Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Rep. Steve Cohen Rejects David Friedman — Says He’s No ‘Fiddler’

Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen has a uniquely Jewish put-down for Donald Trump’s pick to be Israel ambassador: “You’re no Tevye the milkman.”

Of the 18 Jewish Democrats in the House of Representatives, four have already spoken out against the appointment of Friedman, a right-wing Orthodox bankruptcy lawyer best known for his unswerving support for West Bank settlements.

But none twisted the knife like Cohen, who took to Twitter to explain why Friedman is not the right choice for the job.

“Israeli ambassador must be a diplomat as he is like a fiddler on the roof,” Cohen tweeted. “Reject #Friedman! Dangerous for 2-state solution & peace for #Israel”

The three other liberal Jewish lawmakers who have already spoken out Friedman’s appointment include Jerry Nadler, John Yarmuth and Jan Schakowsky.

But while voices rejecting Friedman keep on coming from the House, opponents of Friedman, who are seeking to derail his confirmation, are still lacking any support from Democrats in the Senate, where the confirmation hearing will be held.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.