Jewish leaders in Georgia say that Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-GA) reversal in early April on efforts to block U.S. aid to Israel marks an important step toward repairing relations with the Jewish community, but several said that he’ll need to do more and show he’ll remain on that track going forward to regain their trust.

Ossoff’s votes last November in favor of resolutions led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) attempting to block arms sales to Israel shocked and frustrated Jewish Democrats in Georgia, who could help tip what might be a razor-thin margin of victory in Ossoff’s 2026 reelection campaign. The November votes prompted condemnation from a coalition of 50 Jewish organizations in Georgia and led a group of Democratic donors to offer to support Republican Gov. Brian Kemp if he runs for the seat.

Norman Radow, a major Democratic donor in Georgia, told Jewish Insider that Ossoff’s April votes against anti-Israel resolutions again brought by Sanders, are “helpful. I think we want that to continue.” But he noted that Ossoff had not apologized for his previous votes and comments. He said he appreciated Ossoff’s latest votes and comments, but said he wanted to see them become part of a consistent pattern, rather than a momentary shift.

“My fear is that that’s the real Jon, and that our political pressure and his running for reelection has temporarily moved him towards our position,” Radow continued. “I’m hoping that he recognizes the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship, and that he will not only support us, but he’ll become a champion for the U.S.-Israel relationship and the Jewish community. That’s my hope.”

David Lubin, a former Democratic state Senate candidate, said that Ossoff’s latest votes were “exactly what we wanted to see happen.” He noted that Ossoff had also recently attended a play at a local Jewish day school, describing his attendance as an additional sign that Ossoff understands the frustration within the Jewish community and realizes that he has work to do.

“The healing process — I think it will take more for a lot of people,” Lubin continued. “I think it’s hard for people to explain why he voted that way, which makes it difficult for Democrats when you’re talking to people that are on the fence on who to vote for … The healing part is going to be tough, I think, for people that put Israel as one of their top priorities.”

Aaron Goldman, another Democratic Georgia donor, said that Ossoff had heard and responded to the widespread outcry from the Jewish community following the November votes and deserved thanks for his pivot. Goldman added that he wanted to see it followed by similar votes and actions, and called on Ossoff to remain communicative with and available to the Jewish community ahead of consequential votes on Israel, as well as to be more vocal in support of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

“Our door is open. We are here to work with him collaboratively, to support the U.S.-Israel relationship, which has historically been a strong Democratic value,” Goldman said.

Dov Wilker, the regional director of the American Jewish Committee in Atlanta, which was a lead signatory to the organizational letter, told JI, “We’re pleased with the direction of the senator’s votes and hope that his continued engagement with the Jewish community on behalf of the hostages, in support of Israel will continue.”

Cheryl Dorchinsky, the founder of Atlanta Israel Coalition, a grassroots pro-Israel nonprofit that signed the letter from local pro-Israel groups, told JI that she was “thrilled [Ossoff] changed his stance” which was “truly a sign that he was listening.” Dorchinsky declined to say whether she had supported Ossoff previously and said she does not associate with either political party.

“I think he has more to do,” Dorchinsky continued. “Now it’s about seeing how he votes and how he acts from that point moving forward. I applaud him for changing his stance … [but] it’s like if you kick someone, the pain doesn’t just go away. You wait, you heal, and you hope for the best.”

Dov Wilker, the regional director of the American Jewish Committee in Atlanta, which was a lead signatory to the organizational letter, told JI, “We’re pleased with the direction of the senator’s votes and hope that his continued engagement with the Jewish community on behalf of the hostages, in support of Israel will continue.”

Others in the community believe that Ossoff has addressed their concerns.

Lori Kagan Schwarz, a former board co-chair and current trustee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, said she was “hugely disappointed and upset” by Ossoff’s votes in November. But she said his public advocacy against the similar resolutions in April had helped address her concerns, along with direct engagement with his staff. She said she believes that Ossoff was “surprised” by the level of outcry from Democratic Jews following the November votes. 

Kagan Schwarz said that many Jewish Georgians she knows “were so upset by his vote in November, and even before he voted against the most recent resolution, they were encouraged by his outreach, by his words and actions.”

She added that supporters of Israel should and will continue to advocate to Ossoff, as they do with all elected leaders. “I’m not concerned at all, but I’m vigilant in terms of my advocacy and my deep concern for Israel.”

Both Goldman and Radow emphasized that it was not only Ossoff’s votes but also his floor speech in favor of the Sanders resolutions, in which Ossoff said Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza had been “gratuitously brutal” and that it had shown “reckless disregard for the innocent,” that they and others had found particularly objectionable.

“Last November, Senator Ossoff was wrong to vote with Bernie Sanders to jeopardize Israel’s security as it fights a seven-front war against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists,” AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann said. “His recent vote was a notable step to rectify his previous mistake.”

Ossoff said following the April votes that he felt the new resolutions “would have been damaging” and that all focus should be on restoring a ceasefire and freeing the remaining hostages.

AIPAC was one of the lead signatories on the Jewish organizational letter. AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann told JI that the April vote had been a step to correct Ossoff’s past moves.

“Last November, Senator Ossoff was wrong to vote with Bernie Sanders to jeopardize Israel’s security as it fights a seven-front war against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists,” Wittmann said. “His recent vote was a notable step to rectify his previous mistake.”

There are some members of the Jewish community who supported Ossoff’s initial votes.

“Many of us in the Jewish community feel like it’s reasonable to want to see an end to the killing of innocent people and of course a return of the hostages,” Jodi Greenwald, a Jewish Ossoff supporter, told JI. “Jon Ossoff has supported Israel in so many ways and so many votes, and I think he’s just going with a reasonable approach to minimize the damage of loss of innocent life. I personally was not upset by that. I certainly did not interpret it as an abandonment of his support for Israel.”

Greenwald told JI that she felt the letter from 50 Jewish organizations criticizing Ossoff misrepresented the level of support for those views among the members of those institutions. 

Lubin, the former state Senate candidate, said that for some in the community, frustrations with Ossoff were not limited to the Sanders votes, but rather reflected a broader sense that he was not standing with members of the Jewish community, even at a time of rampant antisemitism. Lubin said he’s concerned that Ossoff’s November votes were reflective of a larger and deeper pattern than just a few votes. Other previous Ossoff supporters echoed that view.

Kagan Schwarz disagreed that there has been a broader pattern of concern with Ossoff. “It never occurred to me that he was not hugely a proponent against antisemitism.”

She added that supporters of Israel “have to be a little accepting of people expressing concern about Israel’s leadership, especially right now.” She argued that such criticisms don’t mean that someone is not a supporter of Israel. “I love Israel and want to do everything I can to protect and preserve her. But it doesn’t mean that I love Israel’s government.

Radow said that Ossoff, after the November votes, avoided his and other longtime, major Jewish supporters’ outreach for months, until a February New York Times article highlighted Jewish donors interested in supporting a Kemp campaign.

Ossoff subsequently sat down with a group of around 50 Jewish leaders from Georgia, including Radow, at an AIPAC conference in Washington in February, where the Jewish leaders confronted him about his past votes and urged him to commit to supporting a series of three priority legislative initiatives.

Radow said that Ossoff, at the meeting, was not willing to commit to any of the three, including voting against further Sanders resolutions; however, Ossoff did so days after the meeting. He said Ossoff had tried to avoid discussing his past remarks and votes and told the leaders that they would have to agree to disagree, but the Jewish leaders pushed back.

“Jon is not out of the woodshed but he did come and meet with 50 of us. He spent an hour. He did meet with me privately for 45 minutes. He has voted for us on three important pieces of legislation since then,” Norman Radow, a major Democratic donor in Georgia, said. “I hope that that relationship can continue to build and we can reestablish trust.”

“What surprised me was, he’s coming to that audience, he was not prepared then to say he’d participate [in] or support any of the three,” Radow said. “It took him days, and all these issues were out there. He’d been contacted in advance. All this legislation was on his desk, and he hadn’t prepared for it.”

Radow also met privately with Ossoff following the AIPAC sit-down, where he said they had an “honest” and “forthright” discussion and “made progress.”

“Jon is not out of the woodshed but he did come and meet with 50 of us. He spent an hour. He did meet with me privately for 45 minutes. He has voted for us on three important pieces of legislation since then,” Radow said. “I hope that that relationship can continue to build and we can reestablish trust.”

Ossoff’s deputy chief of staff met separately with at least two groups of Jewish Democratic female leaders in Georgia, including Kagan Schwarz, in late March. The meetings were organized in collaboration with members of the Jewish Democratic Women’s Salon.

Kagan Schwarz said that Ossoff’s staffer told the group that Ossoff had heard the feedback from the Jewish community and wanted to keep an open conversation with community members. She said that the Ossoff staffer was open to discussing all of their concerns and explaining Ossoff’s November votes and why his positions had shifted since then.

She added that Ossoff’s staffer also highlighted other actions he’d taken in support of Jewish community priorities, like numerous meetings with hostage families and working with law enforcement to ensure adequate security for the Jewish community following Oct. 7 — reassuring actions Kagan Schwarz said Ossoff’s office should have better publicized.

Lubin said that, to rebuild bridges with those hurt by his past actions, Ossoff will need to continue to be present in the Jewish community, reach out to Jewish leaders and “make it clear that he is supporting Israel” and that he fully grasps the significance of the fight that Israel is facing. “It seems like there’s some disconnect with him, in regards to that,” Lubin said.

Going forward, Dorchinsky called on Ossoff to be more active in fighting antisemitism.

“Stand up for us. We are part of this community,” Dorchinsky said. “It’s not just impacting us, it impacts everyone … Our representatives are responsible for protecting their communities, regardless of religion.”

Radow, who signed the letter to Kemp encouraging him to run against Ossoff, said that he hasn’t yet made a decision on who he’ll support in 2026.

“It would be imprudent of me to say I would support Jon, not support Jon, until, A, I see how Jon continues to act in the next 18 months and, two, who the Republicans put up,” Radow said. “If it’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, I think the decision is clear.”

Goldman, who also signed onto the letter expressing support for Kemp, said that letter “reflected the frustration and the disappointment” in the community.

But Goldman noted that Kemp appears unlikely to run and that Ossoff “has shown his willingness to listen and deliberate and make a vote more reflective of not only his Jewish constituencies, but Georgia voters as a whole, and where they are on Israel … A continuation in that trend, as we’ve discussed, would be very comforting to Jewish Democrats in general.”

Lubin said he can’t yet speak firmly to how he will vote in 2026, given the many unknowns between now and the election, though he’s currently inclined to vote for Ossoff.

“There is concern to see that if we get closer, and other things do come up and he wavers too much, I think a lot of people will be looking at who to vote for,” Lubin said. “I can’t tell you where I’m going to vote in a couple of years from now.”

Lubin added that Ossoff’s April votes and outreach to the Jewish community will help some Democrats who were previously on the fence feel better about voting for him. He agreed that if Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) becomes the Republican nominee, many otherwise undecided Democratic Jews will likely line up behind Ossoff.

“I think that folks who are abandoning support for a Georgia senator based on just one vote about one element of support to Israel and willing to throw everything else good that he does and supports and is for away in our representation in the Senate — I think that’s not in the interests of our lives as Georgians,” Jodi Greenwald, a Jewish Ossoff supporter, said. “He’s been a friend to the people of Georgia regardless of their faith.”

If the GOP nominee is someone like Rep. Buddy Carter (D-GA), a supporter of the Jewish community, or Insurance Commissioner John King, viewed as a moderate, that could raise a trickier dilemma for voters than an Ossoff-Greene race, one individual familiar with the situation noted. Jewish Democratic voters may also be faced with questions of how and whether to vote tactically in the primaries — to vote in next year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary or the GOP Senate primary.

Kagan Schwarz, an Ossoff supporter, said that Israel is one of her top issues, but she wants to see the candidates she supports be strong “on all my key issues, not just one,” and described Ossoff as the clear choice. She said she was “very disappointed” by the letter from Jewish donors to Kemp and would not have signed it — though she said she does not “begrudge” the signatories and said it “might have been a wake-up call” for Ossoff.

“I think that folks who are abandoning support for a Georgia senator based on just one vote about one element of support to Israel and willing to throw everything else good that he does and supports and is for away in our representation in the Senate — I think that’s not in the interests of our lives as Georgians,” Greenwald said. “He’s been a friend to the people of Georgia regardless of their faith.”