There are hundreds of chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America across the United States, but Portland’s stands out in a number of ways, as staff from the Anti-Defamation League explained in their DSA Decoded webinar Thursday, Sept. 3, co-sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.

“The Portland DSA was one of the first to call on the national body to censure former Rep. Jamal Bowman over his trip to Israel, his vote for Iron Dome funding and his meeting with then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, saying that those actions directly contradict the democratically decided positions of DSA,” Lauren Post, an analyst at ADL’s Center on Extremism, explained. “They’ve made several troubling statements over time. On Oct. 7, there was a tweet where they declared, solidarity with the Palestinian resistance to occupation.”

Federation Chief Community Relations and Public Affairs Officer Bob Horenstein said that the Portland DSA’s influence in local politics has increased since Portland votes passed a charter reform referendum that expanded the city council to 12 members – four DSA members were elected to the council in its first elections under the new format. Those councilors quickly moved to investigate local ties to Israel (See “DSA city councilors to investigate Israel ties,” Oct. 22, 2025, page 11) and are now advancing an ostensibly neutral ethical investment policy.

“We believe that this is a subterfuge; that it really is intended to single out the state of Israel,” Horenstein said, noting that his appearance on the panel was preventing him from giving public testimony to a council committee considering the policy. “Based on some of the testimony that I was able to hear before this webinar, certainly from the public, from folks like Jewish Voice for Peace and those sort of anti-Israel activists, that’s exactly what they are intending.”

Their views on Israel and law enforcement put the DSA out of step with both Jewish and broader American thought on those issues. Alex Camhi from the ADL’s Center for Antisemitism Research said that polling indicates 18 percent of Americans agree with the DSA’s “defund the police” platform.

“Just a few months ago, when it comes to the BDS movement, the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement against Israel, we found that 75 percent of all Americans, not just Jewish Americans, 75 percent of all Americans oppose their local governments boycotting Israeli businesses,” Camhi said. “So, on both of these issues… we find that the DSA puts themselves way outside the mainstream public opinion.”

Meanwhile, Post and Camhi said that in the last few years, the DSA nationally has moved to require opposition to Israel’s existence as a Jewish state from organization members and candidates it endorses for elected office, along with disaffiliation from other organizations that espouse support for Israel as a Jewish state. Polling has consistently shown that 70 percent of Americans and more than 85 percent of American Jews support Israel’s existence, as does nearly every mainstream Jewish community organization locally and nationally.

“The one thing that all of those organizations that the DSA demands disaffiliation from agree on is Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state,” Camhi said. “So of course, when the organizations you’re demanding disaffiliation from are those very organizations that represent nearly 90 percent of American Jews, you’re going to alienate the community.”

What is to be done, then? While both the ADL and the Federation are barred from endorsing, supporting or opposing candidates for elected office under Internal Revenue Code, Camhi suggested engaging with DSA-curious people on an individual level.

“There are folks who don’t know a lot about the DSA who might hear something new about the DSA and catch an interest in them for some reason. The real question we should be asking ourselves is: to those folks who are sort of on the margin of might support the DSA or might not, how do we persuade them not to?” He said. “The simplest answer, and the tactic that we found to be most effective across a range of issues, including DSA-related political issues, is storytelling and demonstrating the personal impact of the DSA’s views on your life.”

A request for comment from the Portland DSA chapter by The Jewish Review received no response as of press time.

PHOTO: A screenshot from the webinar.