Yesterday, Congressman Jerrold Nadler delivered the following remarks on the House Floor as prepared on H. Res. 894:
M. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of any and all serious and meaningful efforts to combat antisemitism. The explosion of antisemitism—around the world, on college campuses, and online—is so shocking that it was the subject of nearly every Jewish household’s Thanksgiving meal a week ago.
The Jewish community is absolutely right to consider this terrifying situation a “five alarm fire,” as Senator Schumer so appropriately put it in his moving speech to the nation just a few days ago.
Unfortunately, this resolution does absolutely nothing to genuinely counter the scourge of antisemitism, nor does it help bring us together with the unity of purpose that this topic merits.
Rather, it is another try, in a long series of veiled efforts by the GOP, to weaponize Jewish lives for political gains. It is another partisan gotcha game that amounts to cheap value signaling, not serious action. But, if ever there was a time for real action, it is now.
Today, in the face of the largest increase in antisemitism, both violent and virulent, in this nation’s history, we have a clear choice: we can abuse this moment to try to inflict inter-party political damage, or we can rise to the occasion, and do something real and powerful to actually help the Jewish community.
Just in the last few weeks, we have seen disgusting displays of outright antisemitism.
Over the weekend, protesters in Philadelphia targeted a Jewish business. It is plainly and unequivocally antisemitic to hold Jews collectively responsible for Israel’s actions.
In my district, vile antisemitic graffiti has been scrawled on apartment buildings on the Upper East Side. And, on the Upper West Side, two Jewish women were assaulted after calling out individuals who were despicably tearing down posters of Israeli hostages.
Last week in Brooklyn, three attackers violently attacked a fifteen-year-old Jewish boy, yelling “Free Palestine” as they punched and kicked the stranger.
This antisemitic hate is happening across the country. The Oakland City Council rejected a bid to denounce Hamas, as speaker after speaker espoused dangerously misguided and factually erroneous views at a deeply troubling antisemitic public hearing.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began, the GOP has seemed gleeful at their partisan wedging at the expense of the Jewish community, and they have utterly failed to do anything serious to address this crisis.
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