Rep. Jerrold Nadler says that if he doesn't win the next Democratic primary, The New Yorker will be the only Jewish member of the House delegation. Elected to the 12th congressional district he said he would lose.
Nadler — facing off against Congressman Carolyn Maloney and challenger Suraj Patel against — took up the debate Wednesday night at a debate co-hosted by Jewish Community Relations. Council of Temple Emanu El Stryker Center on the Upper East Side.
"From New York when he was elected to Congress in 1992, he had eight Jewish congressmen. Now he has only one," he said of Mr. Nadler. says.
"If I am not re-elected, the Jewish community will be the largest — the only large — unrepresented community." He said he was a proud Zionist who had supported the cause of Israel as a Jewish homeland since the beginning of time.
"My history as a devoted Jew and Zionist goes back a long time. During college I formed a ZOA [American Zionist] chapter. I've been committed to watching and to Israel," Nadler said.
He also "led the fight against the BDS. [boycotts, divestments and sanctions since 2001] target Israel to prevent the boycott movement from taking root in the political left of the Congress.
"I am progressive and pro-Israel," said Nadler.
But his rival Maloney said, "You don't have to be Jewish to love Israel and the Jews," citing her record of supporting a Jewish state. When asked about the loss of Nadler, the only Jewish member of the New York House delegation, Maloney said, "We are lucky that Senator [Chuck] Schumer is Jewish." said.
She said there are other Jewish candidates running for a seat in the House of Representatives.
Suraj Patel compared himself to the biblical "Josha generation" after Moses.
Mr. Patel, 38, said he had opposed the BDS movement since college, and he said it was important to have a new voice to speak to the younger generation of Americans about Israel. I don't support it.
Nadler and Maloney fought over a portion of the vote on US Middle East policy.
Obama, who backed the targeted Iran nuclear deal, claimed it helped prevent Shiite mullahs from developing nuclear weapons. He said Iran continued to export terrorism in the region despite the deal.
All three candidates wanted Donald his former President Trump and his son and adviser-in-law Jared Kushner to hatch theAbrahamic Accordsand He gave rare praise for normalizing relations with some of its neighbors.
Discussions were heated at times.
Maloney was slammed again for defending her movement that discredited it, which falsely claimed that vaccinations in children caused autism.
Nadler is anti-vaccine among his parents. He said the movement had taken hold. for the poison she helped plant.
Maloney said, "I'm in favor of vaccines," he said, "I regret it," and asked about them long before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
"There's a record. He's a broken record," Maloney said, clearly annoyed. } put two congressional strongmen, Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, in contention for the same House seat.
Earlier this year, the Court decided that Democrats Conducting illegal partisan gerrymandering to gain seats in Congress,discarded reorganized maps. Republican critics derided the illegally drawn re-election district as a "Hoflmander" becauseGovernor Kathy Hochulapproved it.
A special master appointed by the courts and tasked with correcting the map will combine Nadler's Upper West Side Base and Maloney's Upper East Side Turf as part of the new 12th Congressional District. Did.
Nadler soon announced that he would be running for the 12th CD against Maloney in place of the reorganized 10th District. This 10th district no longer included the Upper West Side and included new neighborhoods in Brooklyn that he had never represented.
Patel is his third nominee for this race and a dark horse looking to upset two of his 70 delegates who have been in Congress since the early 1990s.
