Josh Shapiro rescued me from Soviet antisemitism, can continue fighting for Jews - opinion

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro makes no bones about his Jewish heritage or his opposition to antisemitism on college campuses and elsewhere. His unapologetic advocacy for Jews may have just cost him a shot at the vice presidency.

Political consultants are likely advising Shapiro to back down and stay quiet about Jewish issues if he plans a future run for national office.

But Shapiro is the kind of leader who “lean[s]” on his “faith” and doesn’t take “no” for an answer – especially when he knows he’s in the right. How do I know? When he was just six, he launched a years-long campaign that helped my family escape Soviet antisemitism.

Now, I’m facing antisemitism in America, and by supporting my cause again, Shapiro can double down on his advocacy for victims of hate – and steer others in his party to do the same.

In 1967, my family and other Soviet Jews we were deemed “potential Zionist sympathizers,” blocked from state universities, and excluded from other leading institutions. Ironically, this persecution led to a massive Jewish awakening. Rather than hide, my parents rededicated themselves to their roots.

When my family requested permission to emigrate to Israel, we were refused and, consequently, harassed. We endured KGB searches of our apartment. My uncle was imprisoned. At school, classmates beat me into a concussion because of my Jewish faith. When I recovered and returned to class, I was publicly stripped and mocked.

During these bleak times, I received an encouraging letter from six-year-old Joshua Shapiro,

who soon made it his mission to help my family escape communism. For the next six years, we wrote each other monthly. I learned what life and freedom were like in America through his eyes.

Even then, Shapiro “got stuff done.”

He organized a national letter-writing campaign called “Children for Avi,” somehow marshaling dozens of participants in 16 states and multiple countries to join his cause.

He led. Others followed. In 1986, my family received permission to emigrate to Israel. We soon had the honor of visiting America and attending Shapiro’s bar mitzvah in Pennsylvania. I celebrated my own in Jerusalem six months after.

I later moved to America and completed my Ph.D. at the City University of New York (CUNY), where I am now a professor of mathematics and was ordained as a rabbi at Yeshiva University.

I will forever be grateful for Shapiro’s persistent support and advocacy – it meant a new life for me and my family. However, in 2021, I experienced a horrifying sense of déjà vu when I encountered the antisemitism I thought I had left behind.

The Professional Staff Congress (PSC), the CUNY faculty union of which I was then a member, issued a resolution encouraging support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. The union accused my family’s home of having been “establish[ed] as a settler colonial state in 1948,” of committing a “massacre,” and of being an “apartheid” state.

I was appalled and resigned my union membership together with hundreds of others. Sadly, that was no escape. New York law says that even though I’m no longer a union member, I must still accept the union as my representative.

Even after the horrific attacks suffered by Israel on October 7, the PSC made a statement defending those aligned against Israel and attempted to pass a resolution attacking Zionists.

How can a union that broadcasts its hatred for Jews also negotiate in my best interests? The idea is absurd to me, and I’m far from alone. Public employees throughout New York and across the country are, likewise, unable to represent themselves or choose a different representative no matter what their union says or does in their name.

But in America, the First Amendment protects our rights of free speech and association. So, I joined with five of my colleagues, four of whom are also Jews, to file a lawsuit to gain complete freedom from a union we see as antisemitic. Now, the US Supreme Court will soon decide whether to hear our case.

What can Shapiro do?

By writing one more letter on my behalf, this time an amicus brief, Shapiro can help convince the court to accept our case. He can show the political gatekeepers that he isn’t hiding or backing down; that when it comes to his lifelong mission of bringing choice and freedom to Jews and others in need, he plans to lead and inspire others to follow.

The writer is a tenured assistant mathematics professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) and lead plaintiff in Goldstein v. PSC/CUNY.