Since soon after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, Virginia state Del. Sam Rasoul, a Democrat who chairs the Education Committee in the state’s House of Delegates, has used his social media accounts to attack Israel and decry American support for the Jewish state. 

But Jewish Democrats in the state fear that a series of recent posts from Rasoul vilifying Zionists has taken his anti-Israel rhetoric to a new level, prompting concerns about his leadership of the committee that is tasked with reviewing the education-related legislation that comes before the statehouse. 

“Zionism has proven how evil our society can be,” Rasoul wrote in a July 26 Instagram post that described Zionism as a “supremacist ideology created to destroy and conquer everything and everyone in its way.” Rasoul accused Zionists of “making the world less safe for my Jewish friends.” Public opinion polling shows that the vast majority of American Jews feel a connection to Israel. 

Former Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, a Democrat from Northern Virginia, told Jewish Insider on Tuesday that Rasoul’s rhetoric is “fueling one of the oldest forms of hatred in the world, repackaged in the language of activism.” 

“I would expect more from someone who was appointed chair of the Education Committee and is entrusted to set an example for young people,” said Filler-Corn, who was the first woman and first Jewish person to serve as Speaker of the House in Virginia, from 2020 to 2022. She left office in 2024. 

Committee leadership is decided by Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, a Democrat from Portsmouth. Several leaders in the Jewish community — including both within the Democratic Party and from nonpartisan Jewish communal organizations — told JI they have raised concerns about Rasoul’s posts directly with Scott or his staff, seeking Rasoul’s removal from the chairmanship. Neither Scott nor other high-ranking Democrats in the state have weighed in on Rasoul’s posts.

“I’m concerned about people’s silence,” said Cookie Hymer Blitz, a longtime Jewish and Democratic activist in Northern Virginia. “Others need to speak out without fear of intimidation or just taking the consequences. If you’re intimidated, sometimes you still have to just do the right thing.” 

One person, who requested anonymity to speak about their private conversation with Scott, said the speaker did not defend Rasoul, who is the son of Palestinian immigrants — nor did the speaker seem to take the impact of Rasoul’s language as seriously as they would have liked. Another said Scott was not receptive to the concerns raised. 

“Under Speaker Don Scott’s leadership, Virginia has taken real, bipartisan steps to combat antisemitism and hate,” his communications director, Gianni Snidle, told JI in a statement on Tuesday. “Speaker Scott has been proud to strengthen Virginia’s partnership with Israel, including continued support for the Virginia Israel Advisory Board.”

Snidle did not answer a question from JI about Rasoul’s posts and his leadership of the Education Committee.

“We think that it is very concerning that he’s the chair of the Education Committee while he’s propagating antisemitic rhetoric,” Vicki Fishman, director of Virginia government and community relations at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, said of Rasoul. “He’s considered a thought leader on equity and security of our public schools, and we are deeply concerned that his ability to empathize and truly understand the serious crisis of school-based antisemitism is compromised when he is propagating and amplifying demonization of Jews — demonizing this core aspect of Jewish identity, which is Zionism.” 

Daniel Staffenberg, the CEO of the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond, said Rasoul’s leadership atop the Education Committee is “deeply troubling … not just for Jews but all people who value truth [and] justice, who wish to combat hate, not normalize it.” 

In his July Instagram post, Rasoul appeared to minimize the Holocaust in describing the scale of what he described as “genocide” in Gaza. “After 22 months of the most horrific crimes, there is no doubt that Israel is conducting the most evil cleansing in human history,” Rasoul wrote. 

Rasoul wrote on Instagram in May that “those who defend Zionism and remain quiet … are making our world a more evil place.” Earlier that month, he said Zionism “shows us the worst in humanity” and that “the depravity of Zionism knows no bounds.” Rasoul has represented Roanoke in the statehouse since 2014. He ran for statewide office in 2021, coming in second in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor. 

Marc Broklawski, a public employee who lives in Virginia and serves as the vice-chair for rules in the Virginia Democratic Party, decided to go public with his concerns about Rasoul in a thread on X last week and to call for Democratic leaders in his state to speak out against Rasoul’s language.

“It wasn’t just one post. It was the pattern, painting Jewish fear as fake, Jewish trauma as a strategy. At some point, you either stay silent or speak up. I spoke up. Because when you say there’s ‘no middle ground,’ you’re not asking for justice, you’re demanding sides. And we know what happens when Jews are cast as the enemy,” Broklawski told JI, referring to language in Rasoul’s July post that said there is “no middle ground in this supremacist mess.”

Rasoul did not respond to a request for comment.