WASHINGTON (JTA) — Asked whether his Jewish identity would be “a help or a hindrance” as he runs for president, Bernie Sanders said that his Jewishness is one of the two main factors that shaped his outlook.
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The Vermont senator, appearing on a CNN town hall for Democratic presidential candidates broadcast Thursday from New Hampshire, was asked by a local woman about his Jewish identity.
“It impacts me very profoundly,” he said. “When I try to think about the views that I came to hold there are two factors. One I grew up in a family that didn’t have a lot of money … and the second one is being Jewish.”
Sanders recalled as a child reading “big picture books of World War II” and “tears would roll down my cheeks” when he saw what happened to Jews.
“At a very early age, even before my political thoughts were developed, I was aware of the horrible things that human beings can do to other people in the name of racism or white nationalism, or in this case Nazism,” said Sanders, who also recalled seeing Holocaust survivors in his Brooklyn neighborhood with numbers tattooed on their arms, and a recent visit to his father’s hometown in Poland, where locals took him and his brother to a site where Nazis committed a mass murder of Jews.
Much of Sanders’ extended family perished in the Holocaust.
He said the experiences shaped his views particularly in opposing President Donald Trump and the “divisiveness” that he said Trump promoted.
Sanders, 78, was long reluctant to discuss his Jewish upbringing but began to open up well into his 2016 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination when he became the first Jewish candidate to win major-party nominating contests.
He has made his Jewish identity a central factor of his 2020 campaign, although he has also drawn criticism for agreeing to have as surrogates like activist Linda Sarsour and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who have been accused of peddling anti-Semitic myths.
New Hampshire’s primary, the second nominating contest, takes place next Tuesday. The Iowa caucuses, which took place on Monday, have yet to declare an outcome, but Sanders is tied in the lead with Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
Nebach Judaism without Torah and keeping mitzvos can sometimes gets so skewed and misconstrued. May he be zocheh to do teshuva and find the true Torah path
More pandering by the alter kaker. he is only Jewish when it suits his needs. never before has this minuval mentioned Yiddishkeit. And if his so called “Jewishness” shapes his thoughts, why is he in bed with the likes of Sasour, Occasional, Cortex, Omar & Talib just to name a few. He is not better than the rest of the self hating left wing demorat Jews,
This anti-Semitic Socialist is no different than all the Meshumudim over the years that caused Yidden such tzuris in the past 1000 years.
“That caused Yiden such tzuris..” An I was under the opinion that the Germans caused “all that Tzores” (+Russians, Spanish, Polaks etc) I Love ALL YIDEN without exemption and HATE ALL GERMANS without any exemption just like I Hate Amolek forever. Bernie (Maybe rather Bloomberg) 2020 First Jewish POTUS of the GREATEST country in the word. Biggest Kidush Hashem of our Generation. You either dont know the Emes from Sheker or are just Uneducated in Judaism. Please learn the Halachic difference from a None religious Jew to a Gentile. Get a Sefe or today you can learn it online after that ij”h will be real EMES posts.
If the sum total of all his jewish identity is knowing about the holocaust, he is a very lost soul, who doesnt have the first inkling of yiddishkeit.
Also, the first factor that shaped his outlook, is growing up without money… Just pandering to his clientele and stereotypes.
Pandering to the left now that it has become fashionable to be Jewish due to attacks. He is disgusting. His true self is a self hating communist. Just like all Jewish commies starting with Karl Marx. Al pi Halacha he is Jewish. But ameshumad certainly and can not. E included in any israel accordingly
anonymous, wow I can’t believe how skewed people like you are. Unless you are trolling…A communist Jew for president is the worst thing that can happen to the US and especially to Jews ling in the US.
Bloomberg and the meshuguna Sanders are identical in their hatred of Judaism and in having shiksa wives, non Jewish children. Schumer bested them his daughter “married” an Italian WOMAN and he wore a colorful yamaka to this “wedding”. But don’t forget Schumer will be the Aguda’s keynote speaker where he will proclaim he is a shomer yisroel.
I’m voting for Sanders in the democRATic primary so that Trump wins by a landslide in the general election. Sanders is a traitor to Judaism.
Bernie Sander, upon information and belief, is NOT a Jew. There is nothing Jewish about him save for his name.
He, upon information and belief converted out.
Married to a shiksa