Trump will ‘give Netanyahu a blank check’: Youngest Jewish Congresswoman on Israel, Gaza and the election

Progressive Democrats initially might have been wary of Sara Jacobs when she came to Congress in 2021. The Center for Responsive Politics showed that in 2020, she was the fifth most self-funded candidate, a product of the fact that her grandfather co-founded the semiconductor company Qualcomm. She also beat a candidate who had the endorsement of Senator Bernie Sanders, who had won the California primary. It would be easy to dismiss her as a moneyed “nepo baby” with nothing to offer to the left of the party.

But since becoming a congresswoman, the 35-year-old California Democrat has distinguished herself as one of the more progressive voices in Congress.

When members of the Squad slept on the steps of the US Capitol in 2021 in protest of a rent moratorium coming to a close, Jacobs brought protesters pizza. She has been a consistent voice for defending women’s reproductive rights, always by leading with her own examples — she was the first member of Congress to discuss her own period on the House floor and has also openly talked about freezing her eggs.

But as the youngest Jewish American member of Congress, it is Jacobs’ support for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that stands out.

On Wednesday, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu delivered a joint address to Congress, Jacobs was one of many Democrats to boycott the speech.

“ I just came from listening to hostage families. Were very clear that the most important thing to get their family members back is to end the war and to get a ceasefire,” she told The Independent. “ And that's what we should all be focused on doing and I know that something President Biden has been focused on and something vice president Harris has been focused on as