As he elides the rules of Judaism to focus on the "soul work," he also makes only passing references to October 7, and he manages to completely avoid mentioning Gaza—as in, not even once. Shapiro has been outspoken in his criticism of the Israeli government (Benjamin Netanyahu, he has said, is "one of the worst leaders of all time"). He has also called out some of the pro-Palestinian protests on sampuses, believing they tipped over into being anti-Semitic. Shapiro is a liberal Zionist, which means he has a nuanced position on the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians at a moment when, on this topic, few people who care about the issue really want to hear nuance. But when Israel does appear in the book, he doesn't lay any of this out. Instead, the Jewish homeland is just the place where he first connected with—yes-his faith. "In Israel, it was just everywhere," he writes. "It was the first time I could feel faith. I could see it and touch it and it wasn't abstract." There is something unique, perhaps even brave, about discussing Israel in this way, as a place perceived not just through a political lens but one that could have so much meaning to a Jewish teenager from suburban Philadelphia (he even proposed to Lori in Jerusalem). And yet the faction in the Democratic Party that called him "Genocide Josh" has not gone away, and neither has the unfair suspicion that he had to confront when he was vetted by Harris's people and was asked, he writes in the book, whether he had ever been "an agent of the Israeli government." These voices have only gotten louder, with large parts of the Democratic Party openly opposing the United States' continued support of Israel. A Jewish candidate such as Shapiro might want to focus on faith, but he has to face up to the reality, fair or not, that he will be asked to explain Israel's actions more than a Mormon or Catholic candidate would.
At a time when citizens are on the streets in Minneapolis risking their lives in order to protect their neighbors, this sentiment feels like a resonant one. The motivation for confronting masked, armed agents with whistles and phones is not as much political as it is moral. These people are angry that something has gone awry in the way we treat one another, that we have lost a sense of the common good-an understanding of what is normal and what isn't. This is the place where Shapiro is firmly planting himself, and whether you find his fulsome profession of faith to be authentic—| do—it might also be a pretty good strategy for winning.
Can Josh Shapiro turn his Jewishness into an asset?
The presidential contender’s memoir presents his faith as a unifying force—and in this morally fraught moment, it might just work. archive.ph/5eb7J By @galbeckerman.bsky.social #JoshShapiro #USElection2028
