As concern mounts in the Virginia Jewish community about anti-Zionist rhetoric posted on social media by a state lawmaker who leads the Education Committee in the House of Delegates, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat who is favored in this year’s governor’s race, has avoided weighing in on the matter, taking heat from her opponent in the process. 

Spanberger’s campaign did not respond to several calls and emails from Jewish Insider on Wednesday inquiring about state Del. Sam Rasoul, a Roanoke Democrat who has in recent weeks called Zionism “evil” and described it as “a supremacist ideology created to destroy and conquer everything and everyone in its way.” 

Rasoul is the chair of the House Education Committee in Richmond. 

Winsome Earle-Sears, Virginia’s lieutenant governor and the Republican nominee for governor, described Rasoul’s rhetoric as antisemitic and called on Spanberger to address his comments. 

“If she has a shred of moral clarity, she’ll condemn this antisemitism. This a great opportunity finally to stand up against the members of her own party who are pushing this hateful agenda. Virginians deserve to know where she stands,” Peyton Vogel, the press secretary for Earle-Sears, told JI. 

Rasoul’s recent Instagram posts have drawn criticism from prominent Democrats in the state, including former Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, who said Rasoul’s language is “fueling one of the oldest forms of hatred in the world,” as well as Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA).

“I forcefully reject any claim that Zionism — the desire of Jewish people to have a state of Israel — is inherently racist or evil,” Kaine told JI in a statement on Wednesday, when asked about Rasoul. “Many Zionists in Israel, America and throughout the world are deeply concerned by the suffering of innocent Palestinians.”

Tali Cohen, the Washington regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, accused Rasoul of espousing “antisemitic rhetoric.”