J Street-Backed Virginia Democrat Smeared By GOP Over Israel Book

The Republican Party of Virginia released a flyer denouncing Democratic candidate Leslie Cockburn for writing what they called an anti-Semitic book. Image by Republican Party of Virginia
A Republican campaign flyer linking a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives with last year’s white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia has been slammed by J Street, which backs the candidate, as one of the most “disgusting political attacks we’ve ever seen.”
The flyer, sent by the Republican Party of Virginia, claims that journalist Leslie Cockburn — who is running in Virginia’s expansive 5th district, which includes Charlottesville — “spread anti-Semitic propaganda” after writing an “anti-Jewish” book they said was praised by neo-Nazi groups including Stormfront. The ad also superimposed a picture of Cockburn over tiki torch-carrying white supremacists who marched through the University of Virginia while chanting “Jews will not replace us” during the deadly 2017 protests.
“Because she co-authored a book decades ago critical of Israel, the mailer accuses her of spreading anti-Semitic propaganda. That’s ludicrous,” the left-wing Jewish group’s national political director, Ilya Braverman, wrote in response. “Criticizing Israeli policies doesn’t make someone anti-Israel. And it ABSOLUTELY doesn’t make someone anti-Semitic. Throwing around such accusations diminishes the very serious and growing threat of anti-Semitism in this country.”
Cockburn co-wrote the 1991 book “Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the U.S.-Israeli Covert Relationship” with her husband. A New York Times review described the text as “largely dedicated to Israel-bashing for its own sake.”
The candidate’s website says if elected, she will respect the relationship between the United States and Israel’s intelligence agencies and “do everything in my power to encourage its most productive and creative use to promote peace in the region and a two-state solution.”
The district, which covers Charlottesville and stretches west of Richmond up toward the D.C. suburbs, has a small Jewish population, ranking 302nd out 438 congressional areas in terms of Jewish residents.
Cockburn is running against Republican Denver Riggleman to replace incumbent GOP Rep. Tom Garrett, who announced he was retiring to deal with an alcohol problem.
Though the district leans Republican and President Trump carried it by 11 points in 2016, Democrats believe they have a shot with Garrett leaving during a potential “blue wave” election year.
Contact Ben Fractenberg at [email protected] or on Twitter, @fractenberg
Aisha Tahir contributed reporting.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 3
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 4
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Protesters clash in Crown Heights as Ben-Gvir visits Chabad headquarters
-
Yiddish ווידעאָ: היסטאָריקער שמואל קאַסאָוו דערציילט מעשׂיות פֿון זײַן משפּחה־געשיכטעVIDEO: Historian Samuel Kassow shares stories about his family history
דער ווידעאָ איז טשיקאַווע סײַ פֿאַרן אינהאַלט סײַ פֿאַר קאַסאָווס נאַטירלעכן ליטוויש־ייִדיש
-
Culture I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
-
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.