Few people are generating as much political buzz right now as Josh Shapiro. The 51-year-old governor of Pennsylvania is the front-runner to be Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ pick for running mate.
Shapiro has been open about his Jewish identity, but there has been a lot of misinformation from both the far-right and the far-left about his stances on Israel.
After an op-ed Shapiro wrote while an undergraduate student at the University of Rochester was recirculated, anti-Israel activists blasted Shapiro as anti-Palestinian. Shapiro’s response to the resurfaced column has been misinterpreted, angering many Israel supporters and causing them to incorrectly claim that he “apologized” for his previous opinion.
Let’s unpack what Shapiro actually said, his stance on Israel, and his Jewish identity.
What did Josh Shapiro say in his op-ed and what was his response?
In a Sept. 23, 1993 edition of The Campus Times, then-20-year-old Shapiro blamed Palestinian mindsets for the lack of a two-state solution.
“They are too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own,” he wrote of Palestinians in the op-ed. “They will grow tired of fighting amongst themselves and will turn outside against Israel.”
Speaking of his five months in high school studying in Israel and volunteering with the Israeli army, Shapiro said that Palestinians were completely at fault if a peace plan didn’t work.
“The only way the ‘peace plan’ will be successful is if the Palestinians do not ruin it,” Shapiro wrote, adding, “Palestinians will not coexist peacefully.”
When a reporter asked about the 30-year-old essay at a press conference at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania on Friday, Shapiro appeared baffled by the question. “Something I wrote when I was 20? Is that what you’re talking about?” Shapiro responded. “I was 20.”
Shapiro used the opportunity to reaffirm his belief in a two-state solution, expressing hope for a peaceful resolution.
“It is my hope that we can see a day where peace will reign in the Middle East,” he added, “where there will be a two-state solution, where all leaders involved in the conversations will respect the other side and show a willingness to make the hard choices to find peace.”
Did Josh Shapiro apologize for supporting Israel?
Manuel Bonder, a spokesperson for Shapiro, said that the governor’s views on the issue have since “evolved into the position he holds today.”
However, some staunch supporters of Israel saw Shapiro’s reply to be an “apology” for his previous beliefs rather than a recognition of changed beliefs over three decades.
Fox News ran Shapiro’s statements with the headline “Shapiro apologizes for pro-Israel views from college.”
Daily Wire owner Ben Shapiro (not related) claimed that Gov. Shapiro was trying to “un-Jewish himself” by saying his opinion had changed.
“Josh Shapiro desperately trying to un-Jewish himself to make himself sufficiently palatable to the pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic Party. Pathetic,” he wrote.
Pro-Israel advocate Hillel Fuld ripped the Democratic Party as anti-Israel and Shapiro for supposedly compromising on his beliefs.
“Shapiro apologizing for his pro-Israel views tells me all I need to know about the Democratic Party,” Fuld wrote. “Apparently, to be VP, you need to make sure to distance yourself from Israel. How vile.”
Far-right activist Laura Loomer described her glee in people “dunking on” Shapiro for his beliefs, writing that she had “never seen a more pathetic excuse for a Jew than Josh Shapiro.”
However, Shapiro never actually apologized for his remarks in college. He and his team simply said that his beliefs on the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts are different than they were in the early 90s — opinions documented over his years in the public eye, and views that have gotten him flack from the far-left.
For the past decade, Shapiro has shown his support for Israel and now calls himself a believer in the two-state solution.
Shapiro was defended by Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who has long been an ally of Israel. Earlier on Monday, Torres claimed on Instagram that Shapiro was a good politician by angering radicals from both sides of the aisle.
“Governor Josh Shapiro is facing opposition from both the far left and the far right. If the extremes of American politics are waging a smear campaign in an eleventh-hour attempt to derail you, it means you’re doing something right,” Torres wrote. “Unlike his detractors, Josh Shapiro is the future of the Democratic Party.”
Hen Mazzig, an Israeli activist, showed his support for Shapiro over Twitter. He expressed confusion over claims that Shapiro “apologized.”
“Josh Shapiro didn’t apologize for anything. He laid out a clear vision for a two-state solution and peace. That’s it,” Mazzig wrote. “Last time I checked, supporting peace for Israelis and Palestinians isn’t anti-Israel.”
What is Josh Shapiro’s current opinion on Israel?
Shapiro has defined himself as one of the Democratic Party’s stalwart supporters of Israel amid the war in Gaza.
The governor has consistently expressed his support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas. In a December event hosted by the Jewish Democratic Council of America, Shapiro reiterated his stance.
“Israel not only has a right to defend itself, I think Israel has a responsibility to combat Hamas head-on and to defeat Hamas,” Shapiro said.
The Pennsylvanian has been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him “one of the worst leaders of all time,” and an obstacle to future peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
He later told the Washington Post that Israel and the U.S. “can’t ignore the death and destruction” in Gaza.
Standing up against antisemitism
Shapiro has been heavily criticized by the far-left for condemning antisemitism at anti-Israel protests on college campuses.
He condemned Liz Magill, the former president of the University of Pennsylvania, who refused to say calling for the genocide of Jewish students violated campus policy.
After a swastika was spray-painted on a Pennsylvania synagogue, Shapiro affirmed that antisemitism has “no place” in his state.
Shapiro said that Magill and other university presidents have failed Jewish students by being lenient against students chanting antisemitic slogans. He said that similar tolerance for students “dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia” would not be allowed, angering pro-Palestinian activists.
In June, Shapiro and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, also Jewish, spoke at the groundbreaking for the new location of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The synagogue’s prior building was the site of an antisemitic shooting that killed 11 and wounded six others at Shabbat services.
Shapiro lamented his experience touring the synagogue with his children after the shooting, observing the bullet holes in the walls.
Antisemitic criticism of Shapiro has run rampant
Since he was announced as a potential vice president pick for Harris, many progressives have condemned the choice, arguing that selecting Shapiro would alienate Muslims. Far-left groups have begun calling Shapiro “Genocide Josh,” despite Shapiro never having voted on any foreign policy issues.
However, Shapiro’s views on Israel are aligned with those of Harris’ other potential vice president picks, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, both of whom also support Israel. In fact, Kelly gave Netanyahu a standing ovation during his remarks to Congress in July.
Many have criticized the specific attacks on Shapiro as antisemitic because only he has been singled out, despite having almost identical views.
“Josh’s position on Israel is almost identical to everybody else but he is being held to a different standard. So you have to ask yourself why?” Jewish Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said. “We just couldn’t imagine other Democrats within the party questioning a VP pick just because they were Black, were gay, Latino. We couldn’t imagine that.”
Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick told CNN that she is open to criticism of Shapiro but said that the framing and refusal to criticize other candidates is antisemitic.
“When you are running a campaign around ‘Genocide Josh’ and he is the only potential candidate being labeled as such, that is singling out the Jewish candidate,” she said.
“I think it’s clear why. You’d be hard-pressed to find any Jewish member of Congress that hasn’t on occasion faced a similar double standard,” Jewish Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said. “It’s offensive and wrong and I regret that Governor Shapiro has to endure this.”
Unpacking Josh Shapiro’s Jewish identity
Josh Shapiro was born to his parents, pediatrician Steven A. Shapiro and teacher Judi Shapiro, on June 20, 1973, in Kansas City, Mo.
In his childhood, the Shapiro family moved to Montgomery County, Pa. where they were members of Beth Shalom Congregation in Elkins Park, and young Josh was a student at the Forman Hebrew Day School.
Shapiro traveled with his father to different Jewish communities to raise awareness about the refuseniks as members of the movement to free Soviet Jewry.
At the age of 6, Shapiro began writing letters to Avi Goldstein, a Soviet refusenik living in Tbilisi, Georgia. For the next few years, he recruited 50 Jewish children across the U.S. to join an international pen-pal program he created called Children for Avi.
After years of petitioning, Goldstein and his family were able to flee the USSR and even attended Shapiro’s bar mitzvah in 1986.
Shapiro was a student at Akiba Hebrew Academy where he met his wife Lori in the ninth grade. They reconnected in adulthood while both were living in Washington, D.C., and Shapiro proposed in Jerusalem in 1997. They married just months later.
During his 2022 gubernatorial campaign, Shapiro’s first campaign ad included a scene from his weekly family Shabbat dinner, which featured a challah loaf baked by his wife.
As a Conservative Jew, Shapiro is the first governor to have the kitchen of the governor’s mansion certified kosher.