Erin Schrode may not be a household name — yet. But if the 25-year-old Jewish activist lures enough of her millennial peers to the polls for California’s Democratic primary on June 7, she just may become the youngest person in the House of Representatives — and the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.
Schrode has long been on the fast track to success. At 13, the San Anselmo teen founded Turning Green, a national nonprofit that promotes environmental education and advocacy. In 2010, following the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, Schrode launched the Schoolbag, which provides school supplies to needy students around the world.
Such inspired entrepreneurship has earned her kudos from the Jewish community, including a spot on the Forward’s list of most inspiring Jewish teens and a $36,000 prize from the Helen Diller Family Foundation’s Teen Tikkun Olam program.
Now she is facing off in the primary race against incumbent Jared Huffman in the 2nd District, which stretches from the Oregon border to the Golden Gate Bridge. Schrode spoke with JTA about her campaign, her Jewish identity and her views on Israel.
JTA: It feels like most millennials are turned off by government.
Schrode: Totally. Never in a million years — I still don’t think of myself as a politician. Public service has been my life and it will continue to be my life. … However, when I see the most talented, capable people I know, they won’t touch politics. So what do we end up with? The same broken policy, the same divided government, the same struggling country.
Given your age, how are people reacting to you on the campaign trail?
We get a lot of young people saying, “We’ve never been interested in politics.” This is the first time they’ve see someone who looks like them, talks like them, remotely understands what it’s like to be them, running for office. But I’ll tell you, the political establishment has not been so welcoming of our candidacy. I am challenging an establishment Democrat and that is ruffling feathers.
What was your Jewish upbringing like?
I think one of the earliest memories in my mind is of the tzedakah box in the center of the table at my grandparents’ house [in Philadelphia]. That idea was instilled in me at a very young age. Growing up, I went to [Congregation] Emanu-El in San Francisco. I was bat mitzvahed there. Now I see tikkun olam as being the guiding force in my life. Repairing the world is the mission, right? If more people were to embrace that, follow that, live those values, we would have a significantly better Earth.
But while I am Jewish, I never had any connection to Israel. I went for the first time on Birthright when I was 19 and had a visceral, physical response upon landing in Ben Gurion — this profound sense of homecoming, of belonging, of being with my tribe, my people. And I went back, I studied in Tel Aviv for six months. And I’ve been back a number of times since.
Your website also says you “wrote a curriculum for an eco-education center for Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian youth.”
When I was studying in Tel Aviv, I worked with Friends of the Earth Middle East. They were about to open the first education center in the Palestinian Authority to bring together Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian youth around environmental issues as a means of peace building, of using shared natural resources. I wrote — in Hebrew and broken Arabic, thankfully I had friends who were fluent in both — a curriculum centered around gardening, biodiversity, gray water and water conservation. These are unifiers that everyone in the Middle East is dealing with.
In a tweet last year you wrote: “The days of when Jewish people stayed passive in the face of genocidal enemies is over. #neveragain” So you’re very pro-Israel?
I’ll start with the “never again” idea. About eight months ago, I saw a picture of a 3-year-old refugee boy washed up dead in Turkey. And that hit me hard. Because we say “never again,” and in my mind “again” is happening on the other side of the Mediterranean. So I went to Lesbos [in Greece]. I was working with Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan refugees there on the shores.
I fundamentally believe in the right to statehood for our Jewish people. And that has to be the baseline for any peace process. I believe in peace, I believe in a two-state solution. But you have to begin with the baseline understanding that we as a Jewish people have a right to exist. And when that’s in jeopardy, it’s a scary thought.
Who’s your favorite Jewish politician?
Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, they’re the senators who represent my state. I’ve grown up with them. That is one of my earliest exposures to politics — two female Jewish women. So that’s a powerful statement. Let’s put more of us in office, right? I think the world would be a better place.