In the 113th Congress, due to meet on January 3, there will be a total of 34 people of Jewish heritage serving over the two years of that Congress.
There will be 12 Senators and 22 House members, with the only Republican being House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia.
The 12 Senators include newly appointed Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, just appointed and sworn in yesterday for a two year term, before Schatz has to run for the remaining two years of the term of former Senator Daniel Inouye.
The other eleven Jewish Senators include:
Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California
Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut
Michael Bennet of Colorado
Ben Cardin of Maryland
Carl Levin of Michigan
Al Franken of Minnesota
Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey
Charles Schumer of New York
Ron Wyden of Oregon
Bernie Sanders of Vermont
Among the House members are:
Henry Waxman of California
Ted Deutch, Lois Frankel, Alan Grayson and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida
Jan Schakowsky of Illinois
Sander Levin of Michigan
Eliot Engel, Steve Israel, Nita Lowey and Jerrold Nadler of New York
Jewish members of the two houses of Congress come from:
California
Connecticut
Colorado
Florida
Illinois
Kentucky
Maryland
Michigan
Minnesota
New Jersey
New York
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Tennessee
Virginia
Vermont
Brad Schneider, the representative elect from Illinois’s 10th District is also Jewish. He is from Deerfield and here are some links from the Deerfield Patch for more information:
http://deerfield.patch.com/articles/schneider-tapped-for-foreign-affairs-committee
http://deerfield.patch.com/articles/candidates-believe-they-have-experience-to-legislate
http://deerfield.patch.com/articles/democrats-jerusalem-platform-plank-unifies-dold-schneider
Yes, you are correct, and sorry I did not mention him by name, but I thought listing all 22 House members was a bit much, so only listed twelve. I have high hopes for a great contribution by Brad Schneider, as well as the others I did not list! Thanks for writing!
Jews are almost always on the left, very left.
Why is that?
Most American Jews are liberals and progressives on economic and social matters, and have always been, so about 70 percent always vote Democratic, even if the nominee has some issues that Jews disagree with, including Israel, as say, George McGovern in 1972, and even Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. Still, Jews support social justice issues, and that is the view of the Democratic Party.