Dario David Hunter (born April 21, 1983), also known as Yisroel Hunter, is an American

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

, lawyer and politician. He is the first

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

-born man to be ordained as a rabbi. A former member of the

Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County, Ohio, Mahoning County. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of ...

Board of Education, Hunter sought the 2020

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

presidential nomination, ultimately coming in second. He ran as the presidential nominee of the

Oregon Progressive Party The Oregon Progressive Party is a political party in the U.S. state of Oregon. Originally called the Oregon Peace Party, it was accepted as the sixth minor statewide political party in Oregon on August 22, 2008. This allowed the party to nomin ...

and elsewhere under the party label of Progressive Party in the

2020 United States presidential election The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and the junior U.S. senator from California Kamala Ha ...

Background

Hunter is openly

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

and was raised by his

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian Muslim father and

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

mother in

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

and

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark. A former environmental attorney in Israel, congregational rabbi in

and campus rabbi at the

College of Wooster The College of Wooster is a private liberal arts college in Wooster, Ohio. Founded in 1866 by the Presbyterian Church as the University of Wooster, it has been officially non-sectarian since 1969 when ownership ties with the Presbyterian Church ...

, he currently lives in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Rabbinic career

Hunter converted to Judaism, first through the

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill#The Yorkshire Associati ...

movement and then through an

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

process. When he was an Orthodox Jew, Hunter described himself as a "socially liberal conservative" and noted that he had previously engaged in "pro-Israel political activism." He was ordained as a rabbi in 2012 by the

Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute Steven Blane is an American rabbi, cantor and recording singer-songwriter. Rabbi Blane, a Universalist rabbi and cantor, conducts his teaching and pastoral work online. He is the founder and dean of the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute, an on ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. As a rabbi, he later described himself as "very liberal and open minded." A member of

Jewish Voice for Peace Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP; קול יהודי לשלום ''Kol Yehudi la-Shalom'') is a left-wing Jewish activist organization in the United States that supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. Founding, staff ...

, a group that supports

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. Its objective is to pressure Israel to meet what the BDS movement describes as Israel's obligations ...

(BDS) against Israel, Hunter was fired from a position as a part-time rabbi at Ohev Tzedek-Shaarei Torah synagogue after he announced his run for the Green Party presidential nomination and critical comments he made about

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

were published by Cleveland.com. Addressing a Green Party presidential debate about his own change over time on the issue of Israel, Hunter attributed it to "realizing that you're wrong and then doing better and committing to do better as a human being...." He stated that though he felt "blacklisted" from the rabbinic profession, he would "continue to support the cause of Palestinians and human rights causes all across this world, even at a personal cost..."

Political career

Youngstown politics

Hunter was a

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

candidate for Youngstown City Council in the 2015 primary election, where he placed third, garnering 2.9% of the vote. In the 2015 general election, he won a seat on the Youngstown Board of Education, receiving 5.0% of the vote as a write-in candidate. In May 2018, he joined the Green Party, becoming the only Green elected officeholder in Ohio. Hunter has been noted in the media for his outspoken stances on a number of school board issues, including what he sees as the Youngstown Board of Education's responsibility for low scores on state report cards,

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...

violations,

nepotism Nepotism is an advantage, privilege, or position that is granted to relatives and friends in an occupation or field. These fields may include but are not limited to, business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, fitness, religion, an ...

, and

creationism Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 't ...

in the curriculum. Hunter ran for re-election to the Youngstown Board of Education in 2019. He was not re-elected, placing less than one percent (0.53%) behind the fourth elected candidate.

2020 presidential campaign

Dario Hunter Campaigning in Arlington VA 2019

Exploratory committee launch

On January 21, 2019, Hunter officially announced the formation of an exploratory committee to prepare for a potential run in the 2020 Green Party presidential primaries. Hunter stated that America's divisions and inequalities demanded "a real national conversation about how to change the direction of this country."

Announcement of candidacy

On February 18, 2019, Hunter officially announced his candidacy for the Green Party nomination during an event held in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

'' referred to Hunter as "as diverse as candidates come..." Hunter stated to that publication, "If we want to cut through the lack of attention given o Greens we need someone who has a loud and clear voice and a tough skin." "It takes a tough skin to be an openly gay black son-of-an immigrant Jewish rabbi."

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

.com highlighted his platform's inclusion of single-payer healthcare for all and "plans to transition the United States to renewable energy entirely."

Firing from synagogue over position on Israel

Ohev Tzedek-Shaarei Torah, the

Boardman, Ohio Boardman Township is one of the fourteen townships of Mahoning County, Ohio, United States. The population was 40,213 at the 2020 census. A suburb directly south of Youngstown, it is the second largest municipality in the Youngstown–Warren ...

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

where Hunter served as rabbi, fired him after his comments on

were published in a Cleveland.com article. Hunter stated to Cleveland.com that he did "not believe the United States should be providing any form of aid to Israel or any human-rights abusers" and referred to Israel's treatment of

Palestinians Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

as "horribly atrocious". The synagogue originally attributed the dismissal to a concern that his presidential campaign would take up too much time for him to perform his duties as a rabbi. They later cited the content of Hunter's statements about Israel as a reason. Hunter has made fighting anti-BDS laws a part of his campaign, telling German paper Jüdische Allgemeine, "We will fight the attempt to curtail our rights to freedom of expression through laws that ban the boycott of Israel and the criticism of its human rights violations." Hunter is a signatory to

Boycott from Within BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within, commonly known as Boycott from Within, is an association of Jewish and Arab Israelis who support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Founded in 2008, it describes itself ...

, an association of Jewish and Arab Israelis who support the BDS movement.

Bruce Zoldan's comments

Bruce Zoldan, CEO of Phantom Fireworks, major Trump donor and board member of Ohev Tzedek-Shaarei Torah, stated in an email to the synagogue's board, "I will finance him unterif he promises to open and manage a

gay bar A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities. Gay bars once served as ...

for former

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

with

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

beliefs in

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ar, رام الله, , God's Height) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank that serves as the ''de facto'' administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusale ...

." Hunter, an openly gay convert to Judaism from Islam, told ''

The Vindicator ''The Vindicator'' is a daily newspaper serving Youngstown, Ohio, United States and the Mahoning County region as well as southern Trumbull County and northern Columbiana County. ''The Vindicator'' was established in 1869. As of September 1, 2 ...

'' that he was "shocked and saddened" by Zoldan's statement and called it "

homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...

and anti-Muslim."

Campaign tour

Speaking to press in

Carbondale, Illinois Carbondale is a city in Jackson and Williamson Counties, Illinois, United States, within the Southern Illinois region informally known as "Little Egypt". The city developed from 1853 because of the stimulation of railroad construction into the ...

in June 2019, Hunter criticized what he saw as the use of children as "political pawns" in addressing immigration issues at the border. He called for better access to healthcare, a

Bill of Rights A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pri ...

for people of color, and vowed to end privatization in school districts. In

Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estimat ...

in August 2019, Hunter outlined an expanded

Green New Deal Green New Deal (GND) proposals call for public policy to address climate change along with achieving other social aims like job creation and reducing economic inequality. The name refers back to the New Deal, a set of social and economic refo ...

– called the Green Path Forward – including an effort to improve diplomatic relationships with other countries, such as rivals like China and Iran, end war, stop the outsourcing of pollution and deal with environmental crises other than carbon emissions such as

plastic pollution Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are catego ...

. At a presidential debate at

Ball State University Ball State University (Ball State, State or BSU) is a public university, public research university in Muncie, Indiana. It has two satellite facilities in Fishers, Indiana, Fishers and Indianapolis. On July 25, 1917, the Ball brothers, indust ...

, Hunter addressed systemic racism in healthcare stating, "We need to invest in making sure that we have a better healthcare infrastructure including in underserved minority communities.... We need more measurable, assessable standards for accountability to deal with the inequality in care and we need consequences." In January 2020, at a Green presidential candidate forum in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

, Hunter stated "We need to slash the war budget... need to invest instead in peace. We need to invest in a

Department of Peace The Department of Peace is a proposed cabinet-level department of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States. History The peace movement in the United States has a proposed legislative history that dates to the first year ...

for active peace building across the globe." Hunter stated that this policy goal would "lay the groundwork for how we will be instrumental as a nation in helping to save this planet – shoulder to shoulder with other nations...."

Visit to Israel

Hunter visited

Haifa, Israel Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

, the day before April Israeli elections to meet with Reem Hazzan, the campaign manager for the joint campaign of

Hadash Hadash ( he, חד״ש, lit=New), an acronym for ''HaHazit HaDemokratit LeShalom uLeShivion'' ( he, הַחֲזִית הַדֶּמוֹקְרָטִית לְשָׁלוֹם וּלְשִׁוְיוֹן, lit=The Democratic Front for Peace and Equalit ...

and

Ta'al Ta'al ( he, תַּעַ״ל, an acronym for he, תְּנוּעָה עֲרָבִית לְהִתְחַדְּשׁוּת, label=none, lit=Arab Movement for Renewal, ar, الحركة العربية للتغيير) is an Israeli Arab political party ...

. His visit generated press attention in

, with particular emphasis given to Hunter's advocacy for

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

rights and his reference to the area as 'Israel-Palestine,' a term also used in the Green Party's official platform.

General election run

After Howie Hawkins was nominated at the 2020 Green Party Nominating Convention, Hunter announced via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that he would continue to pursue the presidency as an independent candidate, citing alleged irregularities and undemocratic processes during the Green Party presidential primary. In August, he announced he would be on the presidential ballot in the state of Colorado under the party label Progressive Party. He also named

Penobscot nation The Penobscot (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewi'') are an Indigenous people in North America from the Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a federally recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic ...

activist Dawn Neptune Adams as his running-mate. On August 25, 2020, Hunter won the nomination of the Oregon Progressive Party.

Activism

Legal actions

In 2017, Hunter filed a lawsuit against the Youngstown City School District in the Ohio Supreme Court for failing to provide public records. His request focused on a company contracted to hire principals for the district. The district settled with Hunter, providing the records and paying him costs. Hunter planned to donate the $100 awarded for court fees to the Boys and Girls Club. In 2018, Hunter sued the Ohio Department of Education in the Ohio Supreme Court for failing to provide public records on an investigation into Youngstown's CEO for alleged inappropriate conduct.http://supremecourt.ohio.gov/pdf_viewer/pdf_viewer.aspx?pdf=853607.pdf The Department of Education settled with Hunter, providing the records and paying towards his costs.

Electoral history

References

External links

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