Go west, young mensch.
Oklahoma is rolling out the welcome mat to the chosen people in the wake of antisemitism swamping the Big Apple.
“The Jewish community is welcome in Oklahoma,” declared Gov. Kevin Stitt in an interview this week with The Post.
His invitation comes two years after he landed himself in hot water with Jewish groups for saying after his successful reelection that he would claim “every square inch” of Oklahoma for Jesus.
But his tune has changed.
“When you think about the values of who we are as Oklahomans it matches with the Jewish community, family focused, very faith focused, entrepreneurial, hard working.”
The Sooner state is practically a promised land compared to the Big Apple said Stitt, 51.
“In New York some of the Jewish community are being persecuted and you’ve got the pro-Hamas and Palestinian protesters all over and we’re like, ‘man, that doesn’t happen in Oklahoma,’” Stitt said.
Most if not all New York institutions remain in the thrall of Diversity Equity and Inclusion — which critics say breeds racism and antisemitism — but Stitt proudly notes he’s done away with it in Oklahoma’s public colleges, ripping its Marxist roots.
It’s “teaching division . . . racism,” Stitt said.
Stitt touted a new Oklahoma initiative to help subsidize the cost of religious schools in the state. Families who wanted to skip public schools in favor of Jewish schools would be given credits of up to $7,500 per child. The state has also pioneered public funding for religious charter schools — an aggressive effort to break down church-state separations that has already sparked a court challenge.
There are only 4,425 Jews living in Oklahoma, accounting for just 0.1% of the state’s total population, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.
There are a clutch of synagogues in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, but no kosher restaurants. Good bagels and lox are hard to come by — for now.
Roughly 70% of Jews describe themselves as Democrats, while half identify as “liberal,” according to the Pew Research Center — something that could be a problem for Stitt and his fellow deep-red Republicans who control the state.
The welcome wagon comes after Stitt was rebuked in 2022 by the American Jewish Committee for his reelection remarks. The governor met with local Jewish leaders and the issue was resolved.
“We had a great meeting with him,” said Rachel Johnson, executive director of Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City said. “He spent a lot of time with us an heard our remarks and its as a really productive meeting.”
“There’s growing antisemitism and it is greater in New York and not necessarily as much here,” Johnson said, adding that she believed the governor’s offer is sincere.
Stitt, whose father was an Assemblies of God pastor, describes himself as a “Torah-loving Christian.” He reads the Bible — old and new testaments — yearly, and since 2023 had kept Shabbat most Fridays — a trend which has become increasingly in vogue among some evangelical Christians.
“Christians — we don’t do a good job of bringing the family together and really setting aside electronics and, and really focusing on the Sabbath. You know, one day a week, and I just think that’s something that we can learn a lot from the Jewish community,” the governor said.
Stitt made his first trip to Israel in November as a show of support for the country’s war against Hamas and said he considered the security of the Jewish state to be non-negotiable. President Biden’s support has become “a little squishy right now,” Stitt added.
“We need to support our allies; they’re the best democracy in the Middle. East. They should absolutely eradicate Hamas out of Gaza. That’s all there is to it.”
He also celebrates Passover, and when he’s in the company of Jewish friends he has been known to wear a yarmulke.
“When you come I got to make you some babka,” he offered to The Post.
