Bernie Sanders Visited The Tree Of Life Synagogue – Secretly
Bernie Sanders Image by Getty
By Benjamin Gladstone July 15, 2019
Sen. Bernie Sanders forbade his campaign staff from publicizing a visit he paid to the site of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre in April because he didn’t want the visit to be seen as a “publicity grab,” The New York Times reported Saturday.
Sanders, who is Jewish, met with the rabbi of the Tree of Life Synagogue, where 11 people were killed in an attack in October. Sanders prevented his aides from announcing the meeting because he did not want to appear as exploiting the visit for political purposes.
Sanders has historically been reluctant to speak about his personal life, including his Jewish heritage and upbringing — but has grown more comfortable doing so in recent months, after being urged by campaign aides to speak out.
In a speech at a California mosque in March, Sanders recounted his childhood memories of learning about the Holocaust. “I never could understand why would people do such terrible and horrible things to people,” he said, according to the Los Angeles Times.
And in an interview published last week with the viral news outlet NowThis, Sanders said that being elected the first Jewish president would be “another barrier broken down.”
Benjamin Gladstone is an intern at the Forward. Contact him by email at gladstone@forward.com or on Twitter @bensgladstone
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.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
