Amid those controversies is Ms. Cockburn. “Democrats Nominate Virulent Anti-Semite in the Fifth District,” blared a news release this month from the Republican Party of Virginia.

National Democrats must now decide whether supporting Ms. Cockburn is worth the trouble that aid might bring. On Tuesday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee would say only that it “has been targeting this district for more than a year, and we will continue to work with the Cockburn campaign and evaluate the race once the matchup is set.”

In an interview, Ms. Cockburn blamed Republicans for trying to draw attention to what she called a “totally phony issue.”

“This is a book from 27 years ago,” she said. “It was a tough book looking at the U.S.-Israeli covert operations, intelligence and military. So, yeah, it’s a book of journalism from a long time ago. I’ve had a very long, wonderful, successful, award-winning career since then, and so to reach way back in the past, pull this out — and that’s why it was very important to me that the Jewish community read the book, looked at it and made up their minds.”

Her outreach on Monday night seemed to work.

“I just think most folks who came to this meeting didn’t take the charge seriously to begin with, even folks who read her book, which is highly critical of Israel and the United States and the U.S.-Israel relationship at the time,” said Daniel Alexander, the rabbi emeritus of Charlottesville’s only synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel, who hosted the meeting. “To criticize Israel is not an expression of anti-Semitism.”

Russ Linden, who attended the meeting, said Ms. Cockburn answered questions for almost two hours and defended her book.

“She did say at one point if there was something in the tone that people found unfair or upsetting, she regretted that,” he said.