Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

VIDEO: Bernie and the Bird

Bernie Sanders didn’t flinch when he was interrupted by a finch — and the crowd went bonkers.

It’s been a good few days for the Vermont senator and thorn in Hillary Clinton’s side. On Saturday, he trounced the former secretary of state in Democratic nominating contests in Washington state, Hawaii, and Alaska.

“I think, I think there may be some symbolism here …I know it doesn’t look like it, but that bird is really a dove asking us for world peace.”

And on Friday, at a packed campaign stop in Portland, Oregon, Sanders got a social media gift that keeps on giving: In the middle of his speech, a sparrow alighted onto the stage and then the lecturn.

It was a showstopper for the Jewish presidential hopeful, and videos of the spellbinding moment have gone viral. Even Sanders’ campaign has posted it on YouTube.

Sanders’ reaction played perfect to his left-of-center fans.

“I think, I think there may be some symbolism here,” he declared. “I know it doesn’t look like it, but that bird is really a dove asking us for world peace.”

“No more wars!”

The Sanders faithful ate it up.

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.