” he added.
So far, he feels the festival is a successful first step.
“The non-Jewish community of Izmir is fascinated,” Bencoya said. “If you look on Facebook and Instagram, they are talking about it, they are fighting over tickets, which sell out almost immediately.”
Now, he is only wondering how next year he will be able to fit more people into the small and aged synagogues.
“For Turkey, [the festival] is very important because Turkey can be among the enlightened nations of the world, only by being aware of the differences between groups of people, such as Jews, Christians, others, and Muslims,” he said.
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The post In Turkey, a festival revives a jewel of the Sephardic world and aims to break stereotypes appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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The secret Jewish history of Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton, the musician, actor and philanthropist died Aug. 25 at the age of 80. A Christian known for her Christmas output, she nonetheless connected to Judaism through a cause dear to her heart: literacy.
In a “By the Book” interview, Dolly Parton told The New York Times that a copy of the Bible is always on her nightstand, next to a “daily devotional book.” In her memoir “Songteller,” Parton explains, “I’m not that religious, but I’m very, very spiritual. I grew up in very religious surroundings. I grew up with a Bible background, and I’m glad I did.”
Parton’s knowledge of the Jewish Bible is evident in several of her most beloved songs, including “Coat of Many Colors” and “The Master’s Hand.” The song “Coat of Many Colors” is based on Parton’s own childhood growing up in relative poverty and draws upon the story of the biblical Joseph. Parton sings, “As she [her mother] sewed, she told a story from the Bible she had read / About a coat of many colors Joseph wore….”
In “Songteller,” Parton recounts, “My mom made me this little coat. In order to make me proud of that little coat, I know now, she told me the story about Joseph from the Bible and his coat of many colors. So I thought, ‘Well, if it’s from the Bible, and Joseph was an important person, it has to be very special and important.’ Then when I went to school, the kids did not see that. They just made fun of my little coat. I had seen so much more in that coat than what Mama had sewn, things sewn into my body, my soul, my everything. Mama had made it and told the story and made it all seem so real. It was so mind-warping and heart-shattering to me when they made fun of it. In my mind, I thought I looked just like Joseph. But the kids didn’t, and it crushed me.”
Her song “The Master’s Hand,” written in 1971, displays Parton’s deep immersion not only in the Five Books of Moses but also in the Writings — specifically, the Book of Daniel. The song begins by recounting the familiar story of Noah thusly:
In the days before the flood
The world grew wicked and corrupt.
But Noah was a good man,
And the Lord unto him came.
And He said to Noah, “Go build an ark.”
Noah did, and the sky got dark,
And a great flood destroyed everything.
Except for Noah and his wife
And their three sons and their wives
And a pair of every kind of creature
Walkin’ in the land.
And the people mocked.
And they made fun.
But ol’ Noah worked ’til it was done,
’Cause he was holding to the Master’s hand.
After the song’s refrain, it continues with the lesser-known story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, three figures from the Book of Daniel. The three are thrown into a “fiery furnace” after refusing to bow down to an image of Nebuchadnezzar II, the king of Babylon. Rewarded for their loyalty to God, the three miraculously survive the fire. Or, as Dolly Parton puts it:
Three Hebrew children in days of old
Were marched into the fiery coals,
’Cause they would not deny the Lord,
Would not obey command.
And the furnace roared like a mighty storm,
But the Hebrew children saw no harm.
The flame was smothered by the Master’s hand….
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
Had no fear of the fiery coals,
’Cause they were holdin’ to the Master’s hand.
“I know my Bible stories, like the ones I mention in this song,” Parton writes in “Songteller.”
Parton’s charity, the Imagination Library, a program with free books for children was the inspiration for Harold Grinspoon’s PJ Library, which provides Jewish-themed books to young readers.
“I’m always honored when my Imagination Library inspires others,” Parton said.
While Dolly Parton’s musical roots are in country and gospel, by the mid-1970s, with her career at a standstill, she was ready to reach a larger audience. Two Brooklyn-born Jewish men played essential roles in helping Parton make the leap from Nashville to mainstream pop stardom. Parton gives full credit to Sandy Gallin, one of the most successful talent agents from the 1970s through the 1990s, for helping her to achieve “crossover” success in music and to expand into TV, movies and even a theme park.
In 1977, Gallin convinced Parton to record a song called “Here You Come Again,” written by the Jewish husband-and-wife songwriting duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. He brought in another Brooklyn native, Gary Klein, to produce the song and the album of the same name. The single cracked the Top 20 Pop Album charts and spawned her first Top 10 pop hit; the album was her first to sell millions. (Incidentally, her pop success didn’t come at the cost of her country credibility; the song sat atop the Country Singles chart for five weeks.) The song also garnered Parton her first-ever Grammy Award, for best female country vocal. Over the next few years, Klein produced a number of other hits for Parton.
But for Gallin, it didn’t end there. He convinced Parton to open the “Dollywood” theme park in Tennessee, and the two co-founded a production company, Sandollar, among whose many successes were the Steve Martin film “Father of the Bride” and the hit TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” The producers won an Academy Award in 1990 for their AIDS documentary, “Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.” Gallin also produced the Parton-starring movies “Rhinestone” and “Straight Talk.” Parton commemorated her friendship and loyalty to Gallin by writing “Sandy’s Song,” sung to the tune of “Greensleeves.”
In “Songteller,” Dolly Parton writes of Gallin, “We were so close and our relationship was so loving. We were from two completely different worlds, but we just clicked, somehow. He was just one of those friends that you find who you just know are going to be your friend forever.” For a time, the two even shared an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. After Gallin died in 2017, Parton told an interviewer, “Nobody could quite get how the Christian Southern girl and the New York Jewish boy could have so much in common. But it was real.”
PJ Grisar contributed to this article.
The post The secret Jewish history of Dolly Parton appeared first on The Forward.
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A tourist’s guide to the vanished Jewish quarter of Warsaw
פֿאַרן חורבן האָבן אין וואַרשע געוווינט אַן ערך 370 טויזנט ייִדן — די גרעסטע ייִדישע שטאָט אין אייראָפּע און די צווייט גרעסטע בכלל נאָך ניו-יאָרק.
נאָך דער מלחמה איז די שטאָט און אירע ייִדישע אײַנוווינער, ווי באַוווּסט, געוואָרן איין גרויסע חורבֿה. דאָס גאַנצע רײַכע ייִדישע לעבן איז געוואָרן שטויב און אַש. אָבער אַ דאַנק די דיגיטאַלישע אַרכיוון, קען דאָס אַמאָליקע ייִדישע לעבן אין וואַרשע ווײַטער עקזיסטירן אין דעם מענטשלעכן דמיון, און מע קען עס ווידער אויפֿלעבן אין אונדזער תּקופֿה. אַ מענטש קען זיך פֿאַרטיפֿן אין די אַמאָליקע וואַרשעווער ייִדישע צײַטונגען, זיך פֿאַרלירן אין דער רײַזע אויף דער צײַטמאַשינקע, און זיך פֿאָרשטעלן אַז מע געפֿינט זיך אין וואַרשע אין 1938.
דאָס איז פֿאַקטיש דער רושם וואָס בלײַבט נאָכן דורכבלעטערן בני מערס נײַ בוך אויף העברעיִש, „מורה דרך: ורשה היהודית 1938“ (אַ וועגווײַזער צו דער ייִדישער וואַרשע, 1938), אַרויס אין 2025 בײַם מאגנס-פֿאַרלאַג. דער געדאַנק הינטער דעם בוך איז גאָר אייגנאַרטיק און אומגעוויינטלעך: צו שרײַבן אַ בוך הײַנט צו טאָג וואָס איז צונויפֿגעשטעלט ווי אַ בוך פֿאַר טוריסטן וועלכע ווילן באַזוכן דעם ייִדישן ייִשובֿ אין וואַרשע אין 1938; און דער „מחבר“ פֿונעם וועגווײַזער איז אַ וואַרשעווער ייִד פֿון יענע יאָרן, וואָס ווענדט זיך צו די דעמאָלטדיקע לייענערס.
בעצם איז דאָס גאַנצע בוך אַ שפּיל פֿון „לאָמיר זיך פֿאָרשטעלן“: אַ געשיכטע-בוך וואָס מאַכט זיך פֿאַר אַ טוריסטיש בוך, וואָס גיט פּרטים וועלכע זענען דעם הײַנטיקן לייענער דווקא אומניצלעך. דאָס שטייט אין שאַרפֿער סתּירה מיטן עצם געדאַנק פֿון אַ טוריסטיק בוך וואָס זײַן ציל איז צו געבן ניצלעכע פּרטים וועגן אַ געוויס אָרט. ווי מער שרײַבט אין דער הקדמה: „כּמעט אַלץ וואָס וועט ווײַטער געשילדערט ווערן אין אָט דעם וועגווײַזער עקזיסטירט ניט הײַנט… דאָס שרײַבן פֿון אַזאַ מין וועגווײַזער איז אויף אַ גרויסן מאָס דערמעגלעכט געוואָרן אַ דאַנק דער וועבזײַט ׳עיתּונות יהודית היסטורית׳ [דער היסטאָרישער ייִדישער פּרעסע].“
ווי יעדער וועגווײַזער פֿון דעם זשאַנער, איז דאָס בוך צעטיילט אויף דרײַ קאַטעגאָריעס: אַלגעמיינע קענטשאַפֿט, ניצלעכע אינפֿאָרמאַציע און די טורן. אויף דער ערשטער קאַטעגאָריע, „אַלגעמיינע קענטשאַפֿט“, קען מען לייענען וועגן דער שטאָטס געשיכטע, איר באַפֿעלקערונג, אירע לשונות, רעליגיע, ווירטשאַפֿט, קולטור, ספּאָרט, אַרכיטעקטור, חיות און פֿלאַנצן. למשל, ניט געקוקט אויף אַלע פּאָליטישע, רעליגיעזע און קולטורעלע מחלוקתן צווישן די וואַרשעווער ייִדן, האָבן זיי כאָטש איין זאַך געהאַט בשותּפֿות: די ייִדישע שפּראַך. ווי עס שטייט אינעם וועגווײַזער, רעדט מען אין דער ייִדישער וואַרשע בעיקר ייִדיש, ווי 88.9% פֿון די ייִדישע אײַנוווינער האָבן אין 1931 דעקלאַרירט. און זיי רעדן זייער אייגענעם ייִדישן דיאַלעקט מיט זײַנע אייגענע טערמינען. אַ באַלעבאָס, צום בײַשפּיל, הייסט אַ „וואַרעט“; אַ פֿינצטערער קאָרידאָר איז אַ „שטשאָנקע“; בכּיוון איז „אינאַמישנע“.
אויף דער קאַטעגאָריע „ניצלעכע אינפֿאָרמאַציע“ אינפֿאָרמירט דער וועגווײַזער דעם לייענער אין וועלכער צײַט פֿון יאָר איז ייִדן כּדאי צו באַזוכן וואַרשע (דער ענטפֿער: פֿרילינג און האַרבסט, ווען מע פֿײַערט דעם „חודש פֿון ייִדיש בוך“). צווישן די אַנדערע שאלות: וווּ אײַנצושטיין; וואָס צו עסן און טרינקען, פֿון אייער קיכלעך ביז וואַסער־פּלעצלעךף וויפֿל קאָסטן פֿאַרשידענע זאַכן? (אַ ייִדישע צײַטונג למשל קאָסט צווישן 10 און 30 גראָשן; אַ קילאָ קעז — 1 זלאָטע); וואָס צו לייענען אויפֿן וועג? פֿון וואָס מע זאָל זיך אָפּהיטן? (פֿון די גנבֿים, פֿאַרשטייט זיך) און ווי אַזוי מע קען אָנקומען קיין וואַרשע. מע לייענט אויך וועגן דעם פֿאַרקער אויפֿן וועג, דער פּאָסט, די בענק, דער פּאָליציי, די פֿײַערלעשערס, די ביבליאָטעקן, און נאָך און נאָך.
אויף דער טורן-סעקציע לייגט דער מחבר פֿאָר זיבן מעגלעכע טורן, למשל: אַ טור פֿונעם פּלאַץ גזשיבאָווסקי דורך דער קראָכמאַלנער גאַס – דער צענטער פֿון „דאָס פּלעצל“ (דער ייִדישער אונטערוועלט), פֿון וואַנען עס שטאַמען די דרײַ מחברים פֿון דער זעלבער משפּחה, י. י. זינגער, יצחק באַשעוויס זינגער און אסתּר קרײַטמאַן, און וווּ עס געפֿינט זיך אויך דער באַרימטער סאַסקי-גאָרטן; אַ טור וואָס דערפֿירט דיך דורך דער באַרימטסטער ייִדישער גאַס נאַלעווקעס, דער האַרץ פֿון ייִדישער וואַרשע, וווּ מחמת דער בליִענדיקער עקאָנאָמיע שפּראָצן דאָרט אויף יעדן שריט און טריט נײַע קיאָסקן פֿון זעלצער און אײַזקרעם; אָדער אַ שפּאַציר וואָס גייט דורכן צפֿונדיקן טייל שטאָט, אַרײַנגערעכנט דורך דער אָרעמער סמאָטשע־גאַס, וואָס ניט געקוקט אויף דעם דלות פֿאַרמאָגט זי דעם שיינעם „מעטראָ-קינאָזאַל“. בני מער האָט אַגבֿ מיט 8 יאָר צוריק טאַקע געשריבן אַ גאַנץ בוך וועגן דער סמאָטשע־גאַס (מאגנס, 2018).
„אַ וועגווײַזער צו דער ייִדישער וואַרשע, 1938“ איז אַ וויכטיקער בײַטראָג צום זשאַנער פֿון פּאָפּולערער געשיכטע, וואָס באַנײַט און באַלעבט די אַמאָליקע שטאָט דורך זײַן אויסנעמיקן פֿאָרמאַט. דער העברעיִשער לייענער וועט געניסן פֿון מערס ברייטער קענטשאַפֿט, הומאָר און טאַלאַנט ווי אַ דערציילער. ס׳איז פֿאָרט אומפֿאַרמײַדלעך, אַז בשעתן לייענען פֿילט מען זיך ווי מע דרייט זיך אַרום אין דער וועלט פֿון שדים און ווי מע ווערט געפֿירט דורך אַ „טויטער שטאָט“. דאָס בוך פּאַסט צום בעסטן פֿאַר די לייענערס וואָס זענען מסוגל אַ ווײַלע „צו סוספּינדירן דעם ספֿק“ און זיך איבערגעבן דער פֿאַנטאַזיע.
נאָכן איבערלייענען דאָס בוך, שטעל איך זיך אַליין די קשיא: וואָס פֿאַר אַ ווירטועלע פֿאַנטאַזיע אין דרײַ דימענסיעס וואָלט די אַלמעכטיקע קינסטלעכע אינטעליגענץ געקאָנט שאַפֿן פֿון מערס בוך? אויף אַזאַ סאָרט אויפֿלעבונג דאַרף מען נאָך וואַרטן.
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Can an Oklahoma Senate candidate attract voters with an ad tossing out AIPAC ‘trash’?
(JTA) —Oklahoma grassroots activist N’kiyla Jasmine Thomas is facing off on Tuesday against centrist Jim Priest in a Democratic Senate race that has become the latest litmus test for progressive politics in a conservative stronghold.
The two candidates are battling at the ballot box for the second time this summer after neither of them secured the needed majority to win the June primary contest. Thomas, a nurse who has been vocal against AIPAC, earned 45% of votes in the June five-person matchup, while Priest, a lawyer and ordained minister, accrued 24%.
Both Thomas and Priest would be underdogs in the general election against Republican candidate Rep. Kevin Hern, who swept his primary and clinched the endorsement of President Donald Trump. Oklahoma hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate in more than three decades.
Nonetheless, Tuesday’s runoff will serve as a referendum on the potency of progressivism in a deep-red state, just a week after democratic socialist Angie Nixon knocked out her moderate opponent in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary.
Unlike Nixon, Thomas is not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. She has, however, openly identified with socialist policies, while her opponent, Priest, calls himself a moderate.
Neither candidate has a wealth of political experience. Priest, 70, made a failed bid for Oklahoma attorney general in 2010 and was previously the CEO of two nonprofit organizations. His campaign priorities center on reducing the cost of living, making healthcare more accessible and inspiring confidence in government.
Thomas, meanwhile, is a 31-year-old citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, who says she represents “the next generation of leaders.” Among her key focuses are women’s health and safety, civil rights and LGBTQIA+ protections. She has also repeatedly pledged to never take money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Although the pro-Israel lobby has not been involved in this race, a November social media reel showed Thomas pulling a giant red trash bin, adorned with the labels “AIPAC Funds” and “Corporate PAC Funds.” Alongside the reel is a caption that reads, “Just taking out the trash.”
“I am a sole grassroots candidate,” she said in the reel. “And we are not accepting AIPAC or corporate PAC funds. It’s garbage.”
Asked about her rhetoric on AIPAC, Thomas told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that “My concerns have NEVER been about Jewish people, Judaism, or Israel’s existence,” saying that she instead prioritizes human rights, civilian lives and the accountability of all governments.
Some voters see it differently. David Howman, a 30-year-old Jewish banker in Tulsa, said that although he’s “a fairly progressive Democratic voter,” he considers Thomas’s usage of AIPAC to be “a pretty cheap political tactic.”
“It’s kind of like a little grenade you get to toss out in there,” Howman told JTA.
“If AIPAC were funneling a bunch of money into the Jim Priest campaign, maybe that’s a conversation that is worth having,” he added. “But they’re not even touching this race.”
Though Howman voted for Priest in Tuesday’s runoff, he noted that a different candidate, Troy Green, was his favorite in the June primary.
When asked at a Saturday debate about Israel’s military actions, both candidates confirmed their belief in the existence of a “genocide” in Gaza. Only Priest, however, linked the word to Israel, while Thomas connected it to the actions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Priest recognized that Hamas “committed atrocities,” noting that “they kidnapped people, they killed people, they tortured people” and that “they should be held accountable.” But he also deemed Israel’s retaliation “disproportionate to the threat.”
“In response, Israel is committing genocide,” he said, accusing the Jewish state of preventing medical supplies and food from getting to people.
Expressing skepticism about both one-state and two-state solutions, Priest declared that “what’s needed is a 24-state solution,” in which the whole Middle East unites “in something like the Abraham Accords.”
The Priest campaign did not respond to JTA’s request for comment.
Thomas, meanwhile, emphasized that “we can be for our Jewish brothers and sisters, and we can be against Netanyahu and what he is doing.”
“He is committing genocide. He is absolutely murdering children,” Thomas said. “We have to stop providing funding for these wars.”
She also backed the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, noting that the U.S. should “not be on the side of another country that we don’t even have any ties to, outside of allyship.”
Thomas had previously refrained from using the word genocide in public statements, instead expressing “solidarity with Palestine” and calling for an end to “unconditional funding of Israel’s military.”
In her response to JTA’s request that she clarify her stances on AIPAC and Israel, Thomas provided a lengthy written statement.
“I stand with my Jewish brothers and sisters against antisemitism, hate and discrimination in all forms,” she said, referring to Judaism as one of the “most enduring faith traditions.”
Reiterating remarks she made at the debate, Thomas noted that “two things can be true at the same time,” and advocated for both the security of the Jewish people and a willingness to criticize “any government, including the current leadership of Israel.”
Thomas also voiced support for a two-state solution, explaining that “both Israelis and Palestinians deserve the opportunity to live in peace, security and self-determination.”
“When I discuss political influence or organizations, my focus is on the broader role of money, lobbying, and special interests in our political system, not on any one religion or community,” she added.
Regardless of who comes out victorious on Tuesday, Howman said that many Democrats will be heading to the ballot box this November with a pessimistic outlook.
“That’s kind of the challenge that we have here in Oklahoma,” he added. “There’s definitely a sense of defeatism on the Democratic side.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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