Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren was born in 1949 and is currently serving as the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts. Senator Warren is running for reelection in 2024. In 2020, she ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for U.S. President in 2020.

Warren won the Senate election in 2012, becoming the first female U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. She is an academic and taught law at the University of Texas, the University of Pennsylvania, and at Harvard Law School. Following the 2008 financial crisis, Warren served as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which was created to oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). She later served as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under President Barack Obama.

Senator Warren is currently serving on the Armed Services Committee; the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee; the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee; and the Special Committee on Aging.

Below is Senator Warren’s voting record and public positions on issues important to the Jewish community.

In response to Israel’s decision to ban the entry of Democratic Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, Senator Warren criticized the decision, and tweeted: “Israel doesn’t advance its case as a tolerant democracy or unwavering US ally by barring elected members of Congress from visiting because of their political views. This would be a shameful, unprecedented move. I urge Israel’s government to allow [Ilhan Omar] and [Rashida Tlaib] entry.”

Senator Warren supported the Iran nuclear deal. During her campaign she suggested that she would reenter the Iran deal if Iran abides by it. She reiterated her support for reentering the agreement with Iran during the first Democratic debate on June 26.

Senator Warren has stated that she opposes the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, but she came out against the Israel Anti-Boycott Act by arguing that “the boycott is wrong but outlawing protected free speech activity violates our basic constitution”.

Senator Warren supports the two-state solution. She was critical of the decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem because she believes that it will make it more difficult to achieve peace in the Middle East. Senator Warren said that as concerns the right of return of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, a “negotiated number” should return to Israel, and the rest could obtain “permanent esidency or citizenship in the countries where they reside, or resettlement in other countries of their choosing.” She said that “if Israel takes steps counter to peace,” she is “prepared to freeze or reverse the limited embassy functions that have moved to Jerusalem.”

In 2018, Senator Warren cosponsored the United States-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act, a legislation that supported full funding of security assistance to Israel as outlined in the 2016 U.S-Israel Memorandum of Understanding. Yet, in October 2019, when she was asked during an event in Iowa on her position on making aid to Israel conditional on stopping settlement expansion, the Senator Warren said “everything is on the table.”

In 2019, Senator Warren was one of the Democrats who voted against the Strengthening America’s Middle East Security Act, which, among other things strengthens Israel’s security, and allows a state or local government to adopt measures to divest its assets from entities that boycott Israel.

Senator Warren is an original cosponsor of Senate Resolution 234 – introduced in Congress on June 5th, 2019 – which reaffirms the commitment of the U.S. to the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and argues that Israeli annexation of territory in the West Bank would undermine peace and Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state.

Following the November 2019 announcement of President Trump’s administration that it would no longer view Israeli settlements as “inconsistent with international law”, Senator Warren denounced the decision and called it “another blatantly ideological attempt by the Trump administration to distract from its failures in the region.” She argued that “not only do these settlements violate international law—they make peace harder to achieve.” Senator Warren also pledged to “reverse this policy and pursue a two state solution.”