Former Epstein lawyer Alan Dershowitz has invoked the Holocaust to attack Jewish Americans supporting Democrats. But his historical claims are questionable, and his own political transformation deserves scrutiny.
Alan Dershowitz, the former Harvard Law School professor who helped defend convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has compared Jewish Americans voting for Democrats to Jews who supported Adolf Hitler in 1932. The remarks, circulated from a Newsmax television appearance in October 2026, have raised questions about his use of Holocaust history, his increasingly partisan political interventions and the documented record of his relationship with Epstein.
Dershowitz invokes Hitler to condemn Jewish Democrats
In a video circulated on Reddit on 19 October 2026, Dershowitz appears during a Newsmax discussion concerning Democratic politicians including Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
The clip attributes to Dershowitz a claim that approximately 7,000 Jewish people voted for Hitler in 1932, describing them as “idiot Jews” and suggesting that most subsequently died in Nazi extermination camps.
He reportedly warned that contemporary Jewish Democratic voters would learn a “terrible, terrible lesson.”
Newsmax has published a listing for a Sunday Agenda discussion featuring Dershowitz and the politicians mentioned. Although the programme can be identified, Fish 4 News has not independently authenticated the complete exchange or its original broadcast timestamp.
The remarks are nevertheless consistent with comments Dershowitz made in July 2026, when he used a similar comparison while attacking Jewish supporters of New York politician Zohran Mamdani.
That earlier statement was reported by VIN News on 7 July.
Did 7,000 Jewish Germans really vote for Hitler?
The historical record is considerably more complicated than Dershowitz’s presentation suggests.
There was a small German Jewish nationalist movement that sympathised with aspects of the Nazi political programme.
The League of Nationalist German Jews, associated with lawyer and First World War veteran Max Naumann, advocated German nationalism and criticised Zionist and liberal Jewish organisations.
Naumann underestimated the danger posed by Nazi antisemitism. He believed Jewish Germans could demonstrate their patriotism and secure acceptance within a nationalist Germany.
Historian Timothy W. Ryback documented the movement in The Atlantic‘s 2026 investigation, The Jews Who Voted for Hitler.
But there is a crucial distinction between documenting a pro-Nazi Jewish nationalist movement and establishing that exactly 7,000 Jewish Germans voted for Hitler in 1932.
German election records did not identify individual voters by religion. The precise number cannot therefore be confirmed from electoral returns.
A historical study by Matthias Hambrock, catalogued by the National Library of Israel, estimates that the League’s membership never exceeded 3,200.
Nor is there substantiated evidence establishing that most of the alleged 7,000 voters later died in extermination camps.
The Nazis ultimately dissolved Naumann’s organisation in 1935. Naumann was arrested by the Gestapo and died of cancer in 1939. Other members suffered persecution, imprisonment and death under Nazi rule.
The genuine history is tragic. That does not make Dershowitz’s numerical claims reliable.
What do Jewish American voters actually believe?
Dershowitz’s argument also overlooks the complexity of contemporary Jewish political opinion.
A September 2026 survey by the Jewish Voters Resource Center found:
- 67% of Jewish voters intended to support Democrats in the congressional midterms.
- 26% intended to support Republicans.
- 75% disapproved of President Donald Trump’s job performance.
- 71% felt emotionally attached to Israel.
- 65% disapproved of the current Israeli government’s policies towards the West Bank and Gaza.
The survey involved 800 self-identified Jewish voters, with a reported margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
Those findings challenge the suggestion that Jewish support for Democrats necessarily reflects hostility towards Israel or a failure to recognise antisemitism.
Voters can support Israel’s existence and security while opposing the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They can also condemn antisemitism while disagreeing with Dershowitz about American politics.
Dershowitz’s Epstein connections are documented
Dershowitz is no stranger to controversy, particularly over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
He was part of the legal team representing Epstein during negotiations that produced the controversial 2007 federal non-prosecution agreement.
Under that arrangement, Epstein avoided federal prosecution in Florida and subsequently pleaded guilty to state offences, including an offence involving a minor.
The agreement later attracted widespread criticism for its treatment of victims and the protection it provided against federal prosecution.
A 2020 US Department of Justice review concluded that former federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta had exercised poor judgement in resolving the investigation through the agreement. The review also criticised the government’s failure to treat victims with appropriate forthrightness and sensitivity, although it did not find professional misconduct by department lawyers.
Dershowitz has also acknowledged receiving a massage at an Epstein residence, while maintaining that it was therapeutic, that he kept his underwear on and that the masseuse was an adult.
There is no substantiated evidence establishing the online claim that a 13-year-old girl gave him that massage.
What happened to the allegations against Dershowitz?
Virginia Giuffre previously alleged that Epstein trafficked her to Dershowitz while she was a teenager.
Dershowitz emphatically denied the allegation.
In November 2022, Giuffre withdrew her defamation lawsuit against him, acknowledging that she might have made a mistake in identifying him.
Their respective legal actions were withdrawn, with no money exchanged as part of the resolution.
Dershowitz has not been convicted of sexually abusing Giuffre.
These distinctions matter. His documented connection to Epstein and his role in the controversial legal agreement are established facts. The withdrawn allegation must not be portrayed as proven wrongdoing.
From lifelong Democrat to Trump-supporting Republican
Dershowitz’s political transformation is also relevant to understanding his latest comments.
Once a prominent Democrat and civil liberties advocate, he became an outspoken defender of Donald Trump, including serving on Trump’s defence team during his first impeachment trial.
In April 2026, Dershowitz announced that he was registering as a Republican after decades of Democratic affiliation.
His principal stated reason was his conviction that the Democratic Party had become increasingly hostile towards Israel.
In his published explanation, he argued that the Republican Party represented a better political home for those prioritising support for Israel.
He also explicitly committed himself to opposing Democratic control of Congress and the presidency.
Those statements provide a documented explanation for his political campaigning.
There is no established evidence that his Republican allegiance is motivated by a desire to prevent the release of information connected to Epstein or to conceal personal wrongdoing.
Nevertheless, his political commitments and Epstein history are legitimate subjects for public scrutiny, particularly when he is making sweeping moral judgements about other voters.
The problem with using the Holocaust as a political warning
Antisemitism is a serious contemporary threat, and political disagreements about Israel do not eliminate that danger.
Dershowitz is entitled to criticise Democratic politicians and to argue that their positions on Israel are dangerous.
But drawing a comparison between Jewish Americans exercising their democratic voting rights and a small group of German Jews who disastrously supported Hitler is an extraordinary rhetorical escalation.
The comparison becomes even more problematic when it relies on precise historical figures that cannot be verified.
The Holocaust was the result of Nazi ideology, state persecution and systematic mass murder. It was not caused by the voting choices of its Jewish victims.
The question is not whether Dershowitz has the right to make the argument. He does.
It is whether an influential lawyer, academic and political commentator should make such sweeping claims without robust historical evidence.
And whether someone whose own legal career includes defending Jeffrey Epstein should exercise greater care before delivering moral condemnations of millions of fellow Americans.
The documented facts do not establish improper political motives. They do, however, establish that Dershowitz’s statements deserve the same rigorous examination he demands of his political opponents.
Jewish Americans should not have to defend their democratic choices against comparisons with the people who helped bring Hitler to power. Nor should disputed Holocaust statistics go unchallenged merely because they serve a contemporary political argument.
Sources
- Newsmax: Sunday Agenda discussion featuring Dershowitz, El-Sayed and Omar (Rumble listing)
- VIN News: Dershowitz’s July 2026 Hitler comparison
- The Atlantic: The Jews Who Voted for Hitler
- National Library of Israel: Matthias Hambrock’s study of the League of Nationalist German Jews
- Jewish Voters Resource Center: September 2026 polling
- US Department of Justice: 2020 review of Epstein non-prosecution agreement
- Reuters: Giuffre and Dershowitz withdraw their legal claims, November 2022
- Alan Dershowitz: Why I Registered as a Republican, April 2026
Source note: Newsmax lists the Sunday Agenda discussion on Rumble, where the recording is marked as premium content. Fish 4 News has not independently authenticated the full wording or precise broadcast time of the October excerpt circulated on social media.
