[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 192 (Monday, December 12, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S7090]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Anti-Semitism

  Madam President, finally, on anti-Semitism, earlier today I had the 
honor of addressing a gathering organized by the Orthodox Union in New 
York, to address the dangers--serious dangers--of rising anti-Semitism. 
Over the past two months, American Jews have watched in horror as 
numerous public figures, from entertainers all the way to former 
President Trump, have fanned the flames of anti-Semitism through their 
words and conduct.
  It is a sad reminder that after decades of hard-won progress, 
unfortunately, sadly, anti-Semitism is on a resurgence here in America. 
We see anti-Semitism not only through slurs and graffiti and threats, 
all of which are abhorrent and unacceptable, but also physical violence 
against our Jewish brothers and sisters, sometimes tragically deadly--
Poway, Jersey City, Monsey, Pittsburgh. And not to mention the weekly 
attacks against synagogues and schools and Jewish communities that 
never reach the spotlight. All American Jews know and remember these 
names. They are seared in our memories. And unless we can come together 
as a community and as a country to address this crisis, I fear we will 
soon have to add more names to the list.

  Of course, I have personal experience about this kind of anti-
Semitism in terms of my family. My great-grandparents lived in a place 
in western Ukraine. They had 18 children, believing devoutly in the 
Bible and God's first command to man, which was ``be fruitful and 
multiply.''
  My grandfather was one of three of those 18 who came to America, but 
the other 15 stayed there. And when the Nazis came into western 
Ukraine, they told my great-grandmother--her husband had been a well-
known Jewish scholar and had passed away--and they told my great-
grandmother to gather her larger family on the porch. Thirty-five 
people gathered on the porch from ages 85 to 4 months. The Nazis said: 
Come with us. She was a tough lady, she said: We are not moving. And 
they machine-gunned every one of them down.
  These are the stakes. When the former President of the United States 
welcomes, at his own dinner table, several vicious anti-Semites, and 
then rather than apologize, he lectures American Jewish leaders for 
insufficient loyalty, it is incumbent on all of us to speak out.
  I am proud of many Jewish organizations that did speak out, some of 
them former strong allies of the former President. It has made a big 
difference.
  Now, of course, America's roots of democracy are far deeper than 
those that existed in Europe. But the lesson of history is we must 
speak out against bigotry of all types or it grows. Its evil seed 
grows.
  I shudder--I shudder--to think of what it would mean for the safety 
of our children, their children, and their children after that if the 
ideology elevated by the former President were to continue to seep into 
our society like a poison. Every single one of us, without exception, 
has an obligation to call out the poison of anti-Semitism and all other 
bigotries wherever they arise.
  To tolerate them and let them grow risks horrors that we have seen in 
the past around the globe and we don't want to see in the future.
  I yield the floor.