[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 109 (Thursday, June 28, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E945-E947]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HONORING LUKE COHEN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 28, 2018

  Ms. DeLauro. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. Luke Cohen on the 
occasion of his Bar Mitzvah, and for his dedication to public service. 
Recent events in our nation have highlighted the social and political 
divide that we all must work to bridge. It is with great pride that I 
include in the Record the powerful words of Mr. Cohen, delivered on the 
day of his Bar Mitzvah.
  Mr. Speaker, while this speech encourages us all to fight for 
equality and protection under the law, it also reminds us that we must 
work to improve our society for our children and grandchildren.

[[Page E946]]

  


                           Bar Mitzvah Speech

                            (By Luke Cohen)

       Hello everyone, and thanks for coming. For my Bar Mitzvah, 
     I decided to explore the consequences of hate and the 
     importance of tolerance. I found this topic interesting 
     because, after the tragedy at the rally in Charlottesville 
     last August, I thought about all the people who have been 
     killed because they were black or immigrants or just because 
     they were different from someone else.
       I believe that acceptance and tolerance are really needed 
     in our society. Just because someone is different from you 
     does not mean its ok to make fun of them or be mean or 
     hateful towards them and yet it still happens everyday, all 
     around the world.
       This year I learned about the Anti-Defamation League or 
     ``ADL.'' ADL is a non-profit organization whose mission is 
     ``To stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure 
     justice and fair treatment to all. . .'' Their mission is 
     pretty straight forward, but it is hard to achieve. I like 
     that ADL is trying to stop hatred and make sure all people 
     get treated fairly because it is an important goal. Working 
     towards that goal can have a good impact in the world. 
     Although ADL was founded to combat anti-Semitism and protect 
     Jewish people, it has grown to help everyone.
       On the ADL's website there is a video called the Imagine 
     video, which imagines a world without racism, homophobia or 
     anti-semitism, a world in which many terrible hate crimes 
     didn't happen. So I watched the video and it really inspired 
     me. This video was made in 2013 and shows people who were 
     killed by hate crimes and what they could have accomplished.
       Let's watch it together now. . .https://www.adl.org/
imagine-a-world-without-hate


                           Jewish Connection

       I hope you found this video as inspiring as I did. I found 
     this video really sad as well, because of how in less than 2 
     seconds, someone can kill a person and crush out all of their 
     potential. I also found this video inspiring because if we 
     stop hate crimes like these, so many people can achieve their 
     potential and greatly help the world. Just for a second, 
     think of someone who you know about who was killed and think 
     of what they could have accomplished if they hadn't been 
     murdered.
       For example, I think about what more Martin Luther King Jr. 
     could have done. I think he could have worked to improve pay 
     for poor, minority workers and continued being a voice for 
     positive change in America.
       Since I decided to explore hate crimes, I wanted to see 
     what Judaism says about hatred and tolerance. For example, 
     the Book of Leviticus, which is one of the books of the Old 
     Testament, says, ``You shall not take vengeance or bear a 
     grudge against your countrymen. Love your fellow as 
     yourself.'' This means that you should not hold anger or take 
     revenge on people around you, and I agree with that. In my 
     view, each person deserves fair treatment and nothing good 
     happens if people take revenge or hate out on other people. 
     But I don't think we should act a certain way simply because 
     of what is in the bible or torah. We should act that way 
     because we actually care about people and know that hatred is 
     destructive and hurtful.
       Another passage is from a Midrash or ancient commentary on 
     the Bible that links the last quote to hatred and revenge. 
     Rabbi Akiva says, ``Thus, one should not say, 'since I am 
     scorned, I should scorn my fellow as well; since I have been 
     cursed, I will curse my fellow as well.' '' These quotes mean 
     that you should take revenge on people because your anger or 
     hatred for other people.
       As humanists we believe that hatred and revenge are not ok. 
     Our reason for thinking that we should eliminate hatred and 
     revenge is that people shouldn't have to suffer and get hurt 
     because of other people's hatred. We are responsible for our 
     own actions. I will explain later, that I started the No 
     Place For Hate club at school-to raise awareness of these 
     issues and discuss the impacts they can have.
       Finally, in the book of Yoma, it says, ``However, 
     considering that the people during the Second Temple period 
     were engaged in Torah study, observance of mitzvoth, and acts 
     of kindness, and that they did not perform the sinful acts 
     that were performed in the First Temple, why was the Second 
     Temple destroyed? It was destroyed due to the fact that there 
     was wanton hatred during that period.'' Yoma goes on to say 
     that the sin of wanton hatred is equivalent to the worst 
     transgressions including bloodshed. I think this means that 
     hatred destroys things, lives, and potential and it makes the 
     world worse. So God thought that the good acts did not make 
     up for hatred, which is just as bad as physically hurting 
     people.
       And, as we see with hate crimes, hate can have serious 
     consequences even in a world of kindness and mitzvoth. Also, 
     Even as humanists we can learn a lot from the Bible's 
     teachings. In thinking about the imagine video and the 
     concepts of hatred and hate crimes, I decided to research 
     three victims of hate crimes from the video: Yitzhak Rabin, 
     an important Jewish figure, Matthew Shepard, who was killed 
     for being gay, and James Byrd, who was killed for being 
     black.
       My dad said that I can't talk about hate crimes at a Bar 
     Mitzvah without mentioning the Holocaust, which was a huge 
     hate crime against the Jews. More than 6 million Jews were 
     killed by the hatred of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. The Nazis 
     killed lots of other people too. But today I will talk about 
     individual hate crimes. Like the three people I chose.


                             Yitzhak Rabin

       First, I will focus on Yitzhak Rabin. He was a famous Prime 
     Minister of Israel who was killed because of a hate crime. In 
     the late 1940's, he fought in the arab-Israeli war, which was 
     a war between Israel and five other Arab nations, over the 
     Israeli territory. In 1967, he served as chief of staff of 
     the Israeli military during the 6-day war against Egypt, 
     Jordan and Syria.
       In 1973, Rabin was appointed minister of labor, and served 
     3 years as prime minister before he was forced to resign. 
     But, in 1992, he regained his position of Prime minister and 
     focused his attention on the Arab-Israeli Peace Process, 
     which is a complicated issue with many different opinions.


                              Oslo Accords

       I think there is conflict because the land given to create 
     the state of Israel in the 1940's is coveted Jewish land and 
     the hold land for the other two monotheistic religions as 
     well, which are Islam and Christianity. One part of the peace 
     process was called the Oslo accords. The Oslo accords were 
     meant to make both Israel and Palestine recognize each other 
     as legitimate countries, and to make peace by reaching 
     agreement on disputed lands.
       Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Leader 
     shook hands on the first Oslo agreement on the White House 
     Law in 1993. Later, Arafat, Rabin, and Israeli President 
     Shimon Peres got the Novel Peace prize in 1994 for these 
     efforts. Then they signed a second agreement--Oslo 2--on 
     September 28, 1995.
       Some of the Israeli people were angry because they thought 
     the Palestinians were trying to get the land and not make 
     peace. Any many Palestinians believed that Israel mistreated 
     them and came in and stole most of their land. Many people 
     hated each other on both sides. Shortly after Oslo 2 was 
     signed, on November 4, 1995, Rabin was killed by Yigal Amir. 
     Amir was an Israeli Law student and orthodox jewish 
     extremist. He believed that Yitzhak Rabin was giving the 
     Palestinians too much kindness with the peace process and 
     shouldn't allow the Palestinians any control over the land. 
     Yitzhak Rabin's assassination was a hate crime because was 
     killed due to Amir's hate for the Palestinians and what Rabin 
     was trying to accomplish. And, ironically, Rabin was killed 
     at a peace rally. Yitzhak Rabin's death was especially tragic 
     for many reasons. He was an amazing leader and was a key 
     force behind the peace agreements, which started to work 
     before his death. Unfortunately, without Rabin, the peace 
     agreements collapsed. Five years later, there were riots, 
     attacks and sucide bombings, which ended the peace process. 
     There has been little real progress since. Imagine what might 
     have happened if he wasn't killed.


                    Matthew Shepard/James Byrd, Jr.

       Then I researched Matthew Shepard who had a very different 
     story. He was born in 1976 in Casper, Wyoming and he was a 
     pretty normal kid, who did all the normal kid stuff. He had 
     one difference though. He was gay, which was much less 
     tolerated in the past than it is today.
       He had a normal life though, or at least until an awful 
     thing happened on October 7, 1998. On that day, he met 2 
     guys, Russell Henderson and Aaron Mckinney, whom Shepard 
     believed were also gay, at a bar in Chicago. When he got in 
     their pickup truck to leave the bar with these ``Gay Men,'' 
     they kidnapped him. After beating him severely, they tied him 
     to a fence in the freezing cold. He was not found for 18 
     hours and even though he was rushed to a nearby hospital he 
     died 5 days later.
       Both Russel Henderson and Aaron McKinney were arrested 
     after the police found Shepard's belongings in Mckinney's 
     van. They were later convicted for the murder of Shepard and 
     each received a life term in prison. They had no motive for 
     the crime other than that they hated gay people and Shepard 
     was gay. Unlike Yitzhak Rabin, who had the opportunity to do 
     great things before he died, Matthew Shepard was only 21 when 
     he was killed. Imagine what he could have accomplished if he 
     lived a full life.
       James Byrd Jr. was also in the imagine video and was killed 
     in a terrible hate crime, but this was because he was black. 
     It is hard to talk about hate crimes, especially in America, 
     without talking about hate crimes against black people. This 
     is an awful story. On June 7, 1998, James Byrd was 31 years 
     old. He was walking home in Jasper, Texas, where he lived 
     with his wife and three children. Three white men asked him 
     if he needed a ride and then brutally murdered him. They 
     threw his body in front of an African-American cemetery and 
     just drove away. This was another terrible event and it 
     saddens me just to think about it. Imagine what good he could 
     have done is he had not been murdered.
       The murders of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd were two of 
     the worst hate crimes I've ever heard of. Both men were 
     killed because of other people's hatred and prejudice. When 
     Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. were killed, there was no 
     federal law to punish these kinds of crimes. Their murders 
     made people press for a change in the law. Years later, 
     President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. 
     Hate Crime Prevention Act. This was to punish people who 
     commit terrible hate crimes like these and hopefully prevent 
     some of them from happening in the future.

[[Page E947]]

       I spoke with Fara Gold, a Civil Rights prosecutor at the 
     Department of Justice, who prosecuted the first case under 
     the Shepard/Byrd Act. In another sad hate crime, three white 
     men branded swastikas on a Native American boy who 
     accidentally wandered off the Indian Reservation. She told me 
     that the men wouldn't have served their full jail time 
     without this new law.


                     The ``No Place for Hate'' Club

       In thinking about how to take action in my community, I 
     created a club called ``No Place for Hate'' at my school. The 
     club has about 17 members. It's a club that encourages 
     kindness and tries to create a tolerant, inclusive school 
     environment. On April 25, ADL recognized the efforts of our 
     club and name Alice Deal Middle school as an official ``No 
     Place for Hate'' School. A school qualifies by doing an 
     activity that promotes a healthy school climate and having 
     most people in the school sign a pledge saying that they will 
     try to make the school a good place for everyone there.
       Our first activity was a ``Yellow Brick Road'' to peace. 
     One morning, every class in the school had a group discussion 
     about hate and tolerance. Then, everyone around the school 
     decorated a ``brick,'' which was a half sheet of paper, that 
     said ``We can make. Deal an accepting community by. . .'' and 
     people had to express their ideas. We then put the completed 
     sheets up in the gallery, which is a place that everyone 
     walks through and can see everyday.
       People also signed a Resolution of Respect. They agreed to 
     six principles to combat prejudice and hate and promote 
     respect and dignity. Such as, I WILL SPEAK OUT AGAINST 
     prejudice and discrimination.
       These principles are what drive the club at Alice Deal 
     Middle School and other NPFH schools. I think these are great 
     principles that could be used in everyday life to make the 
     world a better place. Now, I would like to invite my fellow 
     members of our Club to stand up and be recognized.
       I will carry the club through the end of this year and into 
     next year with the support of the club members. We hope to 
     make the NPFH club one that carries through the Deal 
     community for years to come.
       This experience has taught me that, even though we've come 
     a long way, hate continues to be a common problem in our 
     communities. Through efforts like NPFH, we can try to stop 
     some of those acts from happening. All the schools at the 
     NPFH ceremony had done activities, which showed me that young 
     people can make a difference. For example, there was a high 
     school senior who was Sikh, which is a religion. After a hate 
     crime at a sikh (seek) temple, she went out in her community 
     to educate all kids in her county about her religion to 
     prevent ignorance and hatred. Many of the other schools did 
     very impressive things too.
       I hope that my presentation encourages everyone to open 
     their hearts and think about whether we truly accept people 
     with differences. If you would like to donate to the No Place 
     for Hate program, I would be happy to give you the 
     information about how you can do that. Before I close, I 
     would like to thank a few people who helped me. First, I 
     would like to thank Rabbi Jeremy for helping me find the 
     quotes from the Jewish texts and Norman hall for teaching our 
     class this year. Next, I would like to thank Ms. Newman and 
     Seth Gordon-Lipkin for their help with the club. I would also 
     like to thank all the people who came out today to support 
     me. And most of all I would like to thank my family, 
     especially my parents, for their help and supportiveness and 
     for making today possible. Finally I would like to thank 
     Rigby and Juliet for their support and friendship throughout 
     this whole project and their parents for their help too. In 
     closing, this experience has shown me that we can all make a 
     difference and take a stand against intolerance. As Albus 
     Dumbledore said in Book 4 of Harry Potter, ``Difference of 
     habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are 
     identical and our hearts are open.''
       Thank you.

                          ____________________