Six Jewish Candidates Seek State House Seats

Democratic Rep. Esther Panitch was the lone Jewish member in the 2023 and 2024 sessions of the Georgia General Assembly.

She is hoping for company when the state legislature reconvenes in January 2025.

As Panitch seeks re-election to a second two-year term from House district 51, five other Jewish newcomers are seeking seats in the House. They are Democrats Susie Greenberg, Debra Shigley, Eric Castater, and Randye Dugan, and Republican Barry Zisholtz.

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Speaking optimistically of her electoral prospects and success by at least one other Jewish candidate on Nov. 5, Panitch told the Jewish Women’s Democratic Salon, “I am really grateful that I’m going to have some company this session.”

A single Jewish legislator accounts for 0.04 percent of the General Assembly. An estimated 1.3 percent of the state’s population is Jewish.

Republicans currently hold a trifecta under the Gold Dome, with majorities in the House and Senate and Gov. Brian Kemp as the state’s chief executive.

In the last session, Republicans occupied 102 of 180 House seats and 33 out of 56 seats in the Senate. Republicans are expected to maintain majorities in both chambers, though Democrats hope to whittle away at their deficits, particularly in the House.

State representatives and senators are paid $17,342 plus per diem annually for their part-time jobs. State Senate districts average 191,000 residents and state House districts 59,500.

The priority for Jewish Atlanta’s major communal organizations in the past two legislative sessions was inclusion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism to the state’s legal code, which was achieved in March.

When action resumes under the Gold Dome in January, discussion of such perennial issues as health care, transportation, and education can be expected. The mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County in September may prompt debate over gun violence, though the Republican majority has not shown interest in firearms regulation.

Other issues that may be raised include creation of a state version of the federal Non-Profit Security Grant program and funding for the mental health legislation passed a couple of years ago.

Esther Panitch

Antisemitism brought Panitch the sort of national attention rare for any state legislator, never mind a first-term member. Shortly after she took office in January 2022, her Fulton County driveway and others in metro Atlanta were leafleted with anti-Jewish cards by the Goyim Defense League. A year later, she was a leader in efforts to put a definition of antisemitism into the state code.

In her bid for re-election from the Fulton County district, she is being challenged Republican Keith Gettmann.

Panitch has used her role as the only Jewish member of the General Assembly to acquaint legislators with the Jewish community. As examples, she points to Shabbat meals and services that the past two years welcomed legislators and other public officials to Congregation B’nai Torah (where she is a member) and Temple Emanu-El. “Most of my colleagues had never been to anything in a synagogue and had never experienced Shabbat . . . They need to know why we come to certain conclusions and policies.”

As important as the successful effort on legislation defining antisemitism, Panitch said “defensive work” is needed to oppose such measures as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which passed the Senate in 2024 but failed to emerge from the House, and proposed license plates that would declare “America First,” a term reminiscent of pro-German groups before World War II.

Susie Greenberg

The race in House district 53 offers a Jewish Democrat challenging an incumbent Republican who is not Jewish but has established ties in the community.

District 53 includes Roswell, Sandy Springs, and the Buckhead community in the city of Atlanta.

Susie Greenberg is the newcomer challenging incumbent Republican Deborah Silcox. Silcox represented district 52 from 2016 to 2020. After losing in the 2020 election, she came back in 2022 to win the seat from district 53.

Greenberg, an attorney and co-founder of the Campus Concierge Services, has served on the board of Temple Sinai and is co-vice president for advocacy of the National Council of Jewish Women chapter in Atlanta.

“I will stand, speak up, and show up for our Jewish values,” Greenberg told the Jewish Democratic Women’s Salon forum.

She labeled the state’s abortion law “a primary focus of this candidacy, to restore women’s rights in Georgia.” Georgia law prohibits the procedure after six weeks, a time before a woman may not know that she is pregnant.

Greenberg said that, working with the National Council of Jewish Women, she was “laser focused to get a hate crimes bill passed.” That measure spurred but the February 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old African American, near Brunswick, Ga., was signed into law four months later by Gov. Brian Kemp.

Speaking to a local meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Silcox touted her role as an original co-sponsor of that legislation, the Georgia Enhanced Penalties for Hate Crimes Act. The law allows for enhanced penalties if a criminal defendant is found to have selected a victim based on their “race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, mental disability or physical disability.”

Silcox, who was appointed in 2023 by Kemp to serve on the Georgia Holocaust Commission, also has been honored in March by The White Rose Society, which recognizes non-Jewish individuals who have supported the local Jewish community.

Debra Shigley

Debra Shigley, a member of The Temple, won the Democratic primary in House district 47 and is seeking to unseat incumbent Rep. Jan Jones, the second-ranking Republican in the House.

District 47 in northwest Fulton County includes Milton, Mountain Park and portions of Roswell and Alpharetta, and southeast Cherokee County. Jones, who is seeking a 12th term, has won re-election comfortably when challenged, and several times did not face a general election opponent.

Shigley’s campaign says that she is the first African American Jewish woman to seek a seat in the General Assembly. Her mother is Jewish and her father Jamaican. «I feel so personally energized,” Shigley told a Jewish Democratic Women’s Salon forum in August. “I feel a lot of connection to Kamala Harris,» whose father was Jamaican and her mother Indian.

She told the JDWS forum that “the voting rights issue is part of what got me off the sidelines.”

Shigley is an employment attorney and co-founder of a company called Colour, a technology-based hair care service for women of color.

After the May primary she said, “As a Jewish woman my faith guides me to advocate for my neighbors and that means fighting for reproductive freedom, gun safety, and strong public schools.” In September, Shigley joined a press conference at the capital calling for action on firearms violence after the mass shooting at Apalachee High School. “This is not about gun’“control.” School children are being murdered by terrorists while learning algebra. That is not freedom,” she posted on Facebook.

“The more Jewish representation we have in the state House, the more opportunity we have to build bridges,” she said. “Our families deserve representation. I will stand up, speak up, and show up when it’s not easy . . . because being a Jew sometimes is not easy.”

Jones has promoted her support for Israel. Just days after the Oct. 7 terror attacks, she posted on Facebook: “I’m thinking of and praying for the people of Israel and the families of those who have lost their lives or taken hostage. The bond between Israel and the United States is unwavering. We will continue to stand firm with our ally as it defends itself against these heinous terrorist attacks. #StandWithIsrael”

Barry Zisholtz

Barry Zisholtz admits that, until several days before the deadline for candidates to file, he could not name his state representative.

He was unaware that a portion of the heavily Jewish Toco Hills neighborhood had been moved into District 86, a majority African American district with a history of electing Democrats to the state legislature.

He learned that incumbent Democratic Rep. Imani Barnes had abstained from voting on a resolution condemning Hamas after the Oct. 7 terror attacks and also voted against the inclusion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism in the state code.

Zisholtz, an Orthodox Jew and a member of Congregation Beth Jacob, had attended a class at Chabad where an admonition of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Schneerson was discussed: «If you see what needs to be repaired and how to repair it, then you have found a piece of the world that G-d has left for you to complete.”

So, the retired urologist became the Republican candidate in district 86.

Zisholtz, a native New Yorker, says that he has knocked on 9,000 doors campaigning in the district. His campaign’s Facebook page is replete with pictures of him campaigning in the Black community. Zisholtz said that, with a practice based in Riverdale and East Point, some 80 percent of his patients were Black.

“It’s about trust,” he told a September meeting of the local chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Zisholtz puts antisemitism at the top of his list of priority issues, drawing a connection before stepping up to protest on behalf of Soviet Jewry years ago to protecting Jewish students who feel embattled on university campuses, including at his alma mater, the University of Michigan.

“If there’s something antisemitic going on we have to stand up,” he told the AJT.

While his professional background explains his priority interest in health care, he diverges from Gov. Brian Kemp by supporting expansion of the federal Medicaid program in Georgia. He has seen two hospitals (South Fulton and Georgia Baptist) where he worked fold because they could not afford to treat the numbers of uninsured and poorly insured patients coming in the doors. “The first bill I would introduce would be to provide health insurance to all citizens of the state of Georgia,” Zisholtz wrote on a Ballotpedia survey.

He also named public safety and affordable housing as issues high on his list.

Eric Castater

Democrat Eric Castater makes clear at the top of his campaign website his primary reason for seeking the House seat from district 45: “Political extremism – on the left and the right – is out of control in our country and state. There is too much demonization and dehumanization, and not enough listening, learning, or compromise.”

Castater, a member of Congregation Etz Chaim, is challenging Republican Rep. Sharon Cooper, who has served in the House since January 2007.

As required by state law, while he runs for office Castater is on leave from his position as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Kennesaw State University.

Castater told the Jewish Democratic Women’s Salon that he is running to “bring some moderation and decency and sanity to our politics.»

He warned that if the Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris appears to be winning as election results are counted, “The Republican election deniers are going to rush to the county election boards and start to claim fraud immediately . . . . They’ve had four years to prepare this time.”

Castater told the JWDS forum that, while antisemitism is a worse problem on the right, citing neo-Nazis who marched in front of a Cobb County synagogue, “Not enough Democrats of reason and conscience are standing up to the far left of our party,” elements of which he said are anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and pro-Hamas.

Randye Dugan

Democrat Randye Dugan is challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Carter Barrett, who is seeking a second term from House district 24 in Forsyth County.

“If you know about Forsyth County, to flip it with a Jew would be amazing,” she told a Jewish Democratic Women’s Salon forum in August.

“I spend most of my time knocking doors, as I think most of us do. Where my campaign is different is I work to win over Republican voters, and with every conversation, I do,” she told the AJT.

A career educator, Dugan teaches physics for the Fulton (County) Academy of Virtual Excellence, a county-wide online program.

Dugan, who attends Chabad North Fulton, cited her 6-year-old daughter as a motivation for her campaign. “I could not in good conscience leave what was going on for my daughter,” she told a Jewish Democratic Women’s Salon forum in August.

Dugan listed her priority issues as reproductive rights (abortion, contraception, and in-vitro fertilization) and education, saying that “Public money belongs in public education.”

“We need further representation everywhere,” she told the Jewish Democratic Women’s Salon, “in the legislature but also on school and library boards, to prevent efforts to ban and restrict books.”

Republican Rep. Todd Jones, who does not identify solely as Jewish (his mother is Jewish), is seeking re-election from House district 25 against Democratic challenger Elaine Padgett. Jones, who took office in 2017, was a major proponent of the mental health care legislation passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in April 2022. His other major issue interests have been economic development, education, and transportation.