[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 143 (Thursday, November 20, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6164-S6165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRAGIC SYNAGOGUE SLAYINGS

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I know I express the sentiments and 
outrage of every Member of this body about the tragic events in Israel 
this past Tuesday where those in a synagogue were brutally slain. It 
was a shock to all of us--in a synagogue, in a place of worship, people 
there praying and studying, and their lives were brutally ended.
  Let me just mention the victims. Rabbi Moshe Twersky, Rabbi Aryeh 
Kupinsky, Rabbi Kalman Levine, Avraham Goldberg, and Zidan Saif, a 
police officer.
  I particularly want to mention Rabbi Kupinsky because there is a 
connection

[[Page S6165]]

here to Maryland. Three of the victims had U.S. citizenship. Rabbi 
Kupinsky is a cousin of a distinguished constituent, Judge Karen 
Friedman of Baltimore. So this affects all of us.
  I know first and foremost our prayers are with the families and we 
express our deepest sympathy. I also express our resolve to eliminate 
such extremists and to work with the international community so there 
is no refuge anywhere in the world--anywhere in the civilized world--
for such extremists. Then I would hope we would all recognize and speak 
out for Israel's right, indeed its obligation, to defend its people 
from such brutal attacks.
  The Baltimore Sun said this morning in its editorial there could be 
no excuse, no explanation, no reason or even plausible justification 
for the horrific attack on a Jerusalem synagogue Tuesday that left four 
Rabbis and an Israeli police officer dead.
  I know we all believe in that statement. There is no justification 
for such actions. Yet Hamas--and again I would quote from the Sun 
paper--``Hamas, the militant [extremist] group that controls Gaza, 
hailed the attack in the synagogue as a blow against Israel's 
occupation. . . . ''
  This just points out the difference between Hamas and Israel. I have 
been on the floor many times talking about Israel's legitimate right to 
defend itself and Hamas's desire to put innocent people in harm's way. 
It is our responsibility to speak out. If this event would have 
happened in the United States, I think we all know what the reaction 
would have been. So our resolve goes out to the people of Israel that 
we will stand by them and that we stand by their right to defend 
themselves.
  This is in the backdrop of a rise of anti-Semitism. We have seen 
these violent attacks in Brussels and Toulouse earlier this year, a 
brutal slaying in Antwerp, Jewish schools and community centers and 
synagogues being targets of attacks, extremist parties gaining 
political support espousing anti-Semitism. We saw that in Hungary and 
other countries.
  I want to mention once again the role this Congress plays in the 
Helsinki Commission. I have the honor of being the Chair of the 
Helsinki Commission during this Congress, and the Helsinki Commission 
implements the commitments we made almost 40 years ago--the Helsinki 
Final Act; the core principles of human rights and tolerance. Our 
bedrock principle is that in order to have a stable country you have to 
have a commitment to basic human rights, and it is not just your 
obligation but every country that is part of Helsinki, including the 
United States, that has the right to challenge any other country in its 
compliance with those basic human rights. We have made progress.
  Ten years ago I was privileged to be part of the U.S. delegation in 
the Berlin conference. The Berlin conference was established to deal 
with the rise of anti-Semitism, and an action agenda came out of that 
conference 10 years ago. It put responsibility on us--political 
leaders--to speak out against anti-Semitic activities in our own 
country or anywhere in the world. It set up an action plan to deal with 
educating, and particularly dealing with Holocaust education, to deal 
with the Holocaust deniers. It dealt with police training because we 
understand a lot of criminal activities are hate crimes and the police 
need to be able to identify when hate crimes are taking place in their 
own community.
  We decided to share best practices by providing technical help to 
countries to do better, and we established a special representative to 
deal with anti-Semitism. Rabbi Baker is currently that special 
representative. But we went further than that, we expanded it to all 
forms of intolerance--not just anti-Semitism but xenophobia, anti-
Muslim activities--because we recognized that the same people who are 
extremists and who deny individuals because of their anti-Semitic acts 
would do the same against Muslims, would do the same against any people 
because of their race or ethnic background.
  I was very pleased to see commemorated the 10th anniversary of the 
Berlin conference. There was a reconvening in Berlin--Berlin plus 10. 
Ambassador Powers, our Ambassador to the United Nations, led the U.S. 
delegation. She did a great job. I want to acknowledge that Wade 
Henderson, representing the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human 
Rights, also participated because there is unity here. It is not just 
the anti-Semitic activities, it is the intolerance we have seen grow 
too much in our world community today.
  The concluding document said we need to increase our political and 
financial support for civil societies, and I agree with that. 
Transparency and supporting the NGOs, supporting civil societies, is 
critically important.
  The bottom line is we must work together to root out all forms of 
anti-Semitism and all forms of intolerance. Let us work together to 
make all our communities safer by embracing diversity and recognizing 
basic human rights.
  With that, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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