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Item one: Why Jerry Nadler and four other Jewish Democrats voted "no"

It’s always worth taking note when a legislator casts an unexpected vote. So it caught my eye Wednesday morning as I was scanning the House roll-call vote on H.R. 6090, the Antisemitism Awareness Act.

It passed by a wide margin, 320–91; 187 Republicans and 133 Democrats voted for it, and 21 Republicans and 70 Democrats against. I scrolled down to look at the "no"s, because votes like this one—which right and left approach, let us say, from different moral universes—always offer an amusing coalition of the unwilling. GOP "no"s included hard-rightists like Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Democratic "no"s mostly all came from the Progressive Caucus, even the progressive wing of the Progressive Caucus—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib, and more.

Then a surprising name caught my eye: Jerry Nadler of Manhattan. And another: Jan Schakowsky of Evanston, Illinois. These are both liberal Democrats, of course. But they’re also both Jewish, and they represent heavily Jewish districts. This was interesting.

Thursday, I spoke with Nadler about his vote. I should say that I’ve known and respected Jerry for many years. We met (can it be?) in 1987, when I was a young reporter covering New York politics. Before I get to the matter at hand, a quick story from those days that made me realize that Nadler was willing to take unpopular positions.

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There were neighborhood political clubs in those days in Manhattan (they still exist, but their heyday was long ago). In Greenwich Village, there were two clubs: an older and more established one that opposed Mayor Ed Koch, very unpopular by the late 1980s among progressives, and a newer, pro-Koch club. An issue arose at some county Democratic meeting I was covering, I don’t even remember what it was exactly, but I do recall that Nadler, then a state assemblyman, rose to speak in defense of the pro-Koch club’s First Amendment rights. He was booed. I was no Koch fan then, but I thought it was kind of a gutsy thing to do.

Flash-forward. Why did a Jewish congressman from the most famous Jewish district in America (the Upper West Side) oppose an antisemitism resolution? "It’s violative of free speech," Nadler told me, "and it’s totally unnecessary."

H.R. 6090 would require the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to use the definition of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Association in 2016 when investigating complaints of bias at institutions that receive federal funds. That means college campuses (even private universities like Columbia receive federal grants and so on).

The IHRA definition, debated for years, has been adopted by around 20 countries, including the U.K., Canada, Germany, and more. Its definition is mostly nonproblematic, but to Nadler, one aspect of it threatened to squelch free speech on campuses. "You could read it as saying that criticism of Israel is antisemitic," he said.

And this is where we get to the question of the Republicans’ motivation in introducing this bill. The IHRA definition is not without controversy, precisely because of some language about criticism of Israel that many consider blurry. Two other definitions of antisemitism have been promulgated—the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism and the Nexus Document. Choosing to rely solely on one of the three definitions struck some critics as concerning. Even the author of the IHRA definition, Kenneth Stern, has become a sharp critic of using it with respect to speech on college campuses, and Nadler told me that Stern opposed this bill.

But: The IHRA definition did have a notable champion in the United States: Donald Trump. As president in 2019, he signed an executive order to protect Jewish students under the Civil Rights Act, using the IHRA definition. Sounds good and uncontroversial, but numerous critics, including progressive Jewish groups, worried about its potential chilling effect on campuses. Stern, writing in The Guardian, argued that his definition "was created primarily so that European data collectors could know what to include and exclude.… It was never intended to be a campus hate speech code, but that’s what Donald Trump’s executive order accomplished this week."

The Biden administration never rescinded that executive order. However, Biden did launch a different approach. In May 2023, he unveiled the first-ever national strategy to combat antisemitism. The 60-page plan outlined 100 steps that federal agencies committed to complete within a year and was based on input from 1,000 stakeholders.

Biden also proposed increasing the 2024 budget of the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights by 25 percent. Republicans proposed cutting it by 25 percent. The ultimate compromise, says Nadler, is that it was flatlined. That battle is being repeated for 2025. House Republicans could shift their position on that, if they want to show that they wish to combat antisemitism in a real way. There’s also a House bill, sponsored by North Carolina Democrat Kathy Manning, that would codify the Biden administration’s approach, and it has an impressive 15 Republican co-sponsors (and 24 Democrats).

Speaker Mike Johnson could put his weight behind that. But as we see on an hourly basis, he (while pretty extreme himself) is dealing with a whole different universe of crazy. Marjorie Taylor Greene explained her opposition to the bill by saying that under it, Christians could be convicted "for believing the Gospel that says Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jews"—an age-old and classic antisemitic fable.

I’m not sure this bill is dangerous. A lot of solid liberals voted for it. I just think it’s worth noting that some Jewish members opposed it (there were three more, in addition to Nadler and Schakowsky: Sarah Jacobs of California, Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts, and Rebecca Balint of Vermont), in part out of concern that criticism of the policies of Israel could be construed under law as antisemitic.

Antisemitism is certainly all too real, on college campuses and across the country, and obviously, there are times when criticism of Israel can and does include antisemitic tropes. But the laws of the United States should help clarify the difference between antisemitism and criticism of Israel, not obscure it.

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Item two: Those crazy Trump veepstakes

I will admit, I had Kristi Noem way up on my Trump veepstakes bingo card. I was trying to look at the situation as I imagine Trump himself might. Noem is aggressively MAGA, slavishly loyal to Trump, and an attractive woman. That looked like a natural trifecta to me.

But lo and behold, we learned this week that Republicans love dogs too, and it seems that the puppy-shooter has disqualified herself. I note with interest that, despite this week’s massive headlines about the Cricket-killing incident, the book hasn’t even been officially pubbed yet—that comes next week, and she has a whole huge media tour lined up, starting with Face the Nation this Sunday.

Apparently there’s a Republican National Committee retreat at Mar-a-Lago this weekend that will be a little veep audition of sorts. Noem will be there, it’s reported; as will Elise Stefanik, whom I consider a pretty good bet; North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum; and Senators J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, and Tim Scott. This report says that Trump will meet with only the senators.

It’s hard to talk in regular political terms about a man who vows openly to be an authoritarian fascist, as Trump did in that horrifying Time magazine interview this week. But I would think that Trump wants a Stefanik or a Scott. Because of abortion, he is going to be crushed among women voters, so having a woman on the ticket couldn’t hurt. And given these confounding inroads he’s making among Black voters, Scott could help pull a potentially significant percentage of Black male voters.

All this kind of pales after that Time interview. He’s no longer all-but-telling us he’s going to trash democracy. He’s plain old telling us. And he leads in the national polls; although, according to FiveThirtyEight, by less than a percentage point. Still. Six months to go. We’ll see if the narrative changes.

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Quiz time!

Last week’s quiz: Carnival Eats. A quiz about carnival food, in honor of the weirdly charming TV show Carnival Eats, on which I recently saw a guy make a sandwich that consisted of two grilled cheese sandwiches (serving as the buns, you see), two quarter-pound burgers, 10 slices of cheese, bacon, and more.

1. Which immigrant group is generally credited with introducing the corn dog (although not on a stick—that came later)?

A. Swedish immigrants in Minnesota

B. German immigrants in Texas

C. Irish immigrants in Pennsylvania

D. Italian immigrants in New Jersey

Answer: B, Germans in Texas. It seems Texans weren’t all that partial to their sausages—until they dipped them in batter and deep-fried them. The stick came later.

2. Likewise, who is generally credited with giving us funnel cake?

A. Scottish immigrants in upstate New York

B. Jewish immigrants in New York City

C. English immigrants in Virginia

D. The Pennsylvania Dutch

Answer: D, Pennsylvania Dutch. Kinda obvious. There are many, many flavors of funnel cake, and even savory ones with, of course, bacon.

3. When was cotton candy first introduced to an eager public?

A. The 1894 Chicago World’s Fair

B. The 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair

C. On Coney Island in 1911

D. At the Louisiana State Fair in 1920

Answer: As with so many things, the 1904 St. Louis fair. Here’s the story.

4. Abel Gonzales Jr., also known as "Fried Jesus," introduced what delicacy at the Texas State Fair in 2009?

A. Deep-fried ice cream

B. Deep-fried bull testicles

C. Deep-fried butter

D. Deep-fried Crisco

Answer: C, butter. Hey—the man has a Wikipedia entry!

5. What won the People’s Choice Best New Food at the 2023 Iowa State Fair?

A. Deep-Fried Bacon Biscuit Mac-n-Cheese Grilled Cheese

B. Deep-fried deep dish meatlovers’ pizza

C. The "Iowa Twinkie" with bacon-wrapped jalapeno, pulled pork, corn, cream cheese, and ranch seasoning

D. The "Super Elvis": a deep-fried bacon, peanut butter, and banana sandwich with horseradish

Answer: A, the Deep-Fried Bacon Biscuit Mac-n-Cheese Grilled Cheese. I mean, look at this picture and tell me you can resist.

6. This popular cookie, deep-fried, has become a state and county fair staple in the last 20 years:

A. Oreo

B. Chips Ahoy

C. Nutter Butter

D. Fig Newtons

Answer: A, Oreo. Recipe, you ask? I am here to serve.

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This week’s quiz: "Aaaannnnddd … they’re off!" It’s Kentucky Derby weekend, so we take a sociocultural peek inside the sometimes beautiful, often deadly, and quite corrupt world of thoroughbred horse racing.

1. Who was president when they ran the first Kentucky Derby?

A. Andrew Johnson

B. Ulysses S. Grant

C. Grover Cleveland

D. William Howard Taft

2. What was notable about Oliver Lewis, the jockey who won that first Derby, aboard Aristides?

A. He was blind.

B. He was six feet tall, an anomaly even then.

C. He was the mayor of Louisville.

D. He was Black.

3. In the famous film National Velvet (1944) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney, is Velvet the name of the girl or the horse?

4. Bloodlines are important in horse racing. In thoroughbred lingo, a "dam" is the horse’s mother. What’s the word for the horse’s father?

A. Pater

B. Begetter

C. Sire

D. Author

5. According to the website Horseracing Wrongs, how many horses have been killed on or at U.S. tracks so far this year?

A. 21

B. 45

C. 61

D. 79

6. Bob Baffert is the most famous living thoroughbred trainer today. According to New York Times racing writer Joe Drape on NPR’s Fresh Air this week, his horses have done what 33 times?

A. Won a Triple Crown race

B. Won a stakes race with at least a six-figure purse

C. Been disqualified at the last second for some infraction

D. Failed a drug test

A rather idiosyncratic tour through this particular world, I admit, but informative too, I hope! Answers next week. Feedback to fightingwords@tnr.com.

—Michael Tomasky, editor

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