Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who frequently invokes his Jewish identity in political debates and acts as reassurance for Jewish New Yorkers uneasy about Mayor Zohran Mamdani, hasn’t attended a single meeting of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum despite serving on the board for nearly 20 years.
ANTISEMITISM: Bernie Sanders has been on the Holocaust Museum board for 18 years and hasn’t attended one meeting. Not one. Now board members want him removed as antisemitism surges within the Democrat Party.
— @amuse (@amuse) January 19, 2026
Despite serving on the Holocaust Museum board since 2007, Bernie… pic.twitter.com/PzoUZKrSJX
The revelation has resulted in a bipartisan effort to oust him from his position on the board.
“There are two large meetings every year where people fly in from all over the country for it. But Bernie Sanders couldn’t be bothered to walk across the road in DC,” fellow board member Robert Garson, president of the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, said.
“Eighteen is a good number in Judaism, but not in this case,” another board member and Wall Street executive, Jonathan Burkan, said.
The council has 55 members who are appointed by the president for five-year terms, with another 10 slots reserved for congressional leaders, five from the House, five from the Senate. Garson and Burkan, both Trump appointees, are among a dozen signers of a letter urging Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to remove Sanders, citing his long-standing absence from meetings and his repeated assertions that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
“In the current context, with Jew hatred and Holocaust distortion rising globally, it is imperative that Senate-appointed representatives on the Council are fully engaged and steadfastly supportive of its mission,” the letter reads. It specifically objected to “public statements regarding contemporary genocidal conflicts.”
In light of these concerns, and consistent with the statutory framework under which the Council operates, I respectfully request that you consider initiating the process for removal and/or replacement of Senator Sanders as one of the Senate’s appointees to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. This request reflects not personal animus but a principled concern about the ability of the Council to execute its mission when a Senate representative is not regularly participating or is publicly positioned in ways that many of his colleagues believe detract from the Museum’s core educational and commemorative purposes.
"I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter with you directly or through your staff, and to provide any further information that might assist in consideration of this request," the letter added.
“This is not a partisan issue, just common sense,” Alex Heckler, a Democratic Party activist and fundraiser appointed to the board by former President Joe Biden, said. “[Sanders’] beliefs and public statements do not reflect the stated mission of the museum. Also, he has never attended a meeting in the years I have been on the Council."
"The controversy comes as Sanders has continued to back New York City Mayor and self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani during his first month in office. Mamdani, who governs the city with the largest Jewish population in the United States, has been dogged by scandals tied to his rhetoric on Israel, most notably his repeated characterization of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip as genocide, a charge echoed by Sen. Sanders himself.
"All of this raises deeper questions about whether Sanders can ever be considered a reliable defender of the Jewish people. Conservatives have long answered that question in the negative. The hope now is that Sanders’s own constituents, along with independent voters and Democrats, begin to reach the same conclusion.
