(JTA) – Many people have gaps in their understanding of what antisemitism is and how it works, according to Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has been accused of fomenting anti-semitism.  Omar, D-Minn., offered her perspective on the antisemitism experience in an interview published Sunday, Sept 19, in The New York Times.

“In the process of writing a few of the opeds I’ve written on the rise of anti-Semitism in comparison to the rise of Islamophobia, it has been interesting to see the ways in which so many people create a lens through which they see it,” she said. “It is important, when you are not of that community, to understand the different ways that bigotry shows up.”

Omar has been accused of writing several tweets echoing antisemitic stereotypes about Jews, money and power, and In July she came under fire for a campaign mailer that named three donors, all Jewish, to her Democratic primary opponent.

She told The Times Magazine that “there are a lot of preconceived notions about what thoughts and ideologies I have that have no basis in reality” based on her religion, skin color or gender.

Main Photo: Rep. Ilhan Omar in Minneapolis, Aug. 11, 2020. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)