A new candidate for Republican county chair in Virginia’s largest jurisdiction is facing scrutiny over a range of antisemitic social media posts in which she has told Jews to “move to Israel,” spread conspiracy theories about Jewish control of U.S. politics and expressed admiration for prominent neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers, among other extremist comments.

Shelly Arnoldi, who recently launched her bid to lead the Fairfax County Republican Committee, is stoking concerns among Jewish community leaders now seeking to raise awareness about her extensive public record of promoting antisemitic tropes while demonizing Israel.

While Arnoldi is not seen as a particularly viable candidate in the upcoming Feb. 28 election, local political observers say, her campaign has still given some pause to both Jewish and Republican activists who worry her radical views underscore a creeping embrace of antisemitic sentiment in the GOP fueled by leading far-right commentators including Tucker Carlson, whose interviews she has eagerly endorsed.

“She does not appear to be a serious person,” one Jewish community activist told Jewish Insider on condition of anonymity to address a sensitive topic. “But just because someone is a hateful antisemitic looney-tune doesn’t mean they can’t win office. She strikes me as someone who would continue to run, and in that regard I consider her to be a real threat.”

In recent months, Arnoldi has instructed Jewish social media critics to “move to Israel,” where she has said they “belong,” while promoting antisemitic materials alleging Zionist plots to subvert American governance and to weaken Christian representation. She has also suggested that Jews “appear to control the world,” said that “nobody cares about Jews” and claimed that “Israel owns us,” among multiple other derogatory and conspiratorial remarks posted to X.

Meanwhile, Arnoldi has frequently voiced her enthusiastic support for antisemitic influencers and conspiracy theorists on the far right, such as Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens and Ian Carroll, the latter of whom she has called a “brave man.”

Several posts were flagged by antisemitism watchdogs on social media this week. Arnoldi, who has accused her critics of attempting to smear her, did not return a request for comment from JI.

A new letter circulated on social media by Jewish community activists on Monday called attention to what it described as Arnoldi’s “sustained pattern of antisemitic rhetoric,” saying it is “incompatible with party leadership.”

“If elevated to chair,” the letter warned, “this record will not remain local or contained.”

Arnoldi, who in November ran an unsuccessful campaign for state delegate as an independent, is challenging the incumbent GOP chair, Katie Gorka, who declined to comment on the race when reached by JI on Tuesday.

Even if Republicans face long odds of winning elected office in Fairfax County — increasingly a Democratic stronghold — Arnoldi’s insurgent campaign still carries implications for the future direction of GOP politics in one of the largest jurisdictions in the D.C. area, some party observers cautioned.

Gary Aiken, a former Republican candidate for Fairfax supervisor, expressed alarm at Arnoldi’s campaign on Tuesday. “If these are the kinds of people running for chairman, I may have to get more involved again,” he told JI.

Still, Mike Ginsberg, a member of the Fairfax County Republican Party who also serves as its general counsel, downplayed such concerns — even as he acknowledged that Arnoldi’s messaging would likely resonate with a minority faction of committee members whom he noted are “perpetually disaffected and constantly complaining.”

“People of a certain age would analogize her to Statler and Waldorf in ‘The Muppet Show’ from the 1970s — criticizing from the peanut gallery without making any constructive contributions,” Ginsberg, who is Jewish, told JI. “Statler and Waldorf at least had the benefit of being entertaining — Shelly does not.”  

“Put bluntly, Shelly Arnoldi is a crank,” he added. “Every party has them. She is ours.”

The public school systems in Fairfax County, Va.; Berkeley, Calif.; and Philadelphia became the latest targets of the federal government’s crackdown on antisemitism in the classroom when the House Committee on Education and the Workforce announced on Monday it would open investigations into the districts. 

Jewish leaders and parents in all three cities welcomed the probes with cautious optimism and said that they were long overdue, referencing high-profile incidents that have roiled each district, especially in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. While much of the federal government’s attention has been on the historic levels of antisemitism on college campuses, focus has recently shifted to addressing anti-Israel sentiments creeping into the classrooms at some public K-12 schools. 

All three districts under investigation have ties to the “Teaching Palestine” curriculum, which was created by textbook publisher Rethinking Schools. “There are fair-minded ways to look at complicated problems in the Middle East. Rethinking Schools materials aren’t that,” said Clifford Smith, government affairs director of the North American Values Institute, which published a report exposing anti-Israel bias within Rethinking Schools. “They are propaganda masquerading as educational resources,” Smith told Jewish Insider. He called on Congress to “take a hard look at the role groups like Rethinking Schools are playing in the recent explosion of antisemitism.”  

Letters to the three school districts from the House committee’s chairman, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), warned that failing to “end any harassment, eliminate any hostile environment and its effects, and prevent any harassment from recurring” against Jewish students and staff would violate Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and could jeopardize their federal funding. The committee requested “an anonymized chart of all complaints” of antisemitic incidents, along with any documents, communications, or contracts related to “Jews, Judaism, Israel, Palestine, Zionism, or antisemitism” to be sent to the government by Dec. 8. 

Fairfax County Public Schools, which is located outside of Washington and serves over 180,000 students, most recently faced scrutiny after two of its high schools’ Muslim Student Association chapters last month published social media videos that imitate hostage-taking and depict violence as part of a recruitment pitch to attract participants to their programming. Several of the participating students were suspended. Guila Franklin Siegel, the COO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, told JI at the time that the school system’s response to several recent antisemitic incidents was “slow and nontransparent,” and urged FCPS to “do more to properly address such behavior.”

The district has also faced anti-Israel walkouts on campuses. Several FCPS MSA chapters planned “Keffiyeh Week” protests timed to the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, in which students encouraged classmates to wear the scarf associated with the Palestinian movement. The House committee’s letter also references incidents in the district that occurred before the Oct. 7 attacks, alleging that one school “for years allegedly refused to remove a hallway display that included painted tiles, 40 percent of which featured swastikas and Nazi flags [and that] just prior to the October 7th attacks, one high school’s Muslim Student Association hosted a speaker who had made grotesque antisemitic statements. For example, he had tweeted, ‘I’m not racist I love everyone. Except the yahood [Jews],’ and ‘Never met a Jew who didn’t have a huge nose.'”

“Members of Congress are in a unique position to not just condemn antisemitism, but also to provide schools with the necessary resources and support to fight it,” Franklin Siegel told JI on Tuesday. 

“That’s the approach JCRC has taken in our yearslong effort to push Fairfax County officials to confront their long and troubling history of school-based antisemitism. We have partnered with FCPS on extensive teacher trainings, Holocaust speaker events and opportunities for Jewish students to share their personal stories with their school communities,” continued Franklin Siegel. “FCPS’ recent swift response to a series of disturbing videos made by students on school property demonstrates their ongoing commitment to getting this right. If FCPS continues building on these meaningful strides, all Jewish children will ultimately have the safe learning environment they need to thrive.” 

A spokesperson for FCPS told JI that it “has received a letter from Congressman Walberg requesting information about potential antisemitic incidents occurring within FCPS schools since 2022. FCPS intends to fully cooperate with Congressman Walberg’s inquiry. FCPS continues to partner with all families to provide a safe, supportive, and inclusive school environment for all students and staff members.”

The Berkeley Unified School District in California, which has 9,400 students, has already previously been placed under federal investigation for an alleged failure to address antisemitism. The House committee wrote on Monday that “since October 7th, BUSD teachers, staff, and administrators have allegedly urged students to join walkouts and demonstrations during school hours that isolate and alienate Jewish students. At one such walkout, students were allegedly chanting ‘Kill the Jews.’ Antisemitism has also infected the classroom, with a teacher at Berkeley High School displaying an image of a fist destroying the Star of David and allegedly describing it as ‘standing up for social justice.'” 

In February 2024, the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League jointly filed a Title VI complaint with the Office for Civil Rights that states Berkeley administrators have ignored parent reports, including a letter signed by 1,370 Berkeley community members to the Berkeley superintendent and Board of Education, while knowingly allowing its public schools to become hostile environments for Jewish and Israeli students.

A spokesperson for BUSD told JI that Monday’s letter from the House committee “concerns allegations raised almost 18 months ago, which our superintendent addressed when she appeared before Congress in May of 2024. The information sought in the current letter from the committee concerns those old allegations. The district will, of course, respond appropriately to the committee’s letter.”

“I feel gratified that this is getting proper attention,” Yossi Fendel, the parent of an 11th grader in the BUSD who is currently suing the school district over antisemitism in classroom materials, told JI. 

“It shouldn’t be surprising that Congress is taking steps to intervene,” Fendel continued. “When Superintendent [Enikia] Ford Morthel got up before Congress, she was the only one there who was unwilling to acknowledge the depth of the problem. Other superintendents acknowledged they have a problem.”  

In the House committee’s letter to the School District of Philadelphia, which has nearly 200,000 students, lawmakers said the district employs “numerous educators who allegedly promote antisemitic content in their classrooms.”  

“SDP employs a senior administrator — its director of social studies curriculum — who has been widely condemned by Jewish advocacy groups in light of his ‘pattern of denying the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, refusing to speak about peace or coexistence, and downplaying the lived experiences of Jewish people in the face of violence,’” the letter states. “In a recent example, after the murder of two Israeli embassy workers and the antisemitic firebombing attack in Colorado, the senior administrator wrote, ‘The groups who align themselves with American savageness should not be surprised when the savageness is turned on you[.]'”

In addition to “failing to exercise oversight of antisemitic materials in the classroom,” the letter continues, “SDP’s partnerships with external organizations raise concerns about whether antisemitic ideology is being taught in Philadelphia schools.” 

“For example, in August, the Council on American Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Philadelphia chapter announced that it would be partnering with Philadelphia schools. CAIR Philadelphia’s website promoted a workshop that invoked the antisemitic trope of Jewish ‘political power,’ promising to study ‘the controversial topic if [sic] Jewish political power in the U.S,’” the letter states. 

The ADL also filed a Title VI complaint against SDP in 2024, which was settled in December. SDP agreed to undertake a series of initiatives to ensure its compliance with Title VI when responding to allegations of harassment based on shared ancestry.  

“Since Oct. 7, 2023, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia has received numerous reports indicating that the School District of Philadelphia may have allowed conditions that create a hostile environment for Jewish students and educators,” Jason Holtzman, chief of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, told JI.

“These reports include, but are not limited to, antisemitic bullying of Jewish students; drawings of swastikas and other hateful graffiti; and public social media posts by staff that appear to justify the violence of Oct. 7 or promote antisemitic rhetoric,” Holtzman continued. “For nearly two years, the Jewish federation and its partners have engaged the district in good faith, offering education, resources and clear recommendations. Despite this outreach, meaningful action has largely not materialized.”

Holtzman expressed hope that the House investigation “will prompt the district to take immediate, concrete steps to ensure Jewish students and educators are protected, that all incidents are addressed with transparency, and that staff who espouse violence or extremist views are held fully accountable.”

SDP did not respond to a request for comment from JI. 

On Tuesday, the ADL called the House committee investigations “an important step in exposing and confronting the rising tide of antisemitic harassment, intimidation and exclusion that Jewish students face in our nation’s classrooms.”  

The Fairfax County public school system denounced two high schools’ Muslim Student Association chapters on Monday for publishing social media videos that imitate hostage-taking and depict violence as part of a recruitment pitch to attract participants to their programming. 

The school system, in a statement to Jewish Insider, said that if the involved students are found to have violated school conduct codes, they will be “held accountable for their actions.” But they announced no disciplinary measures yet, despite widespread outcry from Jewish community leaders in the Northern Virginia suburb.

“FCPS has been made aware of social media videos featuring high school student organization members that are neither school nor division approved,” a spokesperson for the school district told JI. “These videos depict violence, including kidnappings, with victims being hooded and placed in the trunk of a car, among other things. Acting out these types of violent acts is traumatizing for many of us to watch and, given world events, especially traumatizing to our Jewish students, staff, and community.” 

The statement goes on: “FCPS would never consider these videos to be appropriate or acceptable content. Any students found to be violating our Student Rights and Responsibilities will be held accountable for their actions.”

The videos were published on Instagram last week by MSA chapters at two elite FCPS schools,  Langley High School and Thomas Jefferson High for Science and Technology. Both videos invited students to join a club meeting and pretended to kidnap those who did not want to participate. 

The Langley MSA video, which portrayed a kidnapping of students by throwing them into the trunk of a car, has since been deleted. 

The Thomas Jefferson MSA clip, which was taken offline after JI reported its existence Monday afternoon, was filmed in a classroom where a student wearing a keffiyeh asks other students if they plan to attend the meeting. When two students say no, two other students approach them, cover their heads with keffiyehs and carry them away to the other side of the room, as they pretend to scream that they are being kidnapped. 

In the following scene, the two students say they are attending, one of whom is wearing a sweatshirt with an outline of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza filled in with the colors of the Palestinian flag. The video ends showing the “kidnapped” students laying down, one on the floor and one in a plastic bin, and text that says, “no one was harmed in the making of this video.” 

Langley High School administration did not respond to JI’s request for comment about the video, while Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology administrators declined to comment, redirecting the inquiry to the county. 

“We are appalled that some FCPS high school students used unauthorized social media accounts bearing FCPS school names to imitate hostage-taking and violent deaths. It is never appropriate to make light of such horrific acts, but it is especially callous and cruel to do so when Hamas continues to hold the bodies of deceased Israeli hostages more than two years after committing the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust,” Guila Franklin Siegel, the JCRC of Greater Washington’s chief operating officer, told JI. 

“The trauma that all families impacted by the Israel-Hamas war have experienced over the past two years remains fresh. Making light of violence during a time of war is beyond the pale.” 

“FCPS must determine whether students have violated school conduct codes with this behavior, and if so, discipline them accordingly,” continued Siegel. “The district should take any steps necessary, including legal action if needed, to ensure that school names, images, and logos do not appear on unauthorized social media accounts. School officials must communicate transparently and with moral clarity to the entire school system about these incidents. All people of goodwill should be horrified by this.” 

Siegel called the school system’s response to several recent antisemitic incidents “slow and nontransparent,” and urged FCPS to “do more to properly address such behavior.”

The MSA posts come weeks after students at several Muslim student organizations at Fairfax County high schools organized “Keffiyeh Week” protests timed to the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks, encouraging classmates to wear the scarf associated with the Palestinian movement. 

James Walkinshaw, a longtime former aide to Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), aims to follow in his late mentor’s footsteps as the strong favorite to win a special general election in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District in September.

Walkinshaw, who has been a member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for the last five years, spent more than a decade as Connolly’s chief of staff on Capitol Hill. He’s now running to fill the seat Connolly held from 2009 until his death earlier this year. Walkinshaw said that Connolly, who was not planning to seek reelection next year, had encouraged him to run, and he received the endorsement of Connolly’s family members.

Asked if he sees any major differences between himself and Connolly — whether on policy or his approach to the role of a member of Congress — Walkinshaw said that there are few, and that he was aligned with his former boss’ views on most issues. 

But when it comes to Israel, Walkinshaw sounds likely to adopt a more moderate tone on Middle East policy, something of a contrast from Connolly, who took an increasingly critical view of the Jewish state during his tenure in the House.

Connolly, who was a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, represented a sizable Jewish population and a significant Muslim population in his Northern Virginia district. 

“I’m a strong believer in the importance and value of a secure, democratic … Jewish state,” Walkinshaw told Jewish Insider. “I think the U.S.-Israel relationship has immense historical importance. It has immense strategic importance to the United States, and I want to see a strong U.S.-Israel relationship with bipartisan support.”

He said that the current situation in Gaza presents “a very difficult moment in the region and in the relationship, but my hope is we can get through this moment and preserve the really important relationship that we have.”

Walkinshaw said he’s hopeful that talks will resume to return all of the remaining hostages, end the violence in Gaza and increase humanitarian aid to alleviate the current crisis, which he described as “unacceptable.”

Walkinshaw said he opposes the push by some progressive House members for a full halt to U.S. military aid to Israel, arguing that “severing the U.S.-Israel relationship in that way” would not serve anyone’s interests, including the Palestinians. “I think it is really important that relationship continue.”

“I wish that President Trump had continued to pursue that diplomatic path. I think that path was still available to him when the decision was made to launch the strikes against Iran. And I’m hopeful that that diplomatic path can be resumed,” Walkinshaw told JI.

“But I do think that the president of the United States, whether it’s Joe Biden or Donald Trump, has a responsibility to be a neutral broker and try to encourage both sides to come to an agreement to reach a ceasefire and the president of United States has a lot of leverage in those conversations, and should use it,” he continued.

Walkinshaw said that a nuclear-armed Iran is “unacceptable” and would endanger both Israeli and U.S. interests globally, but said that a deal with the Iranian regime is the only path to guaranteeing that Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon.

“I wish that President Trump had continued to pursue that diplomatic path. I think that path was still available to him when the decision was made to launch the strikes against Iran. And I’m hopeful that that diplomatic path can be resumed,” Walkinshaw told JI, when asked about the administration’s June military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

He argued that although the U.S. and Israeli strikes had “diminished” the regime’s capabilities, Iran still has the capacity to rebuild and resume its nuclear weapons program, potentially in a more covert fashion than in the past.

And he said he believes that the Constitution and the War Powers Act “are clear” that Trump should have come to Congress for authorization before launching the strikes.

Walkinshaw’s district has seen a series of antisemitic incidents in recent months, including the arrest of a George Mason University student for plotting a terror attack against the Israeli consulate in New York and the discovery of pro-terrorism materials in the homes of two other students.

“The first thing we all have to do as leaders is speak out clearly that any form of hate or discrimination, including antisemitism, are absolutely unacceptable,” Walkinshaw said. He said that he would work in Congress to speak out against antisemitism “wherever it might take root” and to “ensure that in our schools, we’re educating students about antisemitism and ways to speak out against it and be involved in the very important efforts to end antisemitism.”

He noted that George Mason falls under the supervision of the state, and that Fairfax County has no authority over the campus or campus property, but said he’s “proud of the work that the Fairfax County Police Department did in coordination with other law enforcement agencies” to respond to the three students in question.

He also noted that there was a spree of instances of antisemitic graffiti in the district he represents on the Fairfax County board, all perpetrated by one individual. He said that, after those incidents, he brought together a local group of interfaith leaders to speak out and show solidarity with the Jewish community.

“The first thing we all have to do as leaders is speak out clearly that any form of hate or discrimination, including antisemitism, are absolutely unacceptable,” Walkinshaw said. He said that he would work in Congress to speak out against antisemitism “wherever it might take root” and to “ensure that in our schools, we’re educating students about antisemitism and ways to speak out against it and be involved in the very important efforts to end antisemitism.”

Walkinshaw added that he’s “proud of the strong relationship I’ve built with the Jewish community here in Fairfax” and that he would plan, as a member of Congress, to continue to stand with the community, in both times of celebration and mourning.

Eileen Filler-Corn, the former Virginia House speaker and outspoken supporter of Israel, endorsed Walkinshaw. She agreed that the nominee has longstanding connections with the Jewish community.

“He’s been very, very active with our community and very supportive of our community and engaged,” Filler-Corn told JI, as he consistently attends community events and vigils. “He’s not a new face to the Jewish community. He’s somebody we know very well. And he doesn’t just say the right things. He actually walks the walk.”

She added that he has reached out and shown up consistently, even when “things change and things become hard.”

“He is somebody that does his research and listens and learns, and I do believe he has been extremely supportive of our community amid the rise in antisemitism,” she continued, adding that he has a record of action and public comments as supervisor to back that up.

Filler-Corn said she’s had the opportunity to speak with Walkinshaw many times both before and after Oct. 7, 2023, about Israel policy, and emphasized that he’s always available to listen and talk about issues with her. She said she believes he understands the issues at play, and that he’s also willing to research and learn about them.

“I have been very, very pleased with what he has shared,” she continued, noting that he had highlighted the need to free the hostages during a candidate forum in the Democratic primary.

Walkinshaw told JI he ultimately decided to run for Congress because he feels that his community is “under attack from the Trump administration” and that the administration is threatening American democracy. 

“I think by and large, if voters in the 11th District liked what they got from Gerry Connolly in terms of his philosophy and in terms of his approach to fighting for the people he represented, then they’re going to like what they get from me if I’m successful on Sept. 9,” Walkinshaw told JI.

Given his experience, he argued, he’s well-placed to advocate for the community, and has a deep understanding of the centrality of constituent services issues to the role and of how to deliver results in the House.

He said he’s aiming to follow in Connolly’s footsteps and gain a seat on the House Oversight Committee, of which Connolly was briefly the ranking member prior to his death, highlighting the high proportion of government contractors and federal employees in his district impacted by the Trump administration’s mass cuts to the federal government. Walkinshaw also named affordability as a top priority, which he said should be a focus for every Democratic candidate.

“I think by and large, if voters in the 11th District liked what they got from Gerry Connolly in terms of his philosophy and in terms of his approach to fighting for the people he represented, then they’re going to like what they get from me if I’m successful on Sept. 9,” Walkinshaw told JI.