Stop Anti-Semitism

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHNEIDER. Mr. Speaker, on Saturday, our Nation was again stunned by yet another horrific attack on Americans gathered at worship. Saturday's shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in California came as Jews around the world celebrated the last day of Passover.

One woman, Lori Gilbert Kaye, was murdered in the attack and three others were wounded. I continue to pray for the recovery of those injured in the shooting and offer my deepest condolences to the family and friends of the victims.

The latest attack happened exactly 6 months to the day after the assault on worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, which claimed the lives of 11 people, the deadliest attack on the American Jewish community in our history.

These shootings were committed against a backdrop of rising anti- Semitism both here at home and around the world.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, in 2017, anti-Semitic incidents surged in the United States by 57 percent. This represented the largest single-year increase on record and the second highest number of incidents since the ADL started tracking such data in 1979. In 2018, we saw nearly the same number of reported incidents as in 2017.

In recent weeks, there have been other chilling displays of anti- Semitism beyond our borders as well. In February, a Belgian carnival float featured grotesque caricatures of Orthodox Jews standing on large piles of money. On Easter Sunday in a small Polish village, adults and children beat and burned an effigy of Judas, but the effigy did not look like a character from Biblical times. Rather, it was a stereotypical Orthodox Jew dressed in ninth century Hasidic garb.

Feeding into these dangerous incidents, just last week, the international edition of The New York Times published a disgusting anti-Semitic cartoon. The paper subsequently apologized, but the damage was already done. It was an astonishing editorial failure by one of the Nation's most important papers of record. I was pleased today to see the editorial board of the Times directly address this issue.

Especially at these times of growing anti-Semitism, we must all be extra vigilant, lest we add fuel to the flames of hate and intolerance.

Whenever and wherever we see anti-Semitism, we must speak out to stanch it, for what begins as stereotypes and cartoons far too often leads to violence that has claimed so many lives throughout our history.

Our Nation was founded on the idea that every American of every religion has the fundamental right to practice their faith without fear of persecution or violence. This was established in the very first amendment to our Constitution and enshrined in our Bill of Rights. But this right has been shattered far too many times at the synagogues in Poway and Pittsburgh; at an African American church in Charleston, South Carolina; and at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

I will not repeat the Poway shooter's name or give him the notoriety he sought, but it is clear that he was motivated by white supremacism and anti-Semitism, citing the shootings at the mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in his manifesto.

The sad truth is, far-right white supremacists have been responsible for more terror attacks and deaths in the United States in the past two decades than any other domestic extremist movement. We need to update our laws to reflect the growing threat of domestic terrorism.

That is why I introduced, with Senator Richard Durbin, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, legislation that would strengthen coordination among the Federal agencies in monitoring radicalized groups and individuals and, hopefully, preventing hateful acts of violence.

This is a necessary first step to help our law enforcement agencies contain the threat, and I urge my colleagues to join me on this legislation.

We also have a duty to responsibly update our gun laws. I am proud that this House voted earlier this year to pass universal background checks and close the Charleston loophole, a loophole that allowed the Emanuel AME shooter to acquire a firearm before the results of his FBI background check were complete.

We need the Senate to stop stonewalling and bring these bills up for a vote.

Mr. Speaker, I cannot help but reflect that, this week, the United States is observing Holocaust Remembrance Week and honoring the 6 million Jews and millions of others murdered by the Nazi regime.

In the memory of all of those lost to anti-Semitism and other forms of hate, we have a moral responsibility to stamp out intolerance and prejudice in our time. Otherwise, as the late Elie Wiesel famously said: ``To forget the victims means to kill them a second time.''

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