Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks at the Democratic National Convention on August 20, 2024. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Senior Columnist Rob Eshman April 29, 2025

You know President Donald Trump is going to respond to JB Pritzker’s fiery weekend speech decrying his administration by coming up with a nickname for the Illinois governor. Here’s my suggestion: “The Bear Jew.” That was the nickname for the fearless, in-your-face Jewish character in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds  who took a baseball bat to Nazi soldiers.

Like that character, Pritzker has come out swinging. “Stop tearing down the Constitution in the name of my ancestors,” Pritzker, 60, said in a speech on Sunday night in Manchester, N.H. “Do not claim that your authoritarian power grabs are about antisemitism. When you destroy social justice, you are disparaging the very foundation of Judaism.”

Of course, Trump would never pick a name that’s not childish and demeaning. But, sorry Mr. President: At least for now, JB Pritzker is the Bear Jew. At a time when American Jews are anxious over an increase in antisemitic attacks and rhetoric; when Israel has plummeted in popularity among Democrats; and when Trump is attacking fundamental rights and liberties under the guise of fighting antisemitism; the voluble governor has made a point of drawing on his own family’s Jewish history to criticize Trump.

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In doing so, he’s drawn a telling contrast to the rhetoric of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — another Jewish Democratic governor who could likely be a presidential contender in 2028, and who has made his Judaism a prominent part of his public profile, most recently when he and his family were the victims of an arson attack on the governor’s mansion on the first night of Passover.

“If he was trying to terrorize our family, our friends, the Jewish community who joined us for a Passover Seder in that room last night, hear me on this,” Shapiro said of the arsonist following the attack. “No one will deter me or my family or any Pennsylvanian from celebrating their faith openly and proudly.”

Shapiro, at least for now, is using his Jewishness to relate, to heal, to reach out. Pritzker is using his to punch back.

In his February State of the State address, Pritzker said, “The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.”

Shapiro has issued his fair share of criticism of Trump, and recently sued his administration to release $2 billion in federal funds promised to Pennsylvania under former President Joe Biden’s administration. But after Trump called Shapiro to express his concern after the arson attack — an action that took the president a full week to get around to — Shapiro, who often cites his ability to work with opponents to “get s— done,” said he and the president had a productive 20-minute conversation about a whole host of issues.

“He’s attuned to the issues that are important to me,” Shapiro said.

Even if Pritzker does end up working with Trump’s administration when possible, his rhetoric has been much more bracing. Shortly after Trump declared victory last November and threatened to begin deporting immigrants, Pritzker warned him,  “You come for my people, you come through me.”

It’s far too soon to tell how either Pritzker or Shapiro’s approach will play out in an actual election year, but for now, Pritzker’s is the one I find refreshing. I suspect I’m not alone. After all, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently got ridiculed for appearing to cozy up to Trump in the Oval Office, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, has faced criticism for reaching out via his podcast to talk with Steve Bannon and other Trump avatars.

The difference, I think, is that Democrats — and disillusioned Trump voters — aren’t looking for resistance to Trump to feel like it’s coming from a policy wonk, but from a prophet, someone to lead them out of Egypt.

Trump, for all of his faults, is a fighter — and the other side needs one to fight back.

“The argument Pritzker is making is one that Democrats really like,” a veteran California Democratic analyst, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for his employment, told me, “which is, the problem isn’t that Democrats are bad people, it’s that they’re chickens—.”

That’s certainly the argument that another Jewish politician, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has adopted while barnstorming the country with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York — although Sanders expresses both his opposition to Trump and his frustration with the Democrats without putting his Jewishness front and center.

As Trump’s popularity plummets along with the economy, and as a distant presidential election inches closer, all of this may change. Shapiro may opt for harsher, less conciliatory language. Democrats who have a problem with Pritzker’s and Shapiro’s support for Israel may make that a bigger issue.

But the real question now is what to do about Trump and Trumpism, and, for now, Democrats seem to prefer Pritzker’s way: Embrace your faith, and fight.

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