Two District council members and a local rabbi talked Jewish safety, combating antisemitism and interfaith efforts at a legislative breakfast in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 8, ahead of the 2025 legislative session and an incoming presidential administration.
This event marked the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington’s inaugural “Lox and Legislators” gathering in the nation’s capital.
Moderated by D.C. journalist Harry Jaffe, the panel at Washington Hebrew Congregation featured Rabbi Aaron Alexander of Adas Israel Congregation and D.C. council members Brianne Nadeau and Robert White.
In his introductory remarks, Thorn Pozen, JCRC’s D.C. committee co-chair, noted that many Jewish community members had moved out of the District to Montgomery County and northern Virginia in the mid-20th century. Now, he said an estimated 10 percent of D.C. is Jewish, making it more necessary than ever to hear Jewish voices and legislative priorities and pass those sentiments on to lawmakers.
Alexander said he would like to see leaders be more proactive rather than acting after an antisemitic incident.
“I don’t think we talk honestly and publicly enough about antisemitism,” Alexander addressed the crowd. “We talk about it reflexively and reactively when it happens; we want to challenge it, but proactively is still the challenge. Most people still have no sense of what antisemitism actually is and how it exists in the world.”
He said officials should teach the public “what it means to scapegoat entire communities” instead of only releasing a statement after a hate incident occurs.
“Thank God for the work of the ADL, the JCRC, Jews United for Justice, groups going out there and proactively trying to talk about antisemitism, but until we hear from our elected officials, we will always be trying to educate after the fact,” Alexander said.
Nadeau shared her personal experience as one of two Jewish council members in D.C., and said that it takes “constant education” about what antisemitism is, how to spot it and react to it and how to support those affected by it: “[Antisemitism is] just not something that’s top of mind for most people.”
“Since Oct. 7, there’s been a shift,” Nadeau told the crowd. “We are a progressive city; that’s what we call ourselves [in D.C.]. And it’s no longer safe to be a Jew in a progressive coalition.”
She described being followed by members of a cease-fire coalition, who videotaped her personal conversations and, on another occasion, protested as she spoke with constituents at a pool.
“And you can say, ‘You’re a politician; you signed up for this,’ but nobody signs up for harassment; nobody signs up for additional fear,” Nadeau said, adding that council members “don’t have a lot” of security.
Nadeau said she didn’t feel comfortable displaying the menorah in her window in 2023 since protesters know where she lives — one stuck a “cease-fire” sticker onto a railing on Nadeau’s residential property.
Other constituents have approached Nadeau with concerns about the anti-Israel vandalism that has appeared around D.C. in the last 15 months. She said a team of constituents has been buying paint to paint over the vandalism or scraping it off, but wanted to know what District officials were doing about the issue.
“For Jewish people to not feel safe in progressive coalitions, it really changes the dynamic of the work that we do together,” Nadeau said.
White reminded the audience that legislation is not the only nor strongest method of creating change; communities must form action-oriented interfaith relationships.
“We need to be thoughtful about how we rebuild the historic relationships between the Black and Jewish communities,” White said. “How do we build those relationships? … It requires a great deal of leadership, vulnerability and listening, which brings us to JCRC and what we’re doing today.”
JCRC has hosted a legislative breakfast annually in both Maryland and Virginia, and the Jan. 8 gathering marked the first such event in the nation’s capital.
“It feels great to be a part of it,” Alexander told Washington Jewish Week after the event. “It’s unbelievably important for the Jewish community to begin to organize in this way and it’s essential that this remains a very diverse coalition that includes not only the Jewish community, but as many aspects, parts, pieces of the Washington, D.C., community as possible. We’re all in this together.”
He emphasized the importance of Jewish community members’ involvement in civic society, keeping in mind that efforts towards justice and safety go beyond the Jewish community.
In discussing the incoming administration, Alexander said President-elect Donald Trump’s plan for “mass deportation” should concern members of the Jewish community, as people whose ancestors may have been exiled from many countries throughout history.
The overarching theme of the morning was banding together in unity that spans race and religion in order to create change.
“‘We are more alike than we are [unalike],’” White quoted poet Maya Angelou. “I always try to grab on to that, to pull people together, because if you look at any movement, any major progress has never been accomplished just by the group that is oppressed or hurt; you have to pull people together around greater visions and greater purpose.”
