Anti-Semitism

Floor Speech

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Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak out against the plague known as anti-Semitism. We witnessed it in Charlottesville. We suffered through the killings at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Mr. Speaker, and we saw it again recently here in Congress.

Anti-Semitism is a condition that has afflicted our world for many centuries and ranges from written and spoken words to the mass murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.

Each of us must speak out and condemn it in clear and certain terms whenever it appears, Mr. Speaker.

In Knoxville, my late father, mother, and I, along with our good friend, Bernie Bernstein, helped build with our own hands a memorial to the 6 million.

Just a few months ago, I traveled to Israel and saw firsthand how the Holocaust affected the Jewish people and how they created a new and dynamic democratic state in the Middle East.

As I heard someone say yesterday, Israel is an oasis of democracy in a conflicted region, and support for Israel is not a Jewish issue; it is an American issue, Mr. Speaker.

But, Mr. Speaker, the truth is, support for one of our Nation's staunchest allies and anti-Semitism, they cannot coexist.

As we remember the Holocaust and protect the democracy of Israel, let us join together in condemning anti-Semitism in whatever form it appears, whether in our neighborhoods or here on the House floor.

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