The 33-year-old Jon Ossoff will make history today as the first Jew ever elected to the Senate from Georgia. He announced he will take his oath with a Hebrew Chumash once owned by a rabbi Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, an outspoken civil rights activist, and ally of Dr. Martin Luther King.
The symbolism emphasized the bond between Jewish and Black activists and leaders in the segregated south and comes in a time when Georgia made double history by electing its first Black and Jewish senators.
In a rare political moment, both of Georgia’s Senate seats were up for grabs last year and went to a runoff election on Jan. 5. That led Ossoff to run a joint campaign with fellow Democrat, Raphael Warnock, the pastor at King’s church, Ebenezer Baptist. Together, they repeatedly invoked the Black-Jewish alliance.
Warnock also won, and the twin victories will hand Democrats control of the Senate, and all levers of government. Ossoff was seen as a long shot; he trailed incumbent Republican David Perdue in the Nov. 3 election, but because Perdue could not exceed 50% of the vote, it triggered a runoff.
Ossoff, 33, will be the youngest person in the Senate.
