Elections In February 2022, Panitch announced her campaign for the Georgia House of Representatives
District 51 seat after
Mike Wilensky, the only Jewish member of the
Georgia General Assembly, announced that he would not seek re-election. The District 51 seat was open after being vacated by
Josh McLaurin, who was running for the
Georgia State Senate. After winning the Democratic primary, Panitch defeated Republican nominee Peter Korman in the November general election. Both Panitch and Korman are Jewish, ensuring that the 157th Georgia General Assembly would have at least one Jewish member. Panitch won reelection to a second term in the Georgia General Assembly in the
2024 Georgia House of Representatives election. For the
158th Georgia General Assembly, she will remain the sole Jewish state legislator.
Tenure In January 2023, Panitch invited Miriam Udel, a
Yiddish professor at
Emory University, to become the first female Orthodox rabbi to give the opening prayer at the Georgia House of Representatives, which she did on February 1, also making her the first female Orthodox rabbi to give an opening prayer at any state legislature. She has said that she has been subject to antisemitism from the far-left and far-right. After the
Goyim Defense League distributed antisemitic fliers in February 2023 in suburban Atlanta, including at Panitch's home, she sponsored a bill that would adopt the
IHRA definition of antisemitism as Georgia law. In January 2024, Georgia governor
Brian Kemp signed the bill into law, making Georgia the 11th state in the United States to adopt that definition of antisemitism. Before the signing ceremony, Panitch was sent an antisemitic postcard containing antisemitic slurs and a reference to "gassing the Jews." She has argued against claims that the bill criminalizes the
criticism of Israel.
Zionist activism Panitch buys trees in
Israel through the
Jewish National Fund in honor of
anti-Zionist groups, such as after members of
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) did not show up to a planned meeting in 2023. She also donated a tree in honor of the
Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at the University of Georgia. She has said that holding up JVP and
IfNotNow as representatives of the Jewish community is a form of
tokenization. Panitch was a part of the delegation of American lawmakers to the
50 States One Israel conference held in Israel in September 2025. Panitch said that she "couldn't be prouder to be a Jew and a
Zionist; to me, they are the same". In 2025, Panitch supported the potential candidacy of Brian Kemp in the
2026 U.S. Senate election in Georgia over fellow Jewish Democrat
Jon Ossoff due to his perceived betrayal in supporting Israel and said, "Kemp has done things that I am fighting against every day, but it is a different level of betrayal that Ossoff has committed." Panitch said that that
pro-Palestinian advocacy at the
Democratic National Convention by fellow state representative
Ruwa Romman, who is
Palestinian, "helped
Donald Trump win." ==Personal life==