(Courtesy of Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington)
A candidate endorsement questionnaire by the Metro-DC Democratic Socialists of America is under fire as “antisemitic and anti-Zionist” by the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington.
The questionnaire, which includes prompts about the candidate’s basic information and campaign goals, asks candidates to pledge to publicly support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and refrain from all affiliation with the Israeli government, “Zionist lobby groups,” or other events that contradict DSA’s anti-Zionist position.
In 2024, MDCDSA passed a local resolution establishing four commitments for locally endorsed candidates — including support of the BDS movement and legislation that furthers the cause of Palestinian liberation — and instructed its political engagement committee to recommend against endorsing candidates who don’t meet those expectations, according to the 2025 questionnaire.
Ron Halber, JCRC’s CEO, described this questionnaire as an “ideological straitjacket” and asserted that the BDS criterion rules out ties to a vast majority of synagogues and Jewish institutions because of their Zionist beliefs.
Nearly nine out of 10 American Jews say they support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state, according to a recent survey by the Jewish Federations of North America. Many synagogues and Jewish spaces display the Israeli flag and maintain strong ties to and support for Israel.
“Basically, if they answer affirmatively to these questions, a candidate is agreeing to exclude Jewish participation in public life and saying that they won’t meet with any Jewish organization except those on the extreme fringe of margins,” Halber said in an interview with Washington Jewish Week. “It’s unfathomable. Antisemitism is basically the price for admission.”
The questionnaire also asks candidates to oppose “legislation that harms Palestinians and supporters of the Palestine solidarity movement” including the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.
For Halber, the content of the questionnaire is getting candidates to agree to an “anti-Jewish loyalty oath” for a chance at endorsement by the MDCDSA.
“We feel it is a professional and moral responsibility for Jewish organizations around the country to call [DSA] out and to say what they are, which is an antisemitic organization,” Halber said. “No organization can deny they’re antisemitic if they say that anybody who believes in Zionism should be boycotted, because if Zionism is the belief of the Jewish community to have an independent state, then that’s 90% of American Jewry. That’s every synagogue, every Jewish organization.”
He added that the DSA questionnaire also includes avoiding events sponsored by J Street, a nonprofit liberal Zionist advocacy group that promotes a “diplomatic end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a two-state solution”: “That’s too far for them.”
“They basically only want to speak to Jews who are willing to basically reject commonly held beliefs and principles,” Halber said, referring to Zionism. “They have basically called for a boycott of Jewish institutions.”
MDCDSA said its organization rejects the conflation of Zionism with Judaism and the claim that anti-Zionism is necessarily antisemitic, a spokesperson wrote in a statement to Washington Jewish Week.
“The questionnaire does not bar Jewish candidates from endorsement, nor does it preclude affiliation with synagogues and other Jewish community institutions,” the statement read. “DSA has endorsed many Jewish candidates both locally and across the country, and we will continue to endorse candidates of any religious affiliation who align with our values.”
The issue goes deeper than weeding out candidates who support Israel, according to Halber. At its 2017 national convention, DSA adopted a resolution in support of Palestinian civil society’s call for a BDS movement “until Israel ends its illegal colonization of Palestinian lands, ensures equal rights for Palestinians living within Israel, and guarantees the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes,” the questionnaire stated in the section labeled “Palestine.”
“In their conference, [DSA] call[s] for the liberation of Palestine, the end of Zionism. I mean, their language calls for the eradication of Israel,” Halber said. “When they call for all refugees to return [to Palestine], if you understand the implications of what they’re asking for, they’re asking for the destruction of the State of Israel.”
Halber also said he took issue with the questionnaire’s use of the words “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians” to describe Israel’s actions.
“Candidates should simply not seek the [MDCDSA] endorsement, and those who have should consider disavowing the endorsement and just stepping away from that,” Halber said.
