Growing up in Bayonne, New Jersey, Burt Siegel was raised to have strong commitments to three things: the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Jewish people and the state of Israel and the Democratic Party.
Siegel, now 81, remains committed to all three.
Though he lives in Jenkintown, he still watches Dodger games online late at night (the team now plays in Los Angeles). He also remains a member of Or Hadash in Fort Washington, which he helped launch. And perhaps most actively, Siegel continues to serve the Democratic Party.
The 81-year-old is the vice chair of Democratic Jewish Outreach PA, a PAC that tries to help elect Democrats.
Going into 2024, Siegel still sees this as an urgent task. DJOP is supporting Democratic Senate, House and state house candidates across Pennsylvania.
It pours more money and advocacy into tight races. This cycle, those include the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania and the battle for the 7th Congressional District representing the Lehigh Valley. Democrat incumbents Bob Casey and Susan Wild are trying to fend off challengers in both contests.
There is only one Democratic congressional candidate that DJOP is not supporting: Summer Lee of the 12th District out of Pittsburgh. The group sees Lee, a “Squad” member, as “a vocal critic of Israel,” Siegel said.
At 81, Siegel continues to do this work because he still believes the Democratic Party represents Jewish values and interests.
“Tikkun olam’s become almost like a cliché. But we take our Judaism seriously. We think the concept of improving the world is part of our Jewish values,” he said. “People who share those values are much more typical of the Democratic Party.”
In addition to supporting pro-Jewish candidates, Siegel is now talking about Jewish issues on the radio. His show, “Jewish Perspectives on the News and Politics,” debuted in the spring on 860 WWDB-AM.
Next week, he will discuss the Anti-Defamation League’s recent complaint with the Office for Civil Rights alleging a culture of antisemitism in the School District of Philadelphia. Another upcoming episode will feature a Reconstructionist rabbi who will talk about how “some people in the Jewish community have been unfair in their criticisms of Israel,” Siegel said.
“I have no idea exactly how many people are listening,” Siegel said.
But he’s enjoying it.
He’s also just continuing the work he’s always done.
Siegel worked for 38 years for the Jewish Community Relations Council, eventually rising to executive director.
After he retired, he got involved with Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Around the same time, he helped found DJOP.
To Siegel, Judaism, support for Israel and affiliation with the Democratic Party always went hand in hand. That was what his father, Daniel Siegel, taught him.
“I came from really a lower-middle-class family. I was raised to believe that the Democratic Party understood people and who we were in ways Republicans didn’t,” he explained. “My father was very politically involved. As a child, I heard stories of Harry Truman supporting the state of Israel. We were a very Zionist family.”
Siegel has passed that worldview down to his three kids. But it has been tested in modern times.
Just last week, prominent Democrats such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) and Nancy Pelosi (CA-11) skipped a speech to Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I taught my son that we have an obligation to explain to people what Zionism does and does not mean. There are people on the extreme left in the Democratic Party who I am very angry with,” Siegel said. “I am troubled by Jews who are opposed to the idea of Israel and the Jewish state. But that’s not the position of the Democratic Party.”
This fall, Siegel and DJOP plan to support the new Democratic candidate for president, Kamala Harris.
“We certainly are going to do everything we can to elect Kamala,” Siegel said.
Kamala intentionally missed Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, along with 80 other Democrats. That was an overt slap in the face to Israel’s PM and was also a slap in the face of the country he leads. For the record zero Republican pols found a reason to do the same. It’s the MAGA Republicans in Congress who are leading the fight against the segment of the Democratic base who are burning Israeli and American flags on campus while raising Hamas’ flag and Palestinian flags to replace them. Kamala supports all of this anti-American and anti Israeli hate, although of recent vintage is starting to hedge her actions as the presidential election arrives.
Those who knee-jerk vote Democratic have a duty to examine Harris’ record on both the economy and her radical views on social issues. She’s downright dangerous to us and the country as a whole.