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In campaign literature and in conversation with RJC officials, Congressman-elect George Santos (NY-3) maintained that he had Jewish family members who escaped the Holocaust and that he identified as a Jewish person.

This week we learned that this assertion, like much of his resumé, was false.

RJC CEO Matt Brooks released the following public statement:

We are very disappointed in Congressman-elect Santos. He deceived us and misrepresented his heritage. In public comments and to us personally he previously claimed to be Jewish. He has begun his tenure in Congress on a very wrong note. He will not be welcome at any future RJC event.

Our statement was quoted in hundreds of news reports, from Politico, The Hill and Fox News, to CNN, NBC, and NPR.

The serious allegations against Santos should be fully investigated; his breach of trust with the voters and the people who supported his campaign is inexcusable. The RJC offices have received messages from understandably outraged members who want George Santos to be denied his seat in the Congress. However, the Constitution does not permit this.

According to a 1969 Supreme Court decision, the Speaker of the House cannot exclude a duly elected candidate for Congress from being sworn in. The electoral rights of the voters and the states take precedence over the right of Congress to determine the fitness of its members, until the candidate is sworn in. Then Congress may take steps, including an Ethics Committee investigation, right up to an affirmative vote of 2/3 of the House to expel the member.

This week two writers made the case for continued US support of Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia, one from a practical point of view and one from a moral perspective.

Timothy Ash at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) argues that the US should keep supporting Ukraine because “when viewed from a bang-per-buck perspective, US and Western support for Ukraine is an incredibly cost-effective investment.” He writes:

[US assistance to Ukraine] represents 5.6% of total US defense spending. But Russia is a primary adversary of the US, a top tier rival not too far behind China, its number one strategic challenger. In cold, geopolitical terms, this war provides a prime opportunity for the US to erode and degrade Russia’s conventional defense capability, with no boots on the ground and little risk to US lives.

The Ukrainian armed forces have already killed or wounded upwards of 100,000 Russian troops, half its original fighting force; there have been almost 8,000 confirmed losses of armored vehicles including thousands of tanks, thousands of APCs, artillery pieces, hundreds of fixed and rotary wing aircraft, and numerous naval vessels. US spending of 5.6% of its defense budget to destroy nearly half of Russia’s conventional military capability seems like an absolutely incredible investment.

… Meanwhile, replacing destroyed kit, and keeping up with the new arms race that it has now triggered with the West will surely end up bankrupting the Russian economy.

Ash also posits that the Ukraine war has destroyed the myth that Russian military technology is of comparable quality to that of the US and the West, giving other countries good reason to want to buy US-made equipment for their own defense capabilities; sent a powerful signal to China about the wisdom of its own expansionist ambitions; and gave Europe good reason to move away from Russian energy and toward US fuels.

Anne Applebaum, writing at The Atlantic, describes what life might be like if the US didn’t help Ukraine. As in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, the counterfactual world is a dark and horrible place. For example:

Had [the Russian invasion succeeded] as planned, Ukraine would now be pockmarked with the concentration camps, torture chambers, and makeshift prisons that have been discovered in Bucha, Izyum, Kherson, and all of the other territories temporarily occupied by Russia and liberated by the Ukrainian army. A generation of Ukrainian writers, artists, politicians, journalists, and civic leaders would already be buried in mass graves. Ukrainian books would have been removed from schools and libraries. The Ukrainian language would have been suppressed in all public spaces. Hundreds of thousands more Ukrainian children would have been kidnapped and transported to Russia or trafficked further around the world.

Russian soldiers, strengthened by their stunning victory, would already be on the borders of Poland, setting up new command posts, digging new trenches. NATO would be in chaos; the entire alliance would be forced to spend billions to prepare for the inevitable invasion of Warsaw, Vilnius, or Berlin.

Read the whole thing here.

1. Acted as the bridge between the Jewish community and the Republican Party.

2. Brought Jewish Republicans together to meet political leaders, engage in grassroots activism, and enjoy fun social events.

3. Fought the Biden administration’s plan to return to the Iran nuclear deal with our public statements, our work with Republican elected officials and their staffs, and our grassroots activism. In 2022, over 2,000 RJC members sent messages against the Iran deal to their members of Congress through our outreach tool.

4. Fought antisemitism, whether from the left or the right, by condemning antisemitic comments from public officials, working with other Jewish community organizations, and working to defeat candidates for Congress with a record of antisemitic statements.

5. Fought for Israel and a strong US-Israel relationship, working with Republican elected officials on legislation to enhance US-Israel military cooperation and fighting the Biden administration’s plan to reopen the US consulate in Jerusalem to the Palestinians.

6. Fought for Republican policies by educated the Jewish community, through our events, publications, and media work, about the importance of individual freedom, a strong national defense, and free markets, and the policies that enhance them.

7. Fought for Republican majorities in the House and Senate through the RJC PAC and RJC Victory Fund’s efforts to endorse and support great GOP candidates for the House and Senate across the country.

What will the RJC do in 2023? All of the above, and more! We’ll continue to fight for the things we believe in, to be the Jewish Republican voice in our community and our party, and to build on the tremendous successes of the past. But we can’t do it without the support of our members.Please consider making one last 2022 donation to the RJC now. Your support will make the RJC stronger and even more effective in the important months to come. Thank you!

Tobin: The top 10 Jewish stories of 2022

Jonathan Tobin at JNS writes that "2022 has been something of a challenge, with war and antisemitism dominating Jewish news." Read his countdown of the top 10 Jewish stories of the year.

RJC offices are open! Contact information for our offices can be found on our website. Please visit us online for the latest RJC news, to see details of upcoming events, and to donate to the RJC. Read past editions of this newsletter here.