[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 1, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ANTI-SEMITISM: NEVER AGAIN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Lois Frankel) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida. Mr. Speaker, let me, just for a start, 
say that hatred and discrimination against any marginalized community 
are wrong, whether it be an ethnic minority, LGBT, a person with a 
disability, and women and girls.
  Today, I want to focus on something that is personal to me.
  My family was blessed. My grandfather came over to this country from 
Poland just before the rise of Hitler, and he saved his brothers and 
sisters by bringing them over. Too many people were not so blessed.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today and start my comments by saying, ``never 
again,'' as I address the growing concern of anti-Semitism in my home 
State of Florida and across the country.

                              {time}  1045

  This rise in anti-Semitism is deeply concerning, particularly given 
the lessons of the Holocaust, where we lost 6 million Jews and millions 
of others who were murdered by the Nazis in one of the worst human 
atrocities in the history of the world. These were precious lives who 
were tortured, gassed, shot, and treated as less than human.
  It is terrifying that we find ourselves today having to defend the 
fact that it even happened. So we say ``never again'' to remind the 
world that we just didn't wake up one moment to gas chambers and 
genocide; it was a slow and deliberate effort, dehumanizing Jews and 
others, fomenting fear and normalizing extremism and prejudice.
  Today, Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism is on the rise. Incidents 
of anti-Semitism reported--and this is just reported--to the Anti-
Defamation League have risen by 34 percent in their last report. There 
were over 2,700 incidents that were reported in a year: Harassment, 
assaults, Molotov cocktails thrown at synagogues, defacing Jewish 
cemeteries, I could go on and on. The point is, it is clear that anti-
Semitism is real.
  In my own community in Palm Beach County, which is home to tens of 
thousands of Jews, this past January there were Nazi symbols projected 
on buildings and hundreds and hundreds of anti-Semitic flyers thrown 
into the yards of people.
  Mr. Speaker, I say what should we do? What must we do?
  Combating anti-Semitism is everyone's responsibility. There is 
something for all of us to do to promote a more inclusive and 
respectful society.
  Let me just give a to-do list. It is not necessarily inclusive, but 
some things that we should all take to heart.
  Believe it or not, a significant number of our young people don't 
have any understanding of the Holocaust; and so, of course, education 
and awareness about the Holocaust and the history of anti-Semitism and 
the harm it causes, education is something that is very important.
  All of us must speak out and condemn anti-Semitism wherever and 
whenever it occurs, whether it is using your voice, your Facebook page, 
your Twitter, writing letters to the editor. If you see something, you 
must say something.
  We should be working with our great partners across different sectors 
and levels of government to combat anti-Semitism and protect our Jewish 
communities, partners like the ADL, the American Jewish Committee, and 
many others.
  We have to keep our houses of worship safe, not just synagogues, but 
churches and mosques. People must be free in this country to go to a 
house of worship and feel safe.
  We must support the laws and policies that protect people and 
communities from discrimination, extremism, hate crimes, and improve 
hate crime reporting and prosecuting hate crimes.
  Mr. Speaker, let me just refer to a magnificent hero in my community, 
Ben Ferencz, the last living Nuremberg prosecutor, who tells us that 
creating a world of tolerance and compassion would be a long and 
arduous task, a task we must all take up in words and actions.
  Mr. Speaker, we must build bridges between different communities 
through dialogues and collaborations that can help to reduce prejudice 
and foster mutual respect, and it means standing against hatred aimed 
at other often marginalized groups.
  And we must protect the safety and security of Israel, the homeland 
of 46 percent of the world's Jews.
  As I conclude my remarks, I want to highlight the story of Ben 
Ferencz, a magnificent hero from my community.
  Ben, who at 103 years old, is the last living Nuremberg prosecutor 
and was recently bestowed the Congress' highest honor, a Congressional 
Gold Medal.
  As World War II engulfed Europe, after graduating from law school, 
Ben enlisted in the U.S. Army.
  He was transferred to a unit responsible for gathering evidence of 
Nazi war crimes.
  He later took that evidence to the chief Nuremberg prosecutor, and at 
27 years old, Ben was appointed the lead prosecutor of the biggest 
murder trial in the history of the world where he convicted 22 Nazi 
leaders for their roles in the deaths of over 1 million people.
  Ben went on to spend his life pursuing peace and justice.

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