The Israel critic was ‘passed over’ for a speaking spot at the event, which former President Obama headlined

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Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) was notably absent from a widely attended rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh on Thursday night, a couple of days after she was publicly rebuked by Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) over a controversial joint statement marking the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks that also faced condemnation in the local Jewish community.
Prior to the rally held in Lee’s district, which was headlined by former President Barack Obama, the freshman congresswoman privately faced resistance from Jewish leaders and other Democratic activists over her potential role in the event, according to sources.
The fallout from her statement — which made no mention of Hamas and was accused of blaming Israel for the attacks — was apparent on Thursday evening as Lee was “passed over” for a speaking slot at the rally, said a Jewish activist familiar with the matter who asked to remain anonymous to discuss drama behind the scenes.
There had been “internal brawls” in the hours leading up to the rally over Lee’s involvement, according to the activist, particularly after Casey had firmly denounced her statement as “insensitive” and “inappropriate.”
On Thursday night, there “was absolutely no sight of” Lee at the rally, said a person who attended the event — where several elected officials took the stage before Obama. Among them was Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, who also signed the statement with Lee and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamaroto.
A Jewish leader in Pittsburgh said that several Jewish community activists sought to block the three officials from participating in the campaign rally, which Innamorato did not appear to have attended. The request “was run up the flagpole,” said the Jewish leader.
Representatives for Lee, Gainey and Innamaroto did not respond to requests for comment about the event.
In his remarks on Thursday, meanwhile, Obama called on the crowd to support a number of local candidates in addition to Harris, including Casey.
But he did not mention Lee, even as she had spoken before him at a previous Pennsylvania rally in 2022 during the last election.
For her part, Lee joined MSNBC after the rally to discuss Obama’s remarks.
Sen. Bob Casey also said that the U.S. should give Israel ‘the freedom of action they need’ to respond to Iran how it sees fit

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Senator Bob Casey (D- PA) addresses supporters before former President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally for statewide Democratic candidates on September 21, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) doubled down on Wednesday night on his condemnation of a statement issued by Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) and other Pittsburgh officials marking the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks that drew criticism from the city’s Jewish community, but stopped short of revoking his endorsement of his fellow Pennsylvania lawmaker.
Lee, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato issued a joint statement on Oct. 7 that did not mention Hamas and blamed Israel for the Oct. 7 attack and the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Casey condemned the missive in his own public statement.
Discussing Israel policy dynamics in the Democratic Party during a campaign event at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Casey criticized Lee by name.
“All this transpired in a way that was both insensitive, it was inappropriate and it was just dead wrong,” Casey said. “It was especially insensitive, inappropriate, because of when they issued the statement, and I categorically condemn that statement.”
He continued that he “categorically condemn[s]” the sentiment the Pittsburgh officials expressed “that somehow we have to just pull up stakes and try to make a deal … and Israel doesn’t have to continue to bring the fight to these threats that are impinging upon their security every day.”
He said he is pushing back against the spread of such sentiments and attitudes in the Democratic Party.
Pressed later, Casey did not explicitly revoke his endorsement of Lee.
“I think I’ve been pretty clear about condemning categorically what was said in that statement and condemning categorically hateful speech or speech that is antisemitic, and I stand on that record,” Casey said. “I think my record’s pretty clear.”
He said he didn’t want to “get involved in other races” and wanted to focus on his own Senate race. Casey’s Senate opponent, David McCormick, said it was “shameful” that Casey wouldn’t explicitly revoke his endorsement.
Addressing Israel’s still-pending response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack, Casey said the U.S. should back Israel responding how it sees fit.
“I think we have to support them in that effort, to give them the freedom of action that they need,” Casey said, “and the way to do that is to continue to provide them the resources as we have, and also not to constrain their ability to take take action against the Iranians that they feel is in their national security interests.”
He said it’s appropriate for the U.S. and Israel to “collaborate and debate” on how best to respond.
The Pennsylvania senator, the lead sponsor of the long-languishing Antisemitism Awareness Act, said he thinks there’s a “good prospect” that it can pass before the end of the year after the election. He said there are several bills up for consideration, particularly the National Defense Authorization Act, to which it can be attached.
Casey also said he does not believe there has been enough attention in Washington and on Capitol Hill recently to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. He said “we’ve got to remind people … that that movement is still out there” and the Senate should potentially consider legislation on the subject when it returns to Washington.
The Pennsylvania senator appeared to express support for Israel’s continuing campaigns against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and other terror threats, acknowledging that those threats are ongoing and Israel must counter them. He said that it’s “part of my obligation” as a senator to ensure Israel has continued U.S. support.
Casey said the U.S. should continue to pursue a deal to free the hostages held in Gaza, but blamed Hamas for repeatedly torpedoing talks.
He added that leaders have to continue to remind the American people of the gravity of the Oct. 7 attacks, the Hamas threat and Hamas’s goal of killing all Jews, so that Americans do not become numb. Casey described Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack as ”genocidal terrorism” fundamentally different from other terrorist attacks — aimed not just at causing fear but at “eliminat[ing] as many Jews as possible on one day or in a few hours.”
Casey said that the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights needs additional funding so that it has the capacity to complete more investigations in a timely manner, in concert with passing the Antisemitism Awareness Act.
Beyond campuses, he said that “we have to begin to address the underlying causes and, at a bare minimum, prepare the next generation to be more sensitive and aware of … antisemitism.” Such discussions, Casey said, must begin early in childrens’ education.
He added that he’s hopeful the Senate is moving toward bipartisan regulations on social media that could help address antisemitism online.
Summer Lee wins primary battle over Bhavini Patel in Pittsburgh

Mark Dixon
Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee
Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA), one of the most outspoken anti-Israel lawmakers in Congress, survived a primary challenge in the 12th Congressional District on Tuesday night against Democrat Bhavini Patel, a member of the Edgewood Borough Council. Lee won 61% of the vote against Patel, a comfortable victory margin but a relatively weak primary showing for an incumbent.
The race marked the first test for several anti-Israel lawmakers facing contested primaries. Pro-Israel groups, including AIPAC and Democratic Majority For Israel, stayed out of the contested primary despite their disagreements with Lee. Both pro-Israel groups are focused on ousting two other Squad-affiliated lawmakers with a long record of hostility to Israel: Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).
Lee’s anti-Israel activism helped her raise money from left-wing donors while Patel struggled to raise significant campaign cash. An outside group largely funded by top Republican donor Jeff Yass spent over a half-million dollars boosting Patel, but the effort made it easier to tag her as a GOP foil.
Pennsylvania primaries are closed, meaning only registered Democrats — not independents — could participate in the primary. Lee’s Pittsburgh-area district has one of the largest Jewish constituencies in the state, and is home to Squirrel Hill, where the Tree of Life massacre took place in 2018.
Despite Lee’s anti-Israel record, AIPAC and DMFI are staying out of the competitive primary — with less than a month left until the election

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Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) arrives to the U.S. Capitol for the last votes of the week on Friday, January 12, 2024.
Days before the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel, a near-unknown Democrat announced that she was taking on Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA), a far-left lawmaker who has clashed with Pittsburgh’s Jewish community since she ran to represent the 12th Congressional District in 2022.
Pro-Israel activists in Pittsburgh were still smarting from Lee’s razor-thin victory over attorney Steve Irwin in the 2022 Democratic primary. As Lee has taken an increasingly hostile posture toward Israel after the attacks and during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, a sizable constituency in Pittsburgh’s Jewish community has coalesced around her opponent.
Bhavini Patel, a 30-year-old council member from a small Allegheny County town called Edgewood, has spent the past six months making the case against Lee. In the process, she’s earned the backing of many Jewish Democrats who have been alienated by Lee’s anti-Israel record — and association with antisemitic individuals.
But while other embattled Squad-affiliated lawmakers, such as Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), look vulnerable in primaries, Lee is in better political shape with less than one month before the Pennsylvania primary.
While Irwin earned the endorsement and heavy financial support of major pro-Israel organizations such as AIPAC in 2022, national groups have largely stayed out of the race this year, a signal of how the landscape has shifted in the past two years. Where Lee was an insurgent state representative seeking a national platform in 2022, now she’s an incumbent member of Congress with the backing of prominent Democrats in Pennsylvania and in Washington.
“We will be engaged in races where our involvement can have the greatest impact,” AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann said. He did not say if the group would consider supporting Patel in the weeks ahead.
Patel’s backers face a double-pronged challenge: They have to convince voters who don’t rank the war in the Middle East as a top issue that Lee is also out of step with Democrats on other issues. And within the district’s sizable Jewish community, they have to mount an unprecedented mail-in ballot mobilization, since Pennsylvania’s primary is the only one in the nation to fall on April 23 — the first day of Passover.
“I don’t think I’ve spoken to a single Jewish Pittsburgher, personally, that’s saying, ‘I’m voting in person,’” said Laura Cherner, director of the Community Relations Council at Pittsburgh’s Jewish Federation. (Cherner has invited Lee and Patel to participate in moderated conversations with the Jewish community; Patel has accepted, but Lee has not.) Pennsylvania does not have early voting, so anyone wishing to avoid the conflict with Passover will need to request and submit a mail-in ballot.
A spokesperson for Patel’s campaign said she is working to win over Jewish voters and educate them about the primary’s Passover conflict.
“Our campaign is teaming up with leaders of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community to educate voters about what makes this primary different from all others: my strong support for our Jewish community, and that Election Day is also the first day of Passover,” the Patel spokesperson said, with a line hinting at the Four Questions recited at the Passover Seder.
Observant Jews will be unable to vote in person because they are prohibited to do so by Jewish law due to the Passover holiday, but many Jews who are less observant also face barriers; they will be cooking for Seders, going to synagogue, taking care of children who are home from school or celebrating the holiday out of town. Those who do vote in person may have to go to a different polling place than usual; six locations housed in synagogues and Jewish community centers have moved elsewhere.
Some in the community have taken unconventional avenues to raise the issue with voters. Rabbi Yitzy Genack, a rabbi at the Orthodox Congregation Shaare Torah, dressed up as a mail-in ballot on Purim. He recorded a video that day with Patel encouraging people to send in their mail-in ballots — for Patel.

Genack’s synagogue is located in Squirrel Hill, a heavily Jewish enclave of the city that sits in Lee’s district. It’s also home to the Tree of Life synagogue, where 11 people were killed by a white nationalist during a Shabbat prayer service in 2018. That makes what some Jewish community view as Lee’s abandonment of Israel especially difficult.
“Her strong support of the Palestinians… and lack of support for Jews and Israelis is a major issue. It’s a more major issue because she represents the district that contains the Tree of Life synagogue,” said Sue Berman Kress, a Democratic activist who is supporting Patel. “I think there is a way to be supportive of the humanitarian issues that we’re all seeing in Gaza, and acknowledge the pain and the horror that the Jewish community is feeling about the surprise attack, about the barbarism, about everything that we all know happened on Oct. 7.”
Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers was one of more than 40 rabbis and cantors in Pittsburgh to sign a letter denouncing Lee’s anti-Israel rhetoric last month. The letter came after she canceled an appearance at a gala hosted by CAIR, the Council on American Islamic-Relations, after Jewish Insider reported on the antisemitic views of the event’s other speakers. The rabbis acknowledged a meeting with Lee in October, where she pledged to call out antisemitism.
“Sadly, three months later, you have not followed through on those commitments,” the rabbis wrote.
Jodi Hirsh, a progressive activist in Pittsburgh who is close to the Lee campaign, told JI that “the Jewish community in Pittsburgh is not a monolith, and many of us have stood with then state Rep. and now Congresswoman Lee for years.”
Many Patel supporters point to Lee’s absence from public community-wide vigils remembering the Israelis killed on Oct. 7 and events calling for the release of the hostages still held in Gaza. In a statement on Oct. 7, she condemned “Hamas’ horrifying attack on children and innocent civilians” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who “has reportedly already targeted densely populated civilian areas.” Less than three weeks later, she was one of just nine Democrats to vote against a resolution expressing support for Israel defending itself against Hamas. She has since advocated for ending U.S. military assistance to Israel.
“Her positions on the West Bank and Gaza are based on her support of all marginalized peoples everywhere, and align with progressive Jewish organizations, many of which are supporting her reelection,” said Ritchie Tabachnik, a J Street activist who lives in Western Pennsylvania and supports Lee.
J Street’s president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, told JI the group sticks by its endorsement of her but declined to comment on her views on Israel.
AIPAC’s super PAC spent more than $2 million on anti-Lee ads in her 2022 primary against Irwin, and Democratic Majority for Israel PAC added another nearly $500,000. So far, neither group has spent money on the race — or even endorsed Patel. The only outside group spending big on Patel’s behalf is Moderate PAC, a Super PAC funded by Republican investor Jeffrey Yass, which has so far pledged $570,000 in the race. (A DMFI PAC spokesperson declined to comment.)
Lee has made a point of attacking AIPAC, despite the group’s lack of involvement this year. Last week, she spoke at an IfNotNow event called “Reject AIPAC.” She has also campaigned with members of Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist organization that is backing the “Uncommitted” effort against President Biden in Pennsylvania.
In recent months, Lee has further aligned herself with the Squad-affiliated lineup of far-left lawmakers in Washington who have condemned Israel as it battles Hamas in Gaza. Lee wore a keffiyeh — the scarf worn by pro-Palestinian activists — and dressed in all black at Biden’s State of the Union address in March, refusing to applaud him or join Democratic colleagues in chanting “four more years.” This, Patel’s backers argue, gives her ample fodder to attack Lee for straying from the party mainstream when Biden is months away from a rematch with former President Donald Trump.
“What we have seen with Congresswoman Lee is that she isn’t strong enough for Biden, and she has taken votes and made statements that undermine the president,” said Marjorie Manne, a Pittsburgh lawyer in Squirrel Hill who supports Patel. A staffer for Lee has been operating an Instagram account urging Pennsylvanians to vote “Uncommitted” on their primary ballot, rather than casting a vote for Biden. (A spokesperson for Lee did not respond to a request for comment asking whether she supports the “Uncommitted” campaign. They also did not respond to questions about Lee’s outreach to the Jewish community after Oct. 7.)
Patel is attempting to hammer this message home with new TV ads that focus on her support for Biden. A new TV spot from Patel says she was “100% for” Democrats’ signature infrastructure legislation in 2021, but “Summer Lee was not.” (Lee was not in Congress when the bill passed, but she expressed some reservations about it at the time.) “In the Trump era, Democrats have to stick together,” Patel said in the ad.
Whether this message is getting through to voters beyond the heavily engaged pro-Israel base supporting Patel is unclear, particularly given the dearth of polling at this point in the race.
“I just don’t see them doing a lot of work winning over past Summer Lee voters or convincing new voters to be against Summer Lee, or bringing out more of those people who had already been inclined to be against her,” said one local Democratic strategist who is not supporting either candidate.
But Patel supporters insist that she has momentum and charisma, which they acknowledge Irwin lacked in 2022. He relied too heavily on TV ads from his campaign and media buys from the United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with AIPAC, some Patel supporters say.
“Steve would’ve been an incredible congressman. He’s a really thoughtful, sensitive intellectual. But he’s lower energy. Bhavini is feisty. She’s out there,” said Lou Weiss, a Jewish Republican who is campaigning for Patel. “Some Jews felt last time that there’s no way Summer Lee could be that bad. She was that bad, and worse.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story suggested Lee was in Congress when the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed. Lee expressed reservations about the legislation, but wasn’t in Congress at the time.
The move comes after Lee was slated to speak at a fundraiser alongside speakers who have espoused antisemitic views

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) attends a House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Tuesday, May 16, 2023.
A subtle change to Rep. Summer Lee’s (D-PA) campaign site in recent days suggests a possible tension with one of her top supporters, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), as the two incumbents gear up for tough reelections.
Within the past week, Lee, a freshman Squad member, appears to have removed Casey’s name from an obscure section of her website that is used to communicate messaging instructions to outside groups prohibited from directly coordinating with campaigns.
In the so-called “red box,” Casey’s endorsement of her campaign had been listed as recently as March 7, according to a screenshot reviewed by JI. But it no longer mentions his support, instead swapping in House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who has also backed Lee’s bid for a second term.
The initial choice to include Casey in a short list of supporters was a tacit signal to friendly super PACs and other political groups to cite his endorsement in their ads leading up to the April primary, where Lee is facing a formidable Democratic challenger, Bhavini Patel.
It was not immediately clear what had motivated the recent edit, though it seems unlikely that Lee herself would not want to be associated with Casey, a key mainstream validator whose endorsement is still listed at the top of another page on her website. Representatives for Lee and Casey did not respond to requests for comment from JI this week.
One possible explanation, however, is that Casey did not want his name to be used in pro-Lee ads. His association with the far-left congresswoman has increasingly become a political liability for him in recent weeks, as Lee has drawn backlash over her hostile stances toward Israel and ties to antisemitic figures.
Casey, a vulnerable Democrat, has faced pressure from a likely GOP challenger, Dave McCormick, to call on Lee to resign, after she agreed last month to give remarks at a fundraising banquet for a leading Muslim advocacy group alongside several speakers who have espoused antisemitic views. Even as Lee canceled the appearance, she has continued to stir controversy — fueling attacks against Casey, whose election is key to maintaining Democratic control of the Senate.
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life Congregation signed the letter

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Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) attends a House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Tuesday, May 16, 2023.
More than 40 rabbis and cantors in the Pittsburgh area have signed on to an open letter voicing their continued disappointment with Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) over her criticism of Israel amid its war with Hamas in Gaza, and accusing the congresswoman of using “divisive rhetoric” that the clergy members say they “have perceived as openly antisemitic.”
“Last fall we wrote to you with concerns about your rhetoric and votes in relation to the events of October 7 in Israel, the subsequent war and the rise in antisemitism in America,” the signatories write in their letter, which was first shared with Jewish Insider on Monday. “You graciously agreed to meet with us, and in that meeting you promised us that you would call out antisemitism and temper your own language.”
“Sadly, three months later, you have not followed through on those commitments,” say the authors, including Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life synagogue in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill.
The letter comes a week after Lee, a prominent Squad member who represents a sizable Jewish constituency in Pittsburgh, announced she had canceled a planned appearance at a fundraising banquet for a leading Muslim advocacy group featuring several speakers who have espoused antisemitic and homophobic views.
Her initial decision to join the event alongside speakers who had rejoiced over Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks and called Israelis “demons” who lie to “cover their horns,” as JI first reported last week, had faced intense backlash from Jewish leaders and elected officials in Pennsylvania who denounced the event.
In a statement shared on social media last Tuesday, Lee said that she had chosen to pull out of the banquet, hosted on Saturday by the Philadelphia branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, “to prevent the Muslim community from being the target of any more politically motivated Islamophobia and to ensure my Jewish and LGBTQ+ constituents know their concerns are heard.”
“I have worked my entire life to bring these communities together, and I will continue to do so,” she added.
But her explanation was unsatisfactory to the dozens of Jewish clergy members who have long felt that Lee has failed to adequately address their concerns about rising antisemitism and growing hostility toward Israel, particularly in the wake of Oct. 7.
The new public statement shared by the Jewish leaders, which follows an open letter from late October that led to a meeting with Lee the next month, underscores how their frustrations have continued to mount.
Even as the Jewish leaders acknowledge that Lee withdrew from the CAIR event, their letter states that she has “so far been unwilling to denounce the hatred and ugly language coming from the keynote speakers” who were invited to the banquet — which drew criticism from Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, and the chairs of Pennsylvania’s Jewish Legislative Caucus.
Meanwhile, the letter raises related concerns that Lee has accepted campaign contributions from some pro-Palestinian activists who have “voiced virulently antisemitic sentiments” about Israel, including CAIR’s executive director, Nihad Awad, whose comments celebrating Hamas’ attacks were condemned by the White House in December.
“So easily you have criticized campaign contributions to others; the time is now to hold yourself to the very same standard you seek from others,” the clergy members write to Lee, who has also faced pressure from a top primary challenger, Bhavini Patel, to give back the donations. “We call on you to denounce antisemitism fully and frequently, including returning contributions and declining support from those who have voiced hateful views.”
Lee, for her part, has distanced herself from Awad in particular but otherwise ignored calls to return the contributions. A spokesperson for Lee did not respond to an email from JI seeking comment on Monday evening.
In late October, weeks after Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel, the rabbis and cantors had first shared an open letter expressing their “frustration and anger” over Lee’s support for an immediate unilateral cease-fire, which the authors had called “grotesque.”
Their letter also took issue with Lee’s decision to oppose a widely backed House resolution standing with Israel and condemning Hamas, and called on the freshman congresswoman “to exercise better leadership and join her colleagues in upholding the moral obligation for Israel to protect its citizens against Hamas.”
Though the new letter, which largely includes the same signatories as the first one, states that Lee pledged to condemn antisemitism and tone down her rhetoric on Israel when she met privately with several of the Jewish leaders last November, the authors claim that she has not lived up to those promises.
“Since that meeting, you have continued to use divisive rhetoric, which, at times, we have perceived as openly antisemitic,” the authors say. “You have continued to oppose measures before the House of Representatives which condemned antisemitism, and you have continued to call for an unconditional cease-fire from one side of the conflict, a position which devalues the lives and beliefs of one group.”
Despite their frustrations, the clergy members conclude their letter expressing a commitment to continued communication.
“We, like you, want a just and fair end to the hostilities,” the authors conclude. “We believe that the best result will come from open commitments to new behavior, to an end to division, and to a commitment to care for and protect all people. Stand with us, reject the voices of hate, and together we can build the world for which we all pray. We look forward to continuing to dialogue with you.”
Her decision comes after leading Democrats in the state, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, criticized the event

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Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) arrives to the U.S. Capitol for the last votes of the week on Friday, January 12, 2024.
Amid fierce backlash, Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) announced on Tuesday that she had canceled her planned appearance this weekend at a fundraising banquet for a leading Muslim advocacy group featuring several speakers who have espoused antisemitic and homophobic views.
“I have and continue to condemn antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia and transphobia everywhere it arises,” she said in a statement shared on Tuesday morning. “To prevent the Muslim community from being the target of any more politically motivated Islamophobia and to ensure my Jewish and LGBTQ+ constituents know their concerns are heard, I will not be attending this event any longer.”
The about-face comes just a day after Jewish Insider first reported on past comments from three speakers scheduled to deliver remarks at an event hosted by the Philadelphia branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Saturday, including one who appeared to celebrate Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and another who has called Israelis “demons” who lie to “cover their horns.”
Lee, a vocal critic of Israel now preparing for a tough primary fight, had faced intense pressure to pull out of the banquet from a growing number of prominent Jewish leaders and elected officials in Pennsylvania who vocally condemned the event on Monday, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, and the chairs of Pennsylvania’s Jewish Legislative Caucus..
Bhavini Patel, a top Democratic challenger to Lee, had also called on the congresswoman to cancel her scheduled appearance as a guest of honor “and apologize for agreeing to stand” alongside the speakers, she said in a statement on Tuesday morning.
Before her cancellation, CAIR-Philadelphia issued a statement on Monday claiming that the speakers’ comments had been taken “out of context” and were “being exploited by ill-intentioned circles.”
The group, whose national executive director has faced condemnation for celebrating Hamas, added that it was “excited to hear from” Lee and expected its guest list “to only grow in response to these attacks.”
CAIR did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Lee’s cancellation on Tuesday.
Sen. Bob Casey criticized CAIR in a statement, but declined to speak out against Lee’s appearance at the event

Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
Pennsylvania GOP U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick greets supporters at the Indigo Hotel Tuesday evening after the polls revealed he had an early lead over Dr Mehmet Oz in the primary race on May 17, 2022 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick called on Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) to resign from Congress after she scheduled an appearance at a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) gala featuring a lineup of antisemitic speakers, including one who praised Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks on Israel.
McCormick, a Republican, shared a video statement with JI condemning Lee, as well as his main rival, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA).
“I can assure you that the people of Pittsburgh and the people of Pennsylvania, they expect more of their leadership,” McCormick said. “They expect more than associating themselves with antisemites. They expect moral leadership, moral clarity,”
McCormick also made reference to Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue, the site of the deadliest antisemitic attack on U.S. soil, which is inside Lee’s congressional district.
“I’m also calling on Bob Casey to disavow his endorsement of Summer Lee. Bob has endorsed Summer Lee and he’s not called back on that despite the terrible things that keep coming out of her mouth,” McCormick continued. “The people of Pennsylvania deserve more from Bob Casey. He needs to demonstrate leadership, not weakness, he needs to demonstrate moral clarity.”
Casey, the state’s senior senator, distanced himself from CAIR leadership without directly addressing Lee’s participation in the event.
“October 7th was a brutal and vicious attack on innocent Israeli civilians,” Casey, a Democrat, said in a statement to JI. “I unequivocally condemn the antisemitic and hateful comments made by CAIR’s leadership and any comments that celebrate the despicable acts of Hamas terrorists.”
Prior to Oct. 7, Casey had participated in events with CAIR in Pennsylvania and offered praise for the group, but has distanced himself following revelations that the group’s leader had praised the Oct. 7 attacks. He shared the same statement with Fox News in December.
A spokesperson for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, asked about the governor’s reaction to Lee’s scheduled CAIR appearance, told JI that political leaders should not associate themselves with hate speech.
“Governor Shapiro has been very clear that in the face of rising hate speech, leaders have a responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity,” Shapiro spokesperson Manuel Bonder said. “The Governor believes there is no place in our Commonwealth – founded by William Penn, centered on the values of tolerance — for religious intolerance, whether it be antisemitism or Islamophobia. This hateful, antisemitic rhetoric cannot be tolerated — and it should be condemned, not elevated by our political leaders.”
Bhavani Patel, who is challenging Lee in the Democratic primary, said Lee “needs to cancel this appearance and apologize for agreeing to share a stage with them in the first place. This is appalling.”
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said that Lee “can’t say that you are committing to fighting hate when you openly sit and support those who celebrate,” calling for a “zero-tolerance policy on intolerance” and describing Lee’s planned speech as “the opposite of that.”
The Republican Jewish Coalition condemned Casey for “a failure of leadership and lack of moral clarity,” calling Lee’s appearance “a disgrace.” It subsequently called on Casey to support Lee’s resignation.
Jewish Insider’s senior national correspondent Gabby Deutch contributed reporting.
One scheduled speaker rejoiced over the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre hours after it occurred

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) arrives to the U.S. Capitol for the last votes of the week on Friday, January 12, 2024.
Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) is scheduled to give remarks at a fundraising banquet for a leading Muslim advocacy group on Saturday alongside several speakers who have made antisemitic and homophobic comments.
The freshman Squad member, a vocal critic of Israel who represents the Pittsburgh area, is among four speakers invited to appear at an event this weekend hosted by the Philadelphia branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), according to an online flier.
One of the expected speakers, Ibrahim Jaaber, an author and former professional basketball player, has called Israelis “demons” who lie to “cover their horns,” as he wrote in a social media post days after the Oct. 7 attacks, invoking an age-old antisemitic trope.
He has also alleged that the war between Israel and Hamas “is being justified by evil politicians and their media puppets who get paid to tell blatant lies and deceive the public,” accusing the “media and celebrity mouthpieces” of “chucking and jiving for their Zionist masters.”
Another speaker, Nadirah Pierre, a stand-up comedian and Muslim social media influencer, appeared to rejoice over the Hamas massacre just hours after it had occurred. “May Allah destroy them even worse than they have tried to destroy others!” she wrote in an Oct. 7 post on X, formerly Twitter.
In older posts, Pierre has voiced appreciation for Louis Farrakhan, the antisemitic leader of the Nation of Islam, which hosted her first stand-up gig, and questioned the existence of gay Muslims.
Meanwhile, Yasir Fahmy, an Islamic scholar and cleric who is slated to deliver the keynote speech at the CAIR event, has in recent months condemned Zionism as a “sick, sadistic cult” whose leaders are “bribing” social media influencers, media outlets and elected officials to sell “propaganda” and “lies.”
“Tell me, the Zionist Israel cult, who do they have?” Fahmy said in a sermon in late October. “Who do they have on their side? It’s anyone they have been able to purchase. It’s elected officials, it’s media outlets. That’s what they have, and whatever cadre of indoctrinated, brainwashed, hysterical followers they have. But other than that, they have nothing.”
Fahmy has otherwise used his platform to rail against gay and transgender people for engaging in what he has denounced as a “destructive” lifestyle. “We’re lost, and a true representation of this loss and this waywardness is this LGBTQ movement,” he said in a June 2022 lecture. “You see what’s happening with Disney — Buzz Lightyear, now Buzz Lightyear is suddenly gay. Suddenly, he’s gay.”
A spokesperson for Lee did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday regarding her participation in the CAIR banquet this weekend.
In recent days, Lee has drawn criticism from a top Democratic primary challenger, Bhavini Patel, for accepting campaign donations from pro-Palestinian activists who have made antisemitic remarks about Israel, most notably including CAIR’s executive director, Nihad Awad, who has celebrated Hamas’ attacks. His comments were condemned by the White House in December.
For her part, Lee has distanced herself from such comments, even as she has ignored Patel’s call to return the donations. “If we say things that are concerning, we have an obligation to explain,” Lee told Pittsburgh’s NPR affiliate last week, referring specifically to Awad, who has said he was “happy to see” the Hamas attack. “I think that argument is for him to make.”
Lee, 36, isn’t the only Squad member now facing a primary threat to draw scrutiny for associating with controversial figures in the wake of Oct. 7. Last month, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) provoked fierce backlash from Jewish leaders for praising an anti-Israel scholar, Norman Finkelstein, who has hailed the Hamas massacre as a “heroic resistance.”
Bowman has since apologized for his remarks, which led J Street, the progressive Israel advocacy group, to rescind its endorsement in late January, dealing a serious blow to his reelection campaign.
Lee is also endorsed by J Street, which did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday about her scheduled involvement in the CAIR banquet.

Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
State Rep. Summer Lee talks to the press outside her polling station at the Paulson Recreation Center after voting with Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey on May 17, 2022 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we spotlight efforts by families of the children who are being held hostage by Hamas to secure their release, and report on a bipartisan call from Congress for the U.N. to take action against Hamas. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Fred Guttenberg and Barry Sternlicht.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider, eJewishPhilanthropy and The Circuit stories, including: South African Jews sound the alarm as government reaches out to Hamas; Israel grapples with country’s biggest internal displacement in history; The retired Navy admiral making the case for Israel in the White House briefing room. Print the latest edition here.
New polling shared exclusively with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel on Thursday indicates that Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) could be in trouble as she gears up for a competitive primary next year.
The survey, conducted by Embold Research between October 21-23, shows Lee’s approval ratings currently underwater, with a plurality of voters in the Pittsburgh area — 43% — holding an unfavorable view of the freshman Squad member. Just 38% of the poll’s 860 respondents, a majority of whom identified as Democrats, had a favorable view of Lee.
Madison Campbell, a political activist and entrepreneur in Pittsburgh who commissioned the poll, told JI that she found Lee’s numbers “very surprising” and “didn’t expect for them to be that low.”
But Campbell, the founder of a new political action committee, Survivor PAC, focused on rising crime, said the low approval ratings “make sense” due to Lee’s positions on the Israel-Hamas war, including her recent vote against a House resolution backing Israel and condemning Hamas — now the subject of attack ads from an AIPAC-affiliated super PAC.
Lee’s views on Israel, Campbell surmised, “do not represent the general population of the district,” which is heavily Jewish. “You can see that in my polling,” she explained. “This isn’t just anecdotal.”
In one section of the poll, which was done to assess voter sentiment on a range of issues and candidates in advance of last Tuesday’s elections in Allegheny County, more than 80% of voters said that they were concerned about the safety of the local Jewish community in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack.
Lee is facing a formidable primary challenge from Bhavini Patel, a borough councilwoman who has sharply criticized her approach to Israel and lack of engagement with Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. Patel’s campaign said on Thursday that it had raised more than $200,000 since she entered the race early last month. By contrast, Lee pulled in only $175,000 last quarter, entering October with just over $250,000 on hand.
The new poll did not include any data on Patel. But Campbell predicted that Israel would be a salient issue for voters in next year’s primary. “I think we are going to see voters care about Israel,” she told JI, “and the Squad’s rhetoric will not work.”
Thursday marked a day of retirement announcements on Capitol Hill, none more significant than Sen. Joe Manchin’s decision not to run for re-election. The West Virginia Democrat’s decision all but guarantees his Senate seat will flip to the Republicans, giving them a valuable pickup in a cycle where they only need to net two seats to claim the majority.
Manchin teased the possibility of a third-party presidential run, which he will be mulling over in the coming months.”What I will be doing is traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together,” Manchin said in a video announcing his decision.
Manchin’s retirement will remove one of the most hawkish Senate Democrats from the caucus, including one of the few who opposed the Iran nuclear deal.
On the House side, three veteran House lawmakers announced they’re leaving Congress: Reps. Derek Kilmer (D-WA), Brian Higgins (D-NY) and Brad Wenstrup (R-OH). All three represent safe seats, but hail from the pragmatic wing of their parties.
bring them home
In Israel, every parent’s worst nightmare is playing out in real life

Four-year-old Uriah Brodutch loves to play with toy tractors in the mud. A soccer fan, he supports Paris Saint-Germain. Until Oct. 7 — when he was taken hostage by Hamas — he still slept in his parents’ bed. Now Uriah’s face can be seen smiling on an installation of large colorful flowers outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, alongside his elder brother, Yuval, and sister, Ofri; on each flower hangs a picture of a missing child. Sweet and innocent faces from a happier time peer out beneath large white and red letters calling to “Bring him/her home now!” Tuesday marked one month since 239 people were abducted from Israel, 40 of them children, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Jewish Insider’s Tamara Zieve reports.
Wife and kids in Gaza: The Brodutch siblings were kidnapped from their home in Kfar Aza along with their mother Hagar; their father Avichai was separated from them during the attack when he went out to help, and he remained in Israel. The Israeli government, Brodutch tells JI, must “do everything they can to release the hostages, keep my family safe… which obviously, they failed miserably, keeping my family safe. And now they have to do everything they can to correct this miserable thing that they haven’t done.”
The youngest hostage: Kfir Bibas was nine months old when he was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with his four-year-old brother Ariel, and their parents Shiri and Yarden. Kfir only recently started eating solids, still heavily reliant on formula. Shiri’s cousin, Yifat Zailer, is concerned for his well-being. “I truly think that he probably is not receiving it there. So I hope he is being nourished enough. I don’t know,” Zailer tells JI.
Ripped down posters: Zailer has been active on social media, trying to get the family’s message out to the world. “But then I see people ripping out the signs of the kidnapped children, saying it’s fake news,” she says. “This is my family. This is my blood. Those are real children that I haven’t seen in a month and I don’t know how long it’s going to take. It took five years to bring back Gilad [Shalit]. Kfir is going to have his first birthday in captivity in two months.”