Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

The AOC ‘Concentration Camp’ Debate Has Jews Divided. 18 Jews Weigh In.

Question: When is it appropriate to describe a detention center for immigrants as a concentration camp? Meta-question: Millions of Americans, including intellectuals, politicians, and religious leaders, are engaging in this discussion — what does that tell us about America?

A fervent, raging discourse on this topic of naming immigrant and refugee detention camps has exploded in a place you might associate more with lighter fare — Twitter. The debate started with a description of the centers as “concentration camps” by lightning rod Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and snowballed with a condemnatory tweet by Representative Liz Cheney.

But considering that the controversy centers around the way we remember the Holocaust, what are actual Jewish people saying?

We collected 18 searing tweets from both sides of the debate, from Jewish people.

You can join in with your opinion in this poll:

1.Writer Seth Mandel, invoking Professor Deborah Lipstadt:

2.Comedy writer Bess Kalb

  1. Democratic activist David Nir

  1. Jewish Twitter user @kweansmom

  1. Comedian Sarah Silverman

  1. Political theory professor Jacob Levy

  1. Journalist Jonathan M. Katz

  1. Rebecca Vilkomerson, Executive Director of Jewish Voice For Peace

  1. Leah Greenberg, Co-Executive Director of Indivisible

  1. Twitter account @AG_Conservative

  1. New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz

12.Actress Rosanna Arquette,

  1. Ron Coleman, lawyer

  1. New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg

  1. Jewish comedy tweet account, @OhNoSheTwitnt

  1. Bill Prady, TV producer

  1. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, via the Simon Wiesenthal Center

  1. Jewish writer Ariel Sobel

And a few choice tweets from non-Jews:

Chris Hayes, MSNBC host

Akilah Hughes, writer

Donald Trump, Jr.

George Takei, actor

Dr. Katie Mack, astrophysicist

Jenny Singer is the deputy life/features editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

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.

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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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.