Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Omar Endorses Sanders: ‘I Am Proud To Stand With The Son Of A Jewish Refugee’

(JTA) — Rep. Ilhan Omar appeared at a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in her home state of Minnesota, offering a strong endorsement that noted his Jewishness.

An estimated 10,000 supporters attended the Sunday night event for the Vermont senator at the University of Minnesota.

Omar, also a Democrat, endorses the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel and is an outspoken critic of its government. The freshman lawmaker has been criticized for using anti-Semitic tropes in some of her criticism.

Sanders also has been critical of Israel during his campaign and said he would “absolutely” consider cutting U.S. aid to Israel to pressure the its government to change its policy, specifically on settlements.

Omar in her endorsement at the rally emphasized Sanders’ Jewish faith.

“I am proud to stand with the son of a Jewish refugee who survived genocide,” the Muslim congresswoman said. “The acknowledgment of pain and suffering is personal for both of us. The fight for human rights is undeniable. And when we recognize injustices of the past and present, whether it is genocide against Jewish people, Armenians or Rwandans or Bosnians or Native Americans or more.”

Omar, who came to the United States as a refugee from Somalia, last week voted “present” on a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, saying all genocides should be condemned.

“People say that Ilhan and I make an odd political couple. But in fact, there is really nothing odd about it at all,” Sanders told the rally. “Ilhan and I share a common link as the descendants of families who fled violence and poverty, and who came to this country as immigrants. But that is not just my story or Ilhan’s story — that is the story of America.”

Sanders is one of the few Democratic candidates who has worked to reach out to Muslim Americans.

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.

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.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

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