“Jewish Republicans are for better or worse panicking that there is going to be no representation,” said Adam Kwasman, a Jewish Tea Party candidate for Congress who has Leviticus 25:10 tattooed in Hebrew on his right shoulder (“Proclaim liberty throughout the ends of the earth unto all its inhabitants”) and script from the Declaration of Independence on his left. “There has been a priority shift in the heart and soul of Republican Jews across the country,” he said. “They were far more relaxed before Cantor lost.”
Mr. Kwasman, a 31-year-old Arizona state representative, was speaking last month after the donor-rich event at the St. Regis. After schmoozing with high-powered “machers” who are worried about the scarcity of Jewish members and a growing isolationist streak in the Republican Party, he unfolded the Menorah Psalm, with commentary, that his mother had given him to read on the flight to Washington.
“Apparently King David used to have that psalm on his shield,” Mr. Kwasman said. “To give him power and strength.”
The current crop of Republican Jewish candidates need all the strength they can get.
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