Will Jack Schlossberg’s Jewish roots help him in bid for Nadler’s seat?
Kennedy’s grandson, who was raised Catholic but identifies as Jewish, is seeking to represent one of the nation’s largest Jewish electorates
Jack Schlossberg at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 20, 2024. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh September 8, 2025
Jack Schlossberg, the only grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, entered the race to succeed longtime Congressman Jerry Nadler in a simple seven-word announcement. “Hey guys?” he wrote on X Sunday morning. “Have formed an exploratory committee.”
Though raised Catholic by his mother, Caroline Kennedy, the 32-year-old Schlossberg identifies as Jewish.
The Manhattan district he’s eyeing has one of the largest Jewish electorates in the nation. Jews in the 12th Congressional District account for about 30% of the vote in the Democratic primary.
When Nadler ran for reelection in 2022, he campaigned on the need to preserve Jewish representation from New York City in Congress.
Two of the candidates to succeed him, Micah Lasher and Liam Elkind, are also Jewish.
Some voters say Israel and rising antisemitism will be central for them in the Democratic primary, given the district’s large Jewish community and history of Jewish representation. “I think that this is a district where people want to see staunch support for Israel and commitment to Israel’s security,” said Amanda Berman, founder and chief executive of the pro-Israel progressive group Zioness and a local resident, citing the vulnerability felt by American Jews.
Schlossberg’s Jewishness
He is the son of designer and artist Edwin Schlossberg, who was born to Orthodox Jewish parents of Ukrainian descent. “I am my father’s schnoz!” Schlossberg wrote on X last year, using the Yiddish slang for nose to describe his resemblance to him. His grandfather, Alfred, was president of the Park East Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Jack Schlossberg was educated in his mother’s Catholic faith and posted online that he believes in “one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church.” Nevertheless, the family observed Jewish holidays and upheld Jewish traditions. “We incorporate Hanukkah. We light the menorah and play dreidel and sing songs at our holiday party,” Kennedy told Newsday in 2007.
In an interview with Hey Alma, Schlossberg said he identifies as culturally Jewish. “I feel I’m at least 100% half Jewish ;),” he said.
The political scion often invokes his Judaism online and in his political debates.
In the New York City mayoral primary, he responded to people who criticized him for backing Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist with a long history of criticizing Israel and associations with pro-Palestinian groups, by highlighting his identity. “Yeah, I’m Jewish,” he said. “And don’t f@cking tell me who I can and can’t support based on if my dad is Jewish.” He added, “If you think that Zohran doesn’t like Jews, you’re f**king brainwashed.” Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo won the House district. Nadler and Lasher endorsed Mamdani after his primary victory made him the Democratic nominee.
In a since-deleted post, Schlossberg mocked his cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now head of the Department of Health and Human Services, who trademarked the slogan “Make America Healthy Again.” He shared a parody recipe for “MAHA energy balls” that listed “2 ounces of Jew blood (Ashkenazi, not Sephardic)” — a jab at RFK Jr.’s 2023 claim that the coronavirus was “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews.
In June, Schlossberg accused the New York Post of antisemitism for spotlighting his Jewish roots in a piece criticizing his online behavior. The tabloid quoted an unnamed source close to the family saying, “Jack’s more Schlossberg than Kennedy in attitude,” and noted that his father “comes from a prominent Jewish New York family.” In a video, Schlossberg called it an “extremely antisemitic comment” and described it as a pattern for the Post.
Views on Israel
His views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are not well known. Schlossberg temporarily deleted his social media accounts in February following a series of offensive posts about his family and TV host Megyn Kelly.
But like many young Americans and a growing number of Democratic politicians, Schlossberg believes that criticism of the Jewish state is fair game. He has spoken out against the Trump administration’s crackdown on universities for failing to address antisemitism or anti-Israel rhetoric. “Whether you support Israel or not is besides the point,” he wrote in one post. “What does this do to help solve that problem? What other problems does it create?”
In his post defending his support for Mamdani, Schlossberg said, “We cannot have this thing where if you disagree with Israeli policy, you hate Jews. That’s not good and that’s not fighting antisemitism. That’s horsesh*t. That’s a cop-out.”
