‘They wanted my voice gone’: A swing-seat, pro-Israel Democrat is fending off criticism from both parties

Marco Bello/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A week before the Israeli elections that will determine Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s future, the only two Jewish candidates running against each other to represent one of the most heavily Jewish House districts in the country met for their first face-to-face at a synagogue the name of which literally translates to “children of Israel” — referring to the people, not the country.

Attendees needed to provide their license plates in advance and bring photo identification to get in the door, passing through a body scanner. Armed and unarmed guards were positioned through the building. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, the Democrat who’d be considered a progressive on most other issues beyond Israel, and former Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer, his Republican challenger, each entered with two large security guards who stood the whole time just to the side of the stage. The hour-long forum went 28 minutes before a question that wasn’t about Israel and antisemitism.

The race, the synagogue’s interim rabbi Cy Stanway told CNN after listening to the forum, is a “bellwether” — on support for Israel, antisemitism, Jews running against each other … he was still ticking through significances as congregants interrupted to share their own takes on what the race represents.

It’s also a referendum on Moskowitz, and whether a loudly pro-Israel and adamant denouncer of antisemitism fits anymore in the Democratic Party.

The answer to that question will resonate far beyond South Florida, as multiple Jewish candidates are gearing up to launch 2028 presidential campaigns at the same moment that condemning Israel is emerging as a clear litmus test for the Democratic primaries.

For decades, American Jews were one of the most supportive and consistent Democratic constituencies. But the October 7 attacks , President Donald Trump’s hardline support for Israel and the spread of anti-Israel sentiment among some Democrats have ripped them apart politically in ways that are all playing out in this House race.

By Republicans, American Jews are being told to stomach antisemitism coursing past the conservative fringes and Trump’s embrace of a prime minister deeply unpopular among them. By Democrats, they’re being told to subjugate their concerns to the larger fight for majorities in Congress, to listen to former President Barack Obama at an event in Belfast this month say Israelis “took land off people, and they were excessive,” to accept New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani going from outlier to trendsetter as anti-Zionism becomes de rigueur and antisemitism gets minimized.

“If you don’t want to be with the Democrats as a whole because you feel that way, I understand,” Moskowitz told CNN in an interview. “But in this race, that’s not the case.”

“The reason why the Jewish community is so on edge is because the beginning of those stories of our grandparents are starting to come true again,” Moskowitz said. “We’re being blamed for things we have nothing to do with. The conspiracy theories are out of control. If Hitler had TikTok, I don’t know that the Jews would have survived, and America might be speaking German.”

This is the rare race where the Democrat brags about being the one with AIPAC’s endorsement and embraces being grouped in with renegade Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman on Israel.

Two days before the forum, Moskowitz sat by the large rusting pink flamingo in the back patio of the Ole Ole Steakhouse in Miami Beach, being offered tray after tray of croquettes and flatbreads, a few minutes before he closed out a Latino supporter event by calling out the winning ticket numbers for a raffle of new cookware pieces — “I was born for this moment,” he joked. Moskowitz told CNN that while his main job if he returns to Washington will be tackling the affordability crisis he hears about across every demographic in the district, he now has a larger mission.

Police are permanently stationed outside Moskowitz’s home after a man with an antisemitic manifesto was arrested for targeting him for assassination. Another man was arrested just last week for threatening his life.

Put that together with a Democratic Socialists of America primary challenger who ran against him because of his Israel views and was embraced by likeminded advocates around the country, Moskowitz said, and he’s digging in.

“They wanted my voice gone. That voice is not only not going anywhere, that voice is now pissed,” Moskowitz said. “These people need economic help. They absolutely need economic help, but this litmus test that all of a sudden is breeding in the Democratic Party that you’ve got to be anti- our number one ally, or you’ve got to say things like, ‘It’s a genocide,’ which is a blood libel against Jews in this country and which is making us less safe? Yeah, I’m going to fight that wherever it is.”

Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

This is just one House seat amid a battle for the majority that’s playing out in districts red, blue and purple across the country. But because of his antics aimed for the cameras at committee hearings, the proudly impish 45-year-old Moskowitz quickly became one of the best-known junior members of Congress in the country.

Republicans in Tallahassee and DC came up with a plan: as part of their own rushed off-cycle redistricting, they redrew the district to one where Trump won by 9 points in 2024, recruited the well-known but elected as a non-partisan Jewish mayor of one of the best-known cities in it, then poured in millions. Singer, with his South Florida perma-tan and hair spray keeping his gray comb-up perfectly in place, looked the part.

It’s the most expensive House race in America — well over $40 million in cumulative spending already, and expected to edge at least past $50 million in the final days. Ads are running non-stop, full of too many claims and fudged phrases for anyone to make sense of. Signs are hooked onto the fences of condos and at intersections. Voters are having to divine which district they live in post-gerrymandering by sorting through all the brochures swamping their mailboxes.

Now that the race is almost done, Moskowitz says he has told House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries he feels a little guilty with how much cash is being poured into him while multiple other races on the cusp in Florida and beyond could be shifted by a fraction of it.

Michael A. McCoy/Reuters

But Moskowitz and Democrats in DC like that he’s also sucking up money that Republicans weren’t planning to spend there. To Jeffries, a person familiar with the leader’s thinking tells CNN, this and other races where he could buck GOP efforts to redistrict Democrats out of reach of the majority were “personal.”

In another measure of how fraught Israel has become for Democrats, Israel critics like former Obama deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes and several incoming DSA House members blasted Jeffries for betraying party voters for appointing Moskowitz the ranking member on the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee. The truth is, even though Moskowitz thanked the leader for the job, Jeffries wasn’t directly involved.

California Rep. Brad Sherman, who was up for it, decided giving it over to Moskowitz would help in his House race, but also in much bigger ways.

“That he’ll be chair of that subcommittee,” Sherman told CNN by phone, “is significant to everyone who wants a reasonable and balanced policy in the Middle East.”

Meanwhile, at the top of his ticket Moskowitz has Angie Nixon, a former state legislator who joined the DSA to run for Senate and has leaned into claims that Israel has committed genocide, though he said he was too focused on his race to have an opinion on her, but was glad to point out that he hasn’t campaigned with her.

Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

The race isn’t all coming down to Jews and Israel. The new district, which runs along the coast roughly from Delray Beach to Miami Beach, also has a big Latino population, and Ileana Martinez, who’s been organizing for Republicans many of the years since she first arrived from Colombia in 1979, was eager to put together the steakhouse event for Moskowitz. She and some other Latinos who supported the president in 2024 now feel “we are on a very disgusting thing with Trump.”

But in an interview in an office just off the synagogue’s sanctuary shortly after the forum, Singer told CNN that the overall affluence of the district has meant less stress on affordability than elsewhere, and more time for the race to focus on Democrats’ changing views on Israel and socialism.

In signs around the district and a dozen times on stage at the forum, the Republican tied Moskowitz to Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, the strongly anti-Israel Minnesota congresswoman from the Squad who in a much different political moment back in 2019 — before Moskowitz was in Congress — had to apologize for a post claiming support for Israel was all about money in what was widely condemned as an antisemitic trope.

“People who understand that support for Israel and standing up to antisemitism are key issues will find an easier home in the Republican Party or an easier voting with someone who will stand up to those issues and not empower people like Ilhan Omar as my opponent did,” Singer charged.

The difference between Republicans and Democrats, Singer charged, is that the anti-Israel and antisemitic forces on the right are mostly podcasters and not elected officials. On stage during the forum, he had shrugged off Trump’s use of “shylock” at a Kansas rally last week in describing people who chase more money than they’re owed as “an ill-advised term,” but one that has “multiple meanings.”

“Merchant of Venice,” Singer said, happens to be his favorite Shakespeare play. Asked in the interview if “Shylock” is an antisemitic term, Singer said, “it’s often used that way, yes.”

Asked if he could point to an example outside of a production of “The Merchant of Venice” when it wasn’t used in an antisemitic way, Singer said, “just as a lender. I remember the movie ‘Get Shorty,’ John Travolta used it.”

Anyway, Singer said, he’s more focused on what Trump has done standing by Israel and appointing envoys to fight antisemitism.

Singer and Moskowitz both insist the only election they’re focused on is theirs — but they can’t help looking over to Israel’s and wondering what it will mean for the fight that’s playing out in Florida and beyond.

Netanyahu, Singer said, has been “a transformative leader.”

Moskowitz has been more critical of Netanyahu but says he doesn’t think the fight he’s having is going to be changed much by whoever emerges as the next prime minister.

“Ultimately, Israel could use a new face of the country. It’s not going to, by the way, fundamentally change what’s happening on the far left and in DSA,” he said. “But it will provide maybe a breath to recalibrate here on Israel’s future.”

Marco Bello/Bloomberg via Getty Images

在决定总理本杰明·内塔尼亚胡未来的以色列大选前一周，代表该国犹太人口最集中的选区之一参选的仅有的两名犹太候选人在一座犹太教堂举行了首次面对面会谈。这座犹太教堂的名字直译过来就是“以色列的孩子们”——指的是以色列人民，而不是以色列这个国家。

与会者需提前提供车牌号并携带带照片的身份证明才能入场，并需通过人体扫描仪。大楼内各处都部署了武装和非武装保安人员。民主党众议员贾里德·莫斯科维茨（Jared Moskowitz）——在以色列问题之外的大多数其他议题上都被认为是进步派——和他的共和党挑战者、前博卡拉顿市长斯科特·辛格（Scott Singer）各自带着两名身材高大的保安人员入场，保安人员全程站在舞台侧边。这场持续一小时的论坛进行了28分钟后，才出现一个与以色列和反犹主义无关的问题。

犹太教堂的临时拉比赛·斯坦威在听完论坛后告诉 CNN，这场选举是一个“风向标”——它预示着对以色列的支持、反犹主义、犹太人之间的相互竞争……他还在逐条分析各种意义，而会众则不断打断他，分享他们对这场选举所代表的意义的看法。

这也是对莫斯科维茨的一次全民公投，看看这位公开支持以色列、坚决谴责反犹主义的人是否还适合留在民主党内。

这个问题的答案将远远超出南佛罗里达州的影响，因为多位犹太裔候选人正准备启动 2028 年总统竞选活动，与此同时，谴责以色列正成为民主党初选的一个明确试金石。

几十年来，美国犹太人一直是民主党最坚定、最稳定的选民群体之一。但10月7日的袭击事件、特朗普总统对以色列的强硬支持以及部分民主党人中反以色列情绪的蔓延，在政治上撕裂了他们，而所有这些都在这次众议院选举中有所体现。

共和党人告诉美国犹太人，要忍受保守派边缘群体中蔓延的反犹主义，以及特朗普对一位在他们当中极不受欢迎的总理的拥护。民主党人则告诉他们，要将自身诉求置于争夺国会多数席位的大局之下，要听从前总统奥巴马本月在贝尔法斯特的一次活动上发表的言论——以色列人“夺走了人民的土地，而且他们的行为过分了”，要接受纽约市市长佐兰·马姆达尼从异类变成潮流引领者，反犹太复国主义成为一种普遍现象，而反犹主义却被轻描淡写地一带而过。

“如果你因为这种感觉而不想和整个民主党站在一起，我能理解，”莫斯科维茨在接受CNN采访时说。“但在这次竞选中，情况并非如此。”

莫斯科维茨说：“犹太社群如此焦虑不安的原因在于，我们祖辈讲述的那些故事似乎正在重演。我们被冤枉，而这些冤屈与我们毫无关系。阴谋论已经泛滥成灾。如果希特勒当年有TikTok，我不知道犹太人是否还能幸存，说不定美国现在都说德语了。”

这是一场罕见的竞选，民主党候选人吹嘘自己获得了美国以色列公共事务委员会 (AIPAC) 的支持，并且欣然接受与宾夕法尼亚州叛逆的民主党参议员约翰·费特曼在以色列问题上站在同一阵线。

论坛召开前两天，莫斯科维茨坐在迈阿密海滩Ole Ole牛排馆后院露台上，旁边是一尊锈迹斑斑的粉红色火烈鸟雕像。几分钟后，他结束了一场拉丁裔支持者的活动，并宣布了抽奖活动的获奖号码，奖品是一套全新的厨具——他开玩笑说：“我生来就是为了这一刻。” 莫斯科维茨告诉CNN，如果他重返华盛顿，他的主要任务仍然是解决他所听到的该地区各个阶层都面临的住房负担能力危机，但他现在有了一项更宏大的使命。

此前，一名男子因持有反犹太主义宣言并扬言要暗杀莫斯科维茨而被捕，此后警方一直在莫斯科维茨家门外驻守。就在上周，另一名男子也因威胁莫斯科维茨的生命而被捕。

莫斯科维茨说，再加上美国民主社会主义者协会的一位初选挑战者，这位挑战者因为他的以色列观点而与他竞争，并得到了全国各地志同道合的支持者的拥护，他正在加紧竞选。

“他们想让我闭嘴。我的声音不仅不会消失，而且现在我怒不可遏，”莫斯科维茨说道。“这些人需要经济援助。他们绝对需要经济援助，但民主党内突然滋生出这种试金石：你必须反对我们最重要的盟友，或者你必须说出‘这是种族灭绝’这样的话——这简直是对这个国家犹太人的血腥诽谤，让我们更加不安全？是的，无论这种事发生在何处，我都会与之抗争。”

Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

这只是全国范围内争夺众议院多数席位的众多席位之一，这场争夺战遍及红、蓝、紫等各个选区。但由于他在委员会听证会上对着镜头做出的种种滑稽举动，这位45岁、略带顽皮却又引以为傲的莫斯科维茨迅速成为美国国会中最知名的年轻议员之一。

塔拉哈西和华盛顿特区的共和党人想出了一个计划：在他们仓促进行的非例行选区重划过程中，他们将选区重新划分到特朗普在2024年大选中能以9个百分点优势获胜的选区，然后招募了该选区内最知名城市之一的知名犹太裔市长（他以无党派人士的身份当选），并投入了数百万美元。辛格顶着一身南佛罗里达式的古铜色皮肤，一头灰白的头发用发胶固定得一丝不苟，看起来完全符合共和党人的形象。

这是美国历史上最昂贵的众议院选举——累计支出已超过4000万美元，预计在最后几天至少会超过5000万美元。竞选广告铺天盖地，充斥着各种夸张的说法和含糊不清的措辞，让人难以理解。公寓的围栏上、十字路口都挂满了竞选标语。选民们不得不翻阅塞满邮箱的大量宣传册，才能弄清楚自己究竟属于哪个选区，而这一切都是因为选区划分不公。

现在竞选已接近尾声，莫斯科维茨表示，他已告诉众议院民主党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯，他感到有些愧疚，因为有如此多的资金涌入他的竞选，而佛罗里达州及其他地区其他几场势均力敌的竞选，可能仅仅因为这些资金的一小部分就会发生改变。

迈克尔·A·麦考伊/路透社

但莫斯科维茨和华盛顿的民主党人喜欢他能吸纳共和党原本不打算在那里投入的资金。一位熟悉杰弗里斯想法的人士告诉CNN，对杰弗里斯来说，这场选举以及其他一些他能阻止共和党重新划分选区、使民主党人无法获得多数选票的选举，都具有“个人意义”。

以色列问题对民主党而言已变得多么棘手，另一个例证是，包括奥巴马时期副国家安全顾问本·罗兹在内的以色列批评人士，以及几位即将上任的美国民主社会主义者协会（DSA）众议员，都猛烈抨击杰弗里斯任命莫斯科维茨为中东和北非小组委员会首席成员，指责他背叛了党内选民。事实上，尽管莫斯科维茨对杰弗里斯的任命表示感谢，但杰弗里斯并未直接参与其中。

加州众议员布拉德·谢尔曼原本有意竞选该职位，但他决定将这个职位让给莫斯科维茨，这不仅有助于他竞选众议院议员，而且还有更大的好处。

谢尔曼在电话中告诉 CNN：“他将担任该小组委员会主席，这对所有希望中东政策合理平衡的人来说都意义重大。”

与此同时，莫斯科维茨的竞选搭档是安吉·尼克松，她曾是州议员，后来加入民主社会主义者协会竞选参议员，并声称以色列犯下了种族灭绝罪行。尽管莫斯科维茨表示他过于专注于自己的竞选，所以对她没有发表意见，但他很高兴地指出，他没有和她一起参加竞选活动。

Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

这场竞选并非完全取决于犹太人和以色列。这个新选区大致沿海岸线从德雷海滩延伸到迈阿密海滩，拉丁裔人口众多。伊莱亚娜·马丁内斯自1979年从哥伦比亚来到美国后，多年来一直为共和党组织活动，她热切地为莫斯科维茨筹办了这场牛排馆活动。她和其他一些在2024年支持特朗普的拉丁裔人士现在觉得“我们和特朗普的关系非常糟糕”。

但在论坛结束后不久，辛格在犹太教堂圣殿附近的一间办公室接受 CNN 采访时表示，该地区的整体富裕程度意味着与其他地方相比，人们对住房负担能力的压力较小，竞选活动也有更多的时间来关注民主党人对以色列和社会主义不断变化的看法。

在选区周围的标语牌上，以及在论坛的舞台上，这位共和党人十几次将莫斯科维茨与明尼苏达州众议员伊尔汗·奥马尔联系起来。奥马尔是“四人帮”中一位强烈反以色列的明尼苏达州女议员，在2019年——莫斯科维茨进入国会之前——在截然不同的政治时刻，她不得不为一篇声称支持以色列完全是为了钱的帖子道歉，该帖子被广泛谴责为反犹太主义的陈词滥调。

辛格指责道：“那些明白支持以色列和反对反犹主义是关键问题的人，会更容易在共和党内找到归属感，或者更容易投票给那些会挺身而出反对这些问题，而不是像我的对手那样支持伊尔汗·奥马尔之流的人的人。”

辛格指责共和党和民主党的区别在于，右翼的反以色列和反犹太势力大多是播客主持人，而非民选官员。在论坛上，他曾对特朗普上周在堪萨斯州集会上用“高利贷者”一词来形容那些追讨超过应得款项的人不以为然，称其为“一个不恰当的词”，但这个词“有多种含义”。

辛格说，《威尼斯商人》恰好是他最喜欢的莎士比亚戏剧。当被问及“夏洛克”是否带有反犹太主义色彩时，辛格回答说：“是的，它经常被这样使用。”

当被问及除了《威尼斯商人》的演出之外，他能否举出一个没有被用于反犹太主义的例子时，辛格说：“只是作为一种贷款方式。我记得电影《矮子当道》，约翰·特拉沃尔塔就用过它。”

总之，辛格表示，他更关注的是特朗普在支持以色列和任命特使打击反犹太主义方面所做的工作。

辛格和莫斯科维茨都坚称他们只关注自己的选举——但他们不禁关注以色列的选举，并想知道这将对佛罗里达州及其他地区正在上演的斗争意味着什么。

辛格说，内塔尼亚胡是一位“具有变革意义的领导人”。

莫斯科维茨对内塔尼亚胡的批评更为严厉，但他表示，无论谁成为下一任总理，他都不认为内塔尼亚胡目前的斗争会有多大改变。

“归根结底，以色列或许需要一个全新的国家形象。顺便说一句，这不会从根本上改变极左翼和美国民主社会主义者协会（DSA）的现状，”他说道。“但这或许能为以色列的未来提供一个重新审视的契机。”