WASHINGTON (JTA) – Two top Jewish figures in the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, are backing the candidacy of a Muslim, Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, for the party chair. Sen. Schumer of New York, in line to be the next party leader in the Senate, backs Ellison’s candidacy, according to anonymously sourced reports Friday, Nov. 11 in Politico and by NBC. Sen. Sanders of Vermont also backs Ellison, according to The Hill, which quoted Minnesota Public Radio.

Ellison, who has indicated he would be interested in the post but who has yet to declare, has been a sharp critic of Israel, but has also reached out to pro-Israel groups.

He has organized letters urging pressure on Israel, and was an advocate of drawing lessons from the U.N. Goldstone report after the 2009 Gaza War – a report Israel dismissed as irredeemably flawed and biased. Visiting Gaza after the 2009 war with another Congress member, Ellison continued on his own to Israel so he could survey the cost of Palestinian attacks on Israelis. He has pressed Hamas, the terrorist group controlling Gaza, to release the bodies of slain Israeli soldiers, at the behest of their families. He has a close working relationship with the Jewish community in Minneapolis.

Sanders named Ellison to the platform drafting committee this summer after the Vermont senator lost the party nomination to Hillary Clinton. Ellison and two other Sanders appointees argued forcefully for language that would criticize Israel for its West Bank occupation; they were rebuffed.

Ellison, the first Muslim ever elected to Congress, would replace Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who resigned this summer under pressure after stolen DNC emails were published revealing the animus at top party levels against Sanders’ candidacy. She had been the top Jewish official in the party until then. Wasserman Schultz was temporarily replaced by Donna Brazile, a longtime party activist.