Vice President J.D. Vance According to Pennsylvania, he “offered comfort” to people on the right who hold anti-Jewish views Governor Josh Shapirowhile the Republican Party is engaged in an ongoing intra-coalition dispute over anti-Semitism.
Vance made a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day in which he made no mention of either Jews or Nazis, prompting further Jewish criticism of the vice president from both sides of the aisle.
The statement was the latest in a series of comments by Vance that have raised concerns about his hesitancy to call out anti-Semites in the conservative movement.
“Today we remember the millions of lives lost in the Holocaust, the millions of stories of individual courage and heroism, and one of the enduring lessons of one of the darkest chapters in human history: that while humans create beautiful things and are compassionate, we are also capable of unspeakable brutality,” Vance wrote. “And we promise you will never go down the darkest path again.”
The post included photos of him standing under the Hebrew words translating “Never Forget” during a visit last year to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, where he was given a tour by a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor.
Shapiro, a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028, – he said in an interview on Tuesday that he hadn’t seen Vance’s post yet. But he also said he didn’t find it surprising that Vance’s post didn’t explicitly mention Jews, given his take on the issue of right-wing anti-Semitism.
“Remember that the reason we commemorate the Holocaust on this day is really to never forget,” said Shapiro, a practicing Jew who has focused his faith on public life. “And the reason you want to never forget is because we will never experience this atrocity again. Part of never forgetting is making sure that the facts of what happened are recited and remembered. The fact that J.D. Vance could not bring himself to admit that Hitler and the Nazis killed six million Jews speaks volumes.”
“But this is not a surprise to me, given the way he has openly supported the AfD party, given the way he has openly supported neo-Nazis and neo-Nazi political parties, given the way he has actually comforted right-wing anti-Semites who are infecting the Republican Party,” Shapiro continued. “So it’s not a shock to me that he left it out, but it’s a sad day that the vice president of the United States on Holocaust Awareness Day couldn’t address it.” said he thought Vice President J.D. Vance had “offered comfort” to people on the right who hold anti-Jewish views as the Republican Party wages an ongoing intra-coalition dispute over anti-Semitism.
Other Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and, in an official White House statement, mentioned Jews or anti-Semitism in their own celebration of the holiday. Some arms of the government attacked Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz the day before the holiday for comparing immigration raids in his state Anne Frank.
Over the past few months, American Jewish groups have been anxiously examining Vance’s approach to anti-Semitism. The vice president had not previously condemned the anti-Semitic issue raised by the student; stays close Tucker Carlson; and stated several times that anti-Semitism is not a problem in the conservative movement. “We have much more important work to do than appealing to each other,” he told the Turning Point conference in the US in December.
Vance’s spokesman called the comments a “hypocritical next-level turn away from Shapiro and a misguided plea for attention from a lightweight politician.” They noted that Shapiro’s Holocaust Remembrance Day tweet did not specifically mention anti-Jewish violence — although the governor’s post did discuss anti-Semitism — stating that Shapiro was “desperately trying to shift the blame to the vice president.”
Shapiro is on tour promoting his newly released memoir,Where We Hold the Light: Stories from a Life of Service,” was published this week. It is the latest example of his edged targeting of Vance, along with many other potential Democratic presidential candidates who could challenge Vance in the 2028 election. Shapiro described Vance as a “sycophant” who “does whatever he thinks his boss wants.”
“Issuing such a statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day, without any mention of the six million missing Jews, the Jewish people, Nazis, or the issue of anti-Semitism, truly requires an effort on the part of Vice President Vance.” Halie Soifer– wrote the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America on Twitter.
