Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. I was tremendously proud and grateful to be at the bill signing last week in the East Room of the White House with the President of the United States, at his side when he put his approval on a measure that took years to pass, the NO HATE Act--known as the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act, named after Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer, who perished as a result of the most vicious and vile hate crimes in this Nation's history. The occasion was centered on legislation addressing protection for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. It was a tremendously moving and powerful event when the President spoke passionately and unequivocally that hate has no safe harbor in the United States.

I was reminded of those moments with the President of the United States as I witnessed just very recently this surge in anti-Semitic hate crimes across this country. We have seen them again and again and again. The Anti-Defamation League has been tracking anti-Semitic incidents in the country since 1979, and the past three annual reports have included two of its highest tallies. Last year's report recorded more than 1,200 incidents--a 10-percent increase from the previous year.

These assaults and insults, brawls, and vicious desecrations have occurred across the country to individuals in synagogues and places of worship, and we should be rising to condemn them now unequivocally and clearly, condemn all of these acts of hate, because we are all in this perilous time together.

We know from the acts of hatred directed against Asian Americans that they follow similar kinds of assaults and incidents involving Muslim Americans, Black Americans, and Jewish Americans. An assault on one is an assault on all of us. But the assaults and the acts of hatred against Jewish Americans have been particularly vile and venomous over these last 2, 4 weeks and months. We have seen not only the physical attacks but also Holocaust denial and distortion, including intentional efforts to excuse or minimize the impact of the Holocaust.

These kinds of vicious and intolerable statements have grown. That is one reason why I continue to support the Never Again Education Act, which was signed into law almost 1 year ago, to expand the United States Holocaust Museum education programming and the development and dissemination of accurate, relevant, and accessible resources to improve awareness and understanding of the Holocaust. But prevention through education is not enough. We must do more. We must act.

What is most important to remember about every one of these incidents is that they involve real people, real communities, and real victims whose lives are torn apart in the most heartbreaking cases. They involve real lives that are lost forever and real families who will never see their loved ones again.

That is what happened to the families of Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer. They were in the East Room of the White House with us, graciously and generously lending their presence, their faces, and their voices to this effort against hate crime. They expressed gratitude for the actions we are taking.

Now we must move forward to provide the funding for the NO HATE Act so we have greater reporting of these vicious acts and so that we have better training and more prevention and action--not just condemnation but action against anti-Semitism in this country.

I read recently that a 5-year-old was constructing a Lego of a synagogue and, using those Legos, added a security force around the synagogue. What kind of America is it that requires a 5-year-old building a place of worship out of Legos to include a police security guard? And what kind of America is it that has double the number of reported anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism, and violence just over a 2-week period most recently when there were clashes in Israel and Gaza? It is not the America we know and love, and it is not the America we deserve.

We must do better, and I know my colleagues share this view. I heard and saw my friend and colleague Senator Cardin speak powerfully on this issue just moments ago. We know that we as a body can take action because hate is contagious, but so is courage. We must provide all of the people who have courage and good will in this country with the kind of support that we can, that we must, and that we will to fight anti- Semitism and to make sure that this America is the one that we know and love and that my father came to believe in as an immigrant at the age of 17 when he escaped persecution in Germany, coming here at 17 years old in 1935 with not much more than the shirt on his back, knowing no one, speaking virtually no English, but believing in that America that would provide him freedom and opportunity and, yes, protection against exactly the kind of anti-Semitism whose beginnings are in those kinds of vile and vicious assaults and words we see around the world today.

Let us all come together and fight anti-Semitism just as we have done with the hate crimes against our brother and sister Asian Americans and make sure that our country is the one that we know and love.

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