Ilan Goldenberg: Harris campaign is not taking Jewish voters for granted

NEW YORK – The Harris campaign’s Jewish liaison Ilan Goldenberg canvassed on Monday through Jewish neighborhoods outside of Philadelphia to solidify voter turnout on Tuesday.

“Jewish voters will be a critical part of Vice President Harris’s winning coalition and our campaign is taking nothing for granted,” Goldenberg said.

Goldenberg said the campaign was “leaving no stone unturned, bringing the stakes of this election to the voters who will decide it.

“While [Donald] Trump espouses antisemitic tropes and is already blaming Jews if he loses in November, Vice President [Kamala] Harris is fighting the scourge of antisemitism,” Goldenberg said.

Harris is working to ensure the safety and security of Jewish people “here and around the world – as she has her entire career,” he added.

Goldenberg, who was serving as the vice president’s Middle East adviser on October 7, said on a call last week with the Jewish Democratic Council of America that Harris’s track record on Israel goes back years, and he saw it personally.

“Her North Star from the start was Israel when it was attacked on October 7, Israel has a right to defend itself, we’re going to help Israel defend itself,” Goldenberg said. “And she has been repeating that again and again and again throughout the campaign. It’s been our position, it’s been our policy.”

Trump can't be relied on for anything

Goldenberg said Trump can’t be relied on for anything, especially after his former national security advisors and people who worked for him said he couldn’t be trusted.

Trump cannot be trusted on Israel, according to Goldenberg, as the former president was calling Hezbollah smart and criticizing Israel days after October 7.

Goldenberg also called out Trump for being an “isolationist who plays footsie with Putin.”

Isolationism is something that’s never been good for Israel and frankly has never been good for the Jewish people, Goldenberg said.

“There’s a long track record,” he noted. “And we can’t think of a candidate who is going to withdraw from the world everywhere else, and somehow maintain this relationship and support for Israel. I’m highly, highly skeptical.”

On the JDCA call, Goldenberg recounted briefing Harris after October 7 ahead of her first meeting with the American hostage families.

“She just kind of stops us, and she says, ‘This is fundamentally different than any normal meeting. I need you to go back and I need you to get every single piece of information that you have on these people,’” he said.

Harris requested “every single piece of information” available on the American hostages because she felt she owed it to the families to go into the meeting fully prepared and to demonstrate her commitment to them, according to Goldenberg.

“That was just a real eye opener about who she is as a leader, who she is as a person,” Goldenberg said. “It demonstrated to me how she feels about Israel.”

“And that’s who I want sitting in the Oval Office,” he added. “Leading our country and making the biggest decisions that this country needs to make.”