American Jewish World Profiles Halie Soifer, Executive Director

The Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), a group formed last year, has endorsed two candidates in the 2018 Minnesota races. Halie Soifer, JDCA’s first executive director, stopped by the Jewish World offices on Sunday. She was accompanied by Beth Kieffer Leonard, managing partner of the Lurie accounting firm and JDCA treasurer. An informational meeting about JDCA (jewishdems.org) took place Sunday at the Lurie offices.

Soifer, 39, said that the partisan Jewish group has endorsed 31 Democratic office holders and candidates this year, including Dean Phillips, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen for the Third District seat in Congress; and incumbent Sen. Tina Smith. JDCA selects Democratic candidates based on their support for Israel, and in races where the Jewish community can make a difference.

A native of East Lansing, Mich., Soifer has worked for the past 16 years in various national security roles sup- porting congressional Democrats, most recently as national security adviser to Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. She served in the Barack Obama admin- istration for two years as senior policy adviser for Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Soifer noted that JDCA, which is chaired by former Florida congress- man Ron Klein, came into being after the August 2017 “Unite the Right” gathering in Charlottesville, Va. She mentioned that a smaller far-right gathering took place in Washington, D.C., last month, amid a worrying rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the U.S. She also pointed out that nine neo-Nazi and white supremacist candidates are running for elective office this year — all as Republicans.