Major Jewish groups, including the leading organization representing Jewish Democrats, are strongly criticizing Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) over his previously undisclosed contacts with Rev. Louis Farrakhan, head of the anti-Semitic political and religious movement Nation of Islam. Some Jewish leaders are urging Ellison to step down as deputy chairman of the Democratic Party.
When Ellison first ran for Congress in 2006, he insisted that he had severed all ties with Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, which Ellison had belonged to in the 1990s. Similarly, when Ellison ran for chairman of the Democratic Party in 2016, he reiterated that he had long ago distanced himself from Farrakhan.
But a series of reports in The Wall Street Journal and The Daily Caller in recent days revealed that Ellison has participated in at least three meetings with Farrakhan since entering Congress.