Beth Davidson was studying an article about an anti-ICE protest when she observed a well-known determine, who was being handcuffed, within the {photograph}: her outdated rabbi.
Davidson, who’s working for Congress and used to serve on the board of Guess Am Shalom Synagogue in White Plains, New York, instantly referred to as up Rabbi Lester Bronstein, who retired from the synagogue in 2024. (Davidson’s son was Bronstein’s ultimate bar mitzvah scholar.)
“That’s my Rabbi!” Davidson wrote on Instagram, including, “You encourage me each day in my work to guard our immigrant neighbors and understand our American — and Jewish — promise to welcome the stranger.”
Davidson is not any stranger to opposing ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement company. As a legislator in Rockland County simply northwest of New York Metropolis, Davidson sponsored laws earlier this yr that might limit how county workers can work together with ICE.
“He and I are very a lot in lockstep,” Davidson instructed the Jewish Telegraphic Company in an interview.
Davidson, who transformed to Judaism in 2004, credit Jewish values similar to tikkun olam, or repairing the world, and “welcoming the stranger,” in addition to her time on her synagogue’s board, with driving her public service.
With the first approaching June 23, Davidson is vying for the Democratic nomination to unseat Republican congressman Mike Lawler in November. Lawler is being backed by AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, whose tremendous PAC has $95 million in its conflict chest.
Davidson is a Jewish candidate working in one of many nation’s most closely Jewish districts — New York’s seventeenth — and a district that’s seen as weak to being flipped by the Democrats, having voted for Kamala Harris in 2024.
As Democratic voters in deep-blue areas are electing a rising variety of staunch Israel critics to Congress, Davidson is pitching herself as a candidate who’s dedicated to supporting Israel — a dedication shared by the staunchly pro-Israel Lawler — whereas marrying that with a liberal agenda and dedication to preventing Donald Trump.
“To Jews which have felt misplaced within the Democratic celebration, as I’ve heard again and again, who’ve felt homeless — I’ve mentioned from the start, you’ve got a house in my marketing campaign,” Davidson mentioned, including that she desires to “reunite this celebration that’s so sharply divided.”
Davidson wrote about her private connection to Israel in a 2025 place paper, which included a visit to Israel along with her husband and two kids 5 years after she transformed to Judaism. Her teenage daughter additionally traveled to Israel along with her summer season camp, Camp Havaya, simply two months earlier than the Oct. 7, 2023 assault. “For me and for my household, championing the sanctity and security of Israel isn’t an summary political stance or overseas coverage challenge,” Davidson wrote, as an alternative calling it “deeply private.”
Davidson trailed her opponent Cait Conley, a former Biden nationwide safety adviser, 29% to 22% in keeping with the most recent ballot, which was commissioned a month in the past by a pro-veterans group that endorsed Conley and is spending $1 million to spice up her. A earlier ballot carried out in late April had Davidson forward of Conley, 26% to fifteen%.
Effie Phillips-Staley, the staunchly pro-Palestinian candidate who drew backlash after showing on streamer Hasan Piker’s present, commissioned the April ballot and sat in third in each surveys with single-digit share factors.
Mondaire Jones, the previous congressman who represented a lot of the present seventeenth district, endorsed Davidson final yr and mentioned she can be “an actual, bipartisan chief prepared to face as much as her personal celebration if it means defending decrease Hudson Valley residents,” referring to the district’s geographic space that features Rockland and Putnam Counties, in addition to elements of Westchester and Dutchess counties.
Davidson instructed JTA that she would “stand robust in opposition to antisemitism” and be a “robust voice for Israel” if elected, in addition to a “robust voice for clear water, public faculties, our daughter’s reproductive rights [and] so lots of the different values that we share.”
All through Davidson’s time on the board of Guess Am Shalom, a Reconstructionist synagogue, Bronstein — who was a rabbi there for greater than 35 years — mentioned she exuded pure management qualities.
“She got here in with no agenda aside from to assist and do her half and contribute in no matter means she was wanted,” he mentioned, calling her a “nice group participant” and “coalition builder” within the function. “She was so clearly a frontrunner sort, that the board individuals instantly latched onto her.”
One second that has caught with Bronstein was a speech Davidson gave on the second evening of Rosh Hashanah in 2018. Throughout it, she spoke about points together with police violence; the Flint, Michigan, water disaster; disproportionate suicide statistics amongst LGBTQ individuals; long-term diseases contraced by 9/11 first responders; and the primary Trump administration’s immigration insurance policies.
She introduced up NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who by no means performed after brazenly supporting the Black Lives Matter motion, for instance of somebody who sacrificed his livelihood to face up for what he believes in, then requested congregants, “On this yr that we start right this moment, what are your works going to be? What are you ready to sacrifice? And what’s going to you stand for?”
“It was a really robust sermon — , it caught with me,” Bronstein mentioned.
Among the many points at play within the NY-17 race, Jewish-related points, together with antisemitism and Israel, have performed a significant function.
They got here to the fore in a very distinctive means when Lawler was confronted in a Capitol Hill bar by Sen. Rand Paul’s son in Could. William Paul, who mistakenly thought Lawler was Jewish, instructed the congressman that if anti-Israel GOP incumbent Thomas Massie misplaced his upcoming Kentucky main it might be due to “your individuals.” (Massie did lose the first, and Lawler, who’s Irish-Italian Catholic, later joked, “I’m so happy with my individuals” on the Republican Jewish Coalition’s “America 250” gala.”)
Requested about that incident, Davidson mentioned antisemitism “has reared its ugly head” throughout the marketing campaign, and mentioned it exemplified how individuals “really feel like they’ve the license to assault and say these sorts of issues that I don’t imagine we’d say about every other neighborhood.” Davidson mentioned she doesn’t tolerate antisemitic remarks being directed at anybody, together with the particular person “who will presumably be my opponent within the fall.”
Davidson mentioned she helps and has a private appreciation for the necessity to bolster safety for homes of worship — each as “a mother who drops her child off at Hebrew faculty,” and as a Guess Am Shalom board member who was required to to put on a panic button round her neck whereas volunteering as a greeter for Excessive Vacation companies.
She helps the statewide invoice to enact 50-foot buffer zones outdoors homes of worship, which lawmakers launched in response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations held outdoors of synagogues internet hosting Israeli actual property occasions that included promotion of West Financial institution settlements.
Davidson mentioned she helps the State of Israel whereas opposing the Benjamin Netanyahu-led authorities, much like how she opposes the Donald Trump administration whereas being pro-America.
A few of Davidson’s positions put her within the minority of Democrats relating to Israel. Solely seven of 47 Senate Democrats voted “no” on a pair of latest, Bernie Sanders-led resolutions to dam sure weapons gross sales to Israel. Davidson mentioned she’d wish to converse with New York Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer about their reasoning, and would have doubtless voted “no” alongside them if she had been within the U.S. Senate.
She helps a path to Palestinian self-determination, and pointed particularly to the “23-state resolution” put forth by liberal pro-Israel group J Road, which might foster an settlement between Israel and 22 Arab states.
J Road lists each Davidson and Conley as “main authorised” candidates on its web site. In the meantime, pro-Israel group Democratic Majority for Israel has endorsed Conley, whereas AIPAC is continuous to again Lawler. Davidson has not been boosted by any tremendous PACs within the race, and raised about $1.8 million, in comparison with Conley’s $2.6 million, as of March 31.
When requested about whether or not anti-Zionism quantities to antisemitism, Davidson mentioned it “is dependent upon the particular person saying it and the context.”
“When somebody challenges the proper of the State of Israel to exist, or says one thing like ‘From the river to the ocean,’ I do discover that to be antisemitic,” Davidson mentioned. “However I simply actually attempt to unpack what their level is, what their feeling is. I’m all the time loath to color anybody with a broad brush.”
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