Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown Scolds ZOA For Praising Steve Bannon

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, scolded the Zionist Organization of America for what he perceived to be its support for Stephen Bannon, President Trump’s senior strategist.

Brown, speaking Tuesday at the conservative pro-Israel group’s annual Washington conference, appeared upset that the room had applauded the mention of Bannon’s name.

Bannon is the former CEO of the Breitbart News website, a forum for what Bannon has called the “alt-right,” a loose assemblage of anti-Establishment conservatives that includes racists, anti-Semites, anti-feminists and homophobes, but also libertarians and fierce defenders of Israel. Bannon himself started a Breitbart subsidiary aimed at pushing back against anti-Israel bias in the media; his ex-wife has said that in other circumstances, he was hostile to Jews.

Brown said that he had warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be wary of the White House because of bigoted expressions Brown said came from there.

“I will always stand strong on Israel,” he said to applause. “But I also find it’s my duty to speak out when I see what’s more and more common in my country — where its issues of race or issues of religion — that bother me.”

Morton Klein, the ZOA president, told JTA on Friday that he wished Brown had confined his remarks to Israel.

“We were pleased that Sen. Brown came to speak at our luncheon, but this was a mission focusing only on Israel and U.S-Israel relations and we were disappointed and surprised that he spoke on that issue, on issues unrelated to that, in addition to making an inaccurate statement that Steve Bannon is an anti-Semite,” he said. “He is a strong supporter of Israel and it is simply untrue he has negative feelings toward Jews.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.