(RNS) — U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, will be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Many Jews applaud.

Not so fast.

You may remember that Stefanik gained his Jewish street credibility through his pointed questioning of college presidents at a press conference. House hearing on campus anti-Semitism.

She asked University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill whether calls for genocide against Jews would constitute harassment on Penn’s campus, according to the university’s code of conduct. The congresswoman repeated the question to Harvard President Claudine Gay (Stefanik is a Harvard alumna herself) and MIT President Sally Kornbluth. All three presidents said the answer to Stefanik’s question would depend on “context.”

OK, so far so good.

But Stefanik supported former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. On January 7, 2024, the “Meet the press”, she called out those who were arrested for their actions at the Capitol in 2021 “Jan. 6 hostages.

She claimed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was responsible for the attack on the Capitol. Stefanik, who describes herself as “an ultra-MAGA warrior,” embodies some of the darker elements of contemporary Republican ideology. She appeared on Steve Bannon’s podcast. She voted to keep pathological imposter George Santos in Congress, tweeting at X that he would “take on New York’s liberal elites and bring a new generation of Republican leaders to New York…”

Which begs the question: What is behind the harsh questions Stefanik asked these university presidents?

These are these “New York elites” – and surely well beyond New York.

Let’s talk about the war on elitism, which, in some ways, we haven’t fully unpacked yet. It’s partly responsible for Trump’s victory last week (or, perhaps more accurately, Kamala Harris’s defeat).

It is absolutely clear to me that October 7, 2023 has provoked a major culture war within American society. American Jews have seen every aspect of elite culture used against Israel and against them: from school curricula, from the earliest years, that emphasize the demonization of Israel; to the publishing industry (what I called the literary intifada); to the authors’ boycott of Israel; to bookstores that welcome pro-Israeli and Zionist authors.

This is all bad. I and many others have decried it.

Moreover, when it comes to elite universities, American Jews wonder aloud: Is an Ivy League education worth the potential danger to my children and their Jewish identity?

That’s a good question. And, as all my regular readers know, I am horrified – even nauseated – by the nihilism that has emerged from American academia.

But Jews should be very careful before joining the attack on “elites” and “elitism.” As historian Richard Hofstadter has pointed out, there has been a long tradition of anti-intellectualism in American life for 60 years. It’s not pretty and it’s not hospitable to Jews, especially when the intellectual class is so heavily Jewish.

Stefanik’s championing of a Jewish cause was just one weapon in his arsenal in a larger war that has major implications for America’s future.

Come to think of it: there’s every reason to believe that Stefanik doesn’t like Jews that much. Because his political views are just a click away from very dangerous conspiracy theories.

To quote NBC News:

Stefanik…accused Democrats of conspiracy with pedophiles providing baby formula to immigrants and promoting lax border policies in order to provoke a “permanent electoral insurrection.”

Stefanik combined two conspiracy theories into one.

First, the QAnon conspiracy theory – the bizarre hallucination that a secret cabal (itself a term with anti-Semitic roots, coming from Kabbalah, the secret mystical doctrine of the Jews) of pedophiles controls America.

Second, the Great Replacement Theory – a far-right white nationalist conspiracy theory that got its start in Europe. He claims there is a nefarious plot to replace white Europeans with Muslims in order to conquer Europe. In the United States, “Muslims” became “non-white immigrants” and the replacement agents were Jews.

To quote a Study by the American Jewish Committee:

Arthur Jipson, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Dayton, said anti-Semitism is the most persistent component of the white supremacist worldview. …Today’s white supremacist propaganda echoes 12th-century condemnations of Jews as the accusation of blood libelthe widespread responsibility of Jews for unrelated murders and other horrific crimes. But in some white nationalist circles, this condemnation is not as blatant. While white supremacists condemn “ZOG” or “Zionist-occupied government,” white nationalists often use more coded language like “an international conspiracy to undermine white civilization.”

This conspiracy theory leads to violence. The Tree of Life Massacre in Pittsburgh; the march in Charlottesville, Virginia, with its cries: “The Jews will not replace us!” » ; the mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, where 51 people were murdered; the Walmart in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people died; and the supermarket in Buffalo, New York, where 10 people died – all of these massacres trace back to elements of this conspiracy theory.

How relevant will his conspiracy theories be at the United Nations? That remains to be seen. My opinion: very little.

But it’s mostly for my Jewish friends. Before you indulge in this choice, just know the whole story.