Actor and activist Sean Penn, founder of the nonprofit organization Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE), looks on as Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) speaks during a press conference to announce a new coronavirus drive-thru testing site at Dr. Jorge Prieto Math and Science Academy in Chicago on Monday, May 18, 2020.

Less than two months into an election year, Chicago is living up to its reputation for hard-nosed politics. In one race, two Democratic incumbent members of Congress are locked in a heated battle filled with allegations of corruption. In another, more than a dozen candidates are running to replace Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL), who is retiring after 30 years in Congress, By contrast, the Democratic primary in Illinois’ newly drawn 3rd Congressional District seems downright tame — just two serious contenders who represent different ideological segments of the party, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Eyes elsewhere: The primary is not until June, and given the more hectic happenings in nearby races, Gilbert Villegas and Delia Ramirez have not attracted much attention beyond this district that is a hub of the city’s Latino community. Villegas, a longtime union organizer, is running a more moderate campaign, emphasizing public safety. He has been endorsed by fellow Marine Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and VoteVets, a progressive veterans organization. Ramirez, a state representative, recently won the backing of Emily’s List, the Chicago chapter of the Sunrise Movement and Rep. Lauren Underwood, an Illinois Democrat who represents the northern and western suburbs of Chicago.

Still serving: “Right out of high school, I went to the Marines. I actually turned 18 in boot camp,” Villegas, a Chicago alderman, told JIin a recent Zoom interview. “I’ve always had a willingness to serve.” The Capitol riots on Jan. 6 put that ethos to the test. “What I saw was America’s democracy under attack, and realizing how fragile our democracy is,” said Villegas. “I took the oath as a Marine to defend this country, against all enemies foreign and domestic. And that oath has no expiration date.”

Bona fides: In his conversation with JI, Villegas pledged to be a supporter of Israel if elected to Congress, and said he would have supported legislation that passed the House in September authorizing supplemental funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system. Villegas has been endorsed by Democratic Majority for Israel and CityPAC, a Chicago pro-Israel political group.

Making sense: “I would have voted to support that appropriation just because of the fact that it just makes so much sense to make sure that we’re supporting our allies in the region,” explained Villegas. “The fact that this is becoming political gives me pause. Because when you have an ally, you have to support and work with that ally. You cannot attack it [and be] half-hearted. You have to be all in and support the only democracy in the region.”

Keep it local: “Seemingly, [Ramirez is] going to be running a campaign that’s probably to the left of Alderman Villegas,” said Frank Calabrese, a Chicago political consultant who works with Villegas in his city council work but is not involved in his congressional campaign. “But she’s not really engaged in the type of rhetoric that kind of is identified with the other members of the Squad, because she just doesn’t really talk about national foreign policy issues.”

Read the full story here.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) attends a rally with Democratic Congressional candidate Greg Casar on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022, in San Antonio.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was heckled by pro-Palestinian demonstrators at two separate events in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, while she was in the area to rally support for progressive congressional candidates Greg Casar and Jessica Cisneros, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Media: Interrupted by a pro-Palestinian heckler at an Austin Democratic Socialists of America event promoting the Green New Deal, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that supporters of Palestinians are silenced and ignored by the media. “With media, with all this stuff, Palestine is basically a banned word. It’s censored. We don’t talk about it. No one knows about it,” she said. “Thank you for bringing it up, honestly, because we shouldn’t have to tiptoe around these things. We should be able to talk about it. And we shouldn’t allow people’s humanity to be censored.”

Pushback: In a video taken at the DSA event, Ocasio-Cortez appeared to reject the charges of antisemitism that have been leveled at the House’s most outspoken critics of Israel. “Believing in the basic human dignity and the ability for a person to not be jailed or beaten for who they are, it does not mean that you are bigoted against any other community,” she said. “And we gotta call that for what it is.”

Parallels: She compared the situation of Palestinians to undocumented immigrants detained on the U.S.’s Southern border, saying, “I don’t believe that a child should be in a cage on our border and I don’t believe a child should be in a cage in the West Bank.” Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not respond when asked on Monday to provide examples of children being imprisoned in cages in the West Bank.

Constituents: The New York representative also argued that Palestinian advocacy must “reflect the community’s understanding and building of the issue.” She continued, “If you want to make that reality happen, it’s not going to happen on the internet, y’all… We need to educate people on what’s going on because a lot of us didn’t grow up in households where the issue is discussed… Let’s knock [on] the doors and make it work and raise the consciousness so that we can take those votes not against the will of our community but with the will of our community.”

Read the full story here.

Suraj Patel, an attorney and former Obama administration staffer, said on Monday that he is seeking a rematch with Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) in the crowded Democratic primary for New York’s redrawn 12th Congressional District. “I’m incredibly excited,” Patel said in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel. “This is a new decade, it’s a new district and we’ve got new challenges. We have a generational problem in the Democratic Party, and, I think, coming out of COVID after two years, people are hungry for leaders who proactively develop 21st-century solutions to 21st-century problems.”

Familiar face: The announcement marks Patel’s third challenge against Maloney, who is competing for a 16th term in the June 28 primary, since 2018. Last cycle, Patel came within just four points of claiming victory over the veteran lawmaker. He performed particularly well in left-leaning enclaves of Brooklyn and Queens, which now represent a smaller share of the district after a new redistricting plan was signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this month.

‘Pragmatic progressive’: Patel, who attacked the new map in a campaign ad released on Monday, expressed confidence that his message would resonate with voters across the district. The 38-year-old Democrat, who works as an adjunct professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, cast himself as a “pragmatic progressive” who is “pro-growth, pro-science and pro-democracy.”

Eye on Israel: Patel said he has long been supportive of the U.S.-Israel relationship, pointing to a letter he signed in 2003, as a student at Stanford University, disavowing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. “I think that there is nothing not progressive about supporting one of our closest allies and one of the only liberal democracies in the Middle East,” he said. “I’m not going to back away from that positioning in this race either.”

‘Next generation’: Patel said he anticipated that Jewish voters in the district would be energized by his candidacy. “There’s a real thirst for people to find next-generation candidates who are also supportive of the U.S.-Israel relationship,” he told JI. “I think that there’s an understanding in this district, and a fear, that bipartisan support for that relationship may begin to dwindle if we don’t have the next generation of Democrats, at least some, being on the side of that relationship.”

Read the full interview here.

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman, and William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Malcolm Hoenlein, whose tenure in the organized Jewish community has spanned the effort to free Soviet Jews, two intifadas, the debate over the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement and a spike in domestic antisemitism, told Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash on Monday in Jerusalem that he is ready to hand over the reins of leadership to the next generation of Jewish leaders, while at the same time remaining available whenever needed.

Still on hand: “After 50 years of serving the Jewish community, I have full confidence in the next generation,” said Hoenlein, who is currently executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, working alongside CEO William Daroff. “William and I are working on this transition in a model way,” Hoenlein told JI, adding, “I am already working on other projects, but I will also be on hand to provide assistance as needed.”

Leadership trip: Hoenlein and Daroff are currently in Israel ahead of the umbrella group’s first in-person National Leadership Mission since the pandemic, set to take place Feb. 20-24. The 50-person delegation, which includes top leaders from the Conference’s 50-member organizations and its National Leadership Council, will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as army Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides.

Smooth transition: “Working with Malcolm has been an amazing experience,” Daroff told JI. “I’ve known him since 1996 and worked closely with him when I was at The [Jewish] Federations [of North America]. Obviously, over the past two years, he has become an amazing mentor and someone who is committed to ensuring that the transition of leadership within the Conference is smooth and steady.” Daroff called the changeover process “a model for the American Jewish world and leadership.”

Decades of experience: “Someone once told me that there are two laws of American Jewish leadership – despise your predecessor and despise your successor,” Daroff quipped. “But we are forging a new direction where that is absolutely not the case, and to discard and dismiss and not learn from Malcolm’s decades of experience would frankly be malpractice for the conference and the American Jewish community.”

Read the full interview here.