

Jewbags on Facebook

You may have heard about the “Jewbags” scandal– the title of a caption on facebook posted by a young woman who is now the “Jewish outreach liaison” for the Democratic Party.

The Free Beacon reported that Dani Gilbert, the former staffer to Debbie Wasserman Schultz, used the term “Jewbags” in a caption and a friend of hers added the caption “Jew cash money team” under a photo of partying women in 2006– one of them Gilbert kissing a dollar bill. Adam Kredo:

The Democratic Party’s newly appointed Jewish outreach liaison is pictured on Facebook in a series of provocative photos with her friends holding dollar bills and referring to themselves as “Jewbags” and the “Jew cash money team!” Dani Gilbert, who has been a staffer in the office of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.), was recently appointed as the Democratic National Committee’s Jewish outreach liaison, according to her Twitter feed. Photos [formerly] publicly available on her Facebook page depict her engaged in the kind of youthful displays that social media like Facebook and Twitter have made increasingly common and problematic for young Washington staffers. In one photo, Gilbert is seen kissing paper currency of undetermined denomination. The caption at the bottom of the photo reads “JEWBAGS.” A comment left on the posting refers to Gilbert and a coterie of female companions as the “Jew cash money team.”

I think this is an important cultural moment. It reminds us of one reason that non-Jews want to marry Jews (marrying up is a great American tradition); and it reminds us why Wasserman Schultz is chair of the Democratic National Committee and why Gilbert is working for the Democratic Party. Our importance derives not from “Jewish voters” (as Terry Gross said yesterday)– but from how much money we put into the political process.