(JNS) Antisemitism has exploded around the world and is becoming normalized, a panel of experts said on Tuesday, May 20 at a congressional hearing of the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.
“The slow-burning sickness of antisemitism can be seen right here,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), co-chair of the commission. “Antisemitism spiked globally when Jews were victims of the deadliest antisemitic atrocity since the Holocaust.
“The evil had been there all along, perhaps beneath the surface, so that an atrocity became, for many people, an occasion to vent hatred against the victim,” he said.
“This is a global emergency and it requires a global response,” said Marina Rosenberg, senior vice president for international affairs at the ADL and one of the experts who spoke at the hearing.
Eric Fusfield, director of legislative affairs for B’nai B’rith International, and Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, also spoke at the hearing.
The increase in Jew-hatred ignores the horrors of Hamas’s attack, according to Fusfield, who is also a rabbi.
“We’re losing the narrative,” he said at the hearing. “We’re losing the PR battle to terrorists, who rape women and decapitate babies. Somehow, in this morality play, Israel is the bad guy. It does take all of us to turn this narrative around.”
Deutch, who formerly represented Florida as a Democrat in Congress, said that officials must call out Jew-hatred in all its forms.
“Condemn antisemitism unequivocally and publicly, in all its forms, whenever and wherever it occurs,” he said. “Name it. Call it out. Be strong. When an incident occurs, it matters when elected officials speak out loudly and use their broad reach, raising awareness that antisemitism is not just a Jewish problem but an assault on our shared values.”
Stacy Burdett, an independent consultant on responding to and preventing antisemitism, told the commission that the United States has forfeited its moral authority on the world stage.
“The normalizing of antisemitism is a global trend,” she said. “The challenge for this commission, for you, is that we don’t have the same leverage around the world to fight it. Our moral authority is severely compromised.”
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the commission’s other co-chair, said, “Antisemitism is unacceptable. It is disgusting, and it is wrong. Unfortunately, it is on the rise in this country and around the world.”
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who is Jewish, said that too many people in the Trump administration have made antisemitic remarks.
“We need to concentrate on our home-grown terrorists and our home-grown antisemites,” he said. “The whole future is scary with what’s been going on.”
Smith said that attacks on Trump are not in line with the commission’s mandate and that he worked with former President Joe Biden on a bipartisan basis, even when he disagreed with the president, to combat Jew-hatred.
“It was always about, ‘How do we protect Jews?” Smith said. “I hope that we can stay there.”
He added that Israel has “no better friend on the face of the earth than President Trump. We can all disagree on how it manifests itself, but I do think he is a very staunch supporter,” Smith said.
