Transcripts For CSPAN Hearing On Combating Hate Crimes 20240713

Good morning. The committee will come to order. Without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time. With that i will recognize myself to give an opening statement. Two days ago the entire world came together to Mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In addition, 75 years ago this week, in january 1945, the auschwitz concentration camp was liberated from the nazis. It was one of the most infamous sites of the nazi genocide. More than a Million People were murdered there. The purpose of todays hearing is to commemorate these grave anniversaries to remember those we lost and honor those who are still with us. But it is not enough to sibley recognize these dates. We must also contemplate what led to the atrocities. We must remember the holocaust in order to combat bigotry, hate, and violence of all kind today. I am so pleased to have our distinguished panel here today. Ive asked them to help us come together on todays solemn occasion. Help us rise above issues that may divide us and unify our efforts around a common purpose of hope and inclusion. On this day, i hope we can all do that. One issue we will discuss is what we can do to ensure that future generations never forget the lessons of the holocaust. This may sound hard to believe but the Pew Research Center found that fewer than half of americans knew how many jews were killed in the holocaust. Another report found that only new themerican teens nazis killed 6 million jews and only one third new that heckler was democratically hitler was democratically elected. How i help people remember is to hear firsthand from the people who went through it. We are very fortunate to have the opportunity today. In addition, the Holocaust Memorial museum is an outstanding and gripping institution. Their dedicated to remember the holocaust in order to fight hate today. I am pleased to announce that on monday the house of representatives passed Bipartisan Legislation with 393 votes that i introduced and authored called the never again education act to give teachers Additional Resources to teach about the holocaust. I hope the senate will pass the bill and send it to the president as soon as possible because the lessons of the past must inform our approach to fighting hate today. For example, this morning we will hear testimony about the horrific shooting at the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh. The most deadly assault against the Jewish Community in american history. Massacre ofand Holocaust Survivors who volunteer at the museum wrote to the pittsburgh Jewish Community in solidarity explaining what they dedicated their lives to sharing the horrors they experienced. They wrote and i quote, we seek to remind people, especially young people, our countrys future leaders, that hate can never be ignored. Complacency is dangerous. Standing up and pushing back is the only way we can make a. Tter future there has been a sinister increase in hate crimes recently not only against jewish communities but against africanamericans, muslims, immigrants and others. In november the fbi released data showing the highest number of reported violent hate crimes in the United States in 16 years. The number of hate groups exploded to more than 1000 in 2018. This was a record high and a 30 increase over the past 4 years. To take one example, when we watch the gruesome video footage of the neonazi attacks linda charlottesville we see in xcruciating detail the evil that poisons our society. Our committee is dedicated to fighting bigotry, hate, and violence of all kinds. The hearing today which commemorates the 75th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz birkenau is one and a series we are holding on these issues. Fourman raskin has held hearings to confront White Supremacy, religious persecution, and our governments response. Chairman lynch has worked with chairman raskin to investigate the National Security implications of these threats. Going forward, we are planning additional hearings including one on Voter Suppression in minority communities, antimuslim discrimination, antiimmigrant actions, and issues facing the lgbtq community. I have been in touch with many of you over the past weeks and i hope you will come to me with additional thoughts, ideas, or proposals you think our committee should take up as part of the series. We mark this day of remembrance just weeks after a recent state of antisemitic attacks in new york city including one at a rabbis home during the festival of hanukkah. It was heartening to participate in a solidarity march in new york following the attacks and i hope we can Work Together with that same spirit of solidarity today. I want to recognize Ranking Member jordan but before i do, i would like to thank him personally for his support of the holocaust never again education act. Thank you, mr. Jordan, and you are recognized. Thank you, madam chairwoman. Thank you for calling this hearing and thank you to our witnesses for being with us in your testimony. I want to apologize. I have to head the other side of the capital in a few minutes. There is a proceeding in the senate going on and i need to get over there. Monday we recognize the Holocaust Remembrance Day and the liberation of auschwitz. We pause to remember the 6 million innocent lives taken by the evil. Pencesaid we have a said we have an obligation to remember. We must never forget the horse of the holocaust and horros of the holocaust. Schapiro recognize mr. Who is a holocaust survivor. Thank you for your testimony. One of the most important ways the United States supports the jewish people is through our unwavering support for the state of israel. Since the formation, the United States has had a special bond with the israeli people. Since President Trump took office three years ago he has made it his mission to strengthen this important bond. President trump has worked to ensure the world knows the United States stands firmly with the state of israel. President trump in just three years here is what has happened. He recognized israel, withdrawn from the iranians nuclear deal, taking action to eliminate qasem soleimani, opposed the boycott investment championed by those who want to diminish israel, issued an executive order to curtail antisemitism on college campuses, and just yesterday President Trump released a groundbreaking peace plan. Most importantly President Trump fulfilled a decade promise in recognizing jerusalem as the capital of the state. Past president have made this promise and failed to deliver. President carter said we support jerusalem as the capital of israel. The embassy should be moved to jerusalem. Said as soon as i take office, i will move the and bessie to the city of embassy to jerusalem. In 2008 barack obama said jerusalem will be the capital of israel. I have said that before and i will say it again. President trump fulfilled that promise last year. Recognizing jerusalem as the capital and moving the embassy shows the israeli people they have the support of United States of america. We should be proud of this close friendship and the work the president has done to solidify the relationship. At the committee continues to address hate crimes we would be wise to listen to, and learn from, the testimony today. Thank you, madam chairwoman. I would like to recognize two of my colleagues representative lawrence and representative schultz. Members. Founding thank you for holding this hearing and drawing attention to the antisemitic acts and hate crimes. Im glad to see our committee will use authority to sign innovative ways the government to combat antisemitics and the rise in White Supremacy. Last year i formed the congressional caucus on blackjewish relations to discuss the relationships between africanamericans and jewish communities. Also to highlight our shared and ry of combating racism how the two groups can Work Together. Our shared history of slavery in the holocaust has given us a heightened sensitivity to hatred and racism in our country. Cochairs of the caucus are john lewis, lee selden, will d, and debbie her Wasserman Schultz. Actstunately, antisemitic have become too prevalent in our society. Since the beginning of 2020, already there have been at least three reported antisemitic incidents in my home state of michigan and more than 25 across the United States. The last few years have seen a disturbing spike in antisemitic attacks. More than 1800 reported in 2018 alone according to the antideclamation league. The most recent audit of a incidents had a 57 increase. Government must assist state and local government and Law Enforcement entities to develop ways to combat a rise in identity based hate crimes. Hate illustrates a disturbing trend in our country that must be reversed. Acts will not be tolerated and i will not stand by idly as predators of these senseless attacks seek to so fear across our country. All americans have the right to freedom of religion and we will not let that be hindered by a small fraction who use their agenda to spread hate. I look forward to working with the leadership of this amazing chairwoman, members of the caucus on black and jewish relations, and all the members of congress. In the words of Martin Luther injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Thank you. Thank you, madam chair. I thank you for convening this important hearing. I served as the first jewish woman to represent florida in the congress. I just returned from israel and. Uschwitz over one million men, women, and children lost their lives at auschwitz alone. We walked train tracks that transported innocent people to andivity, the gas chambers, this reaffirmed for me we cannot ignore the resurgence in hate we see. To live the moral imperative of never again we must hold hearings like this and shine a light on bigotry and white supremacist ideology. It is important to underscore for this hearing that the fight against antisemitism and bigotry is about more than support for the state of israel. The story must be clear. The systematic mass extermination did not happen overnight. It began with hate speech, harassment, and attacks on vulnerable communities. As the symptoms reemerge, we must speak out and act. Today, we will do that. We must educate the American People by highlighting the amazing accomplishments of persecuted communities in the United States. During a porton defense what the black History Month and Jewish American heritage month which we celebrate in may. Educating one another about cultures, traditions, and accomplishments when so many across the country are unfamiliar with minority communities achievements and traditions is essential. I bet if each of us thinks there are many of us who have populations of communities in our own districts that are either tiny or minuscule, and the first time we interact with minority communities is when they joined the United States congress. That is why it is important to hold hearings like this one. I appreciate our ability to make sure we can rid our nation of every denial of one anothers humanity. I want to thank the panelists for being here and being in the fight every day to make sure we continue to shine a spotlight. I want to thank my colleague and friend, brenda lawrence, for her leadership and vision to establish the congressional caucus on blackjewish relations and im proud to join her. I yield back. I would like to welcome our witnesses and i recognize representative raskin to introduce our first witness. Thank you, madam chair for calling this hearing and giving me the opportunity to introduce a remarkable constituent from my district. Shapir was a little boy when policeman arrived to arrest him, his sister, and his parents to take him to a ghetto for being jewish. Remarkably, they survived the mr. Shapir lost others. Since the holocaust ended, the civilized world came together with one phrase never again. We live in a time of authoritarianism, propaganda, mass psychological manipulation, human rights violations, antisemitism, racism, and religious persecution, fanaticism and violence. Just yesterday the Civil Liberties of communit committeed at global persecution under the guise of the apostasy laws including the internment of millions of muslims in the genocide against the row hinda in burma. The last decade of dirty work with Vladimir Putin injecting racial poison into the social most has activated the white supremacist violence and terror against lecture just, synagogues, jews, hispanics, and anyone deemed to be an outsider. Thee got to get a hold on white supremacist violence. We must pressure the federal government to devise a Strategic Plan to combat White Supremacy and mystic terror. Today, we can focus on mr. Should fear. Ir. Shaf he was the only survivor known to scale mount kilimanjaro. A feet he accomplished a feat by keeping in mind what his father told him which was never give up. We are honored by mr. Shapiros presence. We are honored to have you. Congratulations on your achievement. We look forward to your testimony. We are fortunate to have brad orsini. The National Security advisor for the secure Community Network and the former director of Community Security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh i want to thank representative doyle for putting us in touch with him and we look forward to his testimony. Welcome dr. Edna friedberg who is a historian the United States Holocaust Memorial museum. Jonathan greenblatt is the chief executive officer for the Antidefamation League. Hillary shelton is the director of the Washington Bureau and Senior Vice President for advocacy and policy for the National Association for the advancement of colored people. Doreenome ambassador gold was the president for Public Affairs and the Jerusalem Center and the israeli ambassador to united nations. Former director general of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If you would all rise and raise your right hand, i will swear you and. Do you swear to affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Show theecord witnesses answered in the affirmative. Please be seated. The microphones are sensitive so speak directly into them. Your statement will be made part of the record. Shaffir, you are recognized. Thank you. I am honored to be here today and share with you a little bit about the personal experience pulled the microphone just a little closer so we can hear you better. Im honored to be here and share my personal experience as to what happened to me and my family during the holocaust years. In 1924, my father established a farm in romania. For 18 years, he and my mother worked the farm. My two sisters and myself were born there. I went to kindergarten, i started first grade, everything was ok for a child. One of our neighbors was a priest. We used to come by once a week donation father for a and products for his constituents or congregation who could not afford it. In 18 years my father never wants refused such a request. November 1942, the same priest showed up but this time he showed up with an armed Police Officer and two armed guards. We did not know why that happened this time so we went out to find out what was going on. When we came close to the priest, he was looking at the officer pointing at us and saying, these are jews. We returned into the authorities by a priest. Us,Police Officer said to we have four hours to vacate the farm because he has orders to relocate us to a different part of the city. At this point my father and mother tried to convince him perhaps he can forget the order for relocating us but that did not help. We did not know where we were going. In 1941, the ghetto was established. Packme into the house, whatever valuables we had, and when the four hours were over the policeman said it was time to leave. We were escorted to the ghetto. Were turnedved, we over to the Ghetto Police where he received our orientation, what we can cannot do. We could not do school, jewish people could no longer ,articipate in public prayers we were given ration cards, and we were given five yellow stars with the word jew on it that we always had to wear on her left lapel. Man between the ages of 18 and 50 had to go to work on a daily basis. My fathers job was to sweep the streets in the summertime and shovel the snow in the wintertime as well as clean the market. My mother was an orderly in a hospital. Point, we did not know what we could do to survive. There was a mode of survival that you tried to focus on. My father used to go to work and a big sign was posted in the ghetto area that e in any individual, mal at thelar, must assemble yard at the main ghetto square and bring extra clothing if they had it. The night before my father was supposed to be assembled we all cried, we did not sleep that night. The next morning, we cried because we did not know when, or if, we would see our father again. The minute before he left i asked my father if it was ok for me to walk with him to the area. He agreed. We walked handinhand until we got to the area he was supposed to be assembling and we did not say anything to each other. We just held on tight. We arrived at the area and my father said it was time to go back. He turned to me, put his hands on my shoulders and said five words to me. They will remain with me for the rest of my life. He said, nat, take care of the girls. Im seven years old. You cannot imagine the pressure that puts on a sevenyearold boy appeared i could have told him, i will try, i will do my best but i did not. I said, i will take care of the girls, papa, i will. From that point on, no matter how hard it was for me and how easy it was for me to give up, i could not because i promised my father. Day my father was shipped to a forced labor camp. We did not hear from him for many months. While he was away i tried to do my best to get our family to survive. One of the things we received in the ghetto was the ration cards. They were for bread which allowed us to receive a quarter of a love of bread per person every two days and five liters of kerosene. To receive the rations we had to walk out of the ghetto. Sister was two years older than me my father would send my sister to get the rations. Until he found out some of the hooligans were picking on jewish girls. From that point on, he started sending me to get the rations. The same hooligans also picked on jewish boys. Many times i would come home beat up, bloody face, but that never hurts so much as it did when they took away my bread. We had nothing to eat. When my mother realized what happened the first time she also realized this would happen again and from that point on she rationed us from the own rations to try and save a little bit every time we received some of these rations. This went on for a while. All our family was left back in know that thee in marchaded hungary 1944. 1944en april and july 440,000 jews were deported to auschwitz. Among these 440,000 with 33 members of my family. The old ones and young ones were put to death in the gas chambers. Those that were able to work were sent to different camps. Most died of starvation. We dont know when or where but we only know the fate of three. One of my grandfathers and two of my uncles who were in auschwitz at the end. My grandfather died of starvation one month before liberation. Two of my uncle survived liberation. One was 21 years old and the other was 22 years old. 65 pounds. D when you say to someone they look like a walking skeleton that is what they looked like. When the red cross came into the camp and saw the conditions people were in the put them on ships and took them to sweden to recuperate. One of the two brothers did not make it to sweden. He died on the way and was buried at sea. When did survive and he was in a sanatorium for four years to gain weight and health back. He eventually immigrated to the United States. We were liberated by the russians in the early summer of 1945. Father. Heard from my once we were liberated, we were able to go back to school but the antisemitism was still very strong. 1947, my father was able to come back to us. He realized there was no longer a future for jewish people in romania and decided to leave. The only country that would accept refugees was palestine. He applied for an exit visa from the authorities and every time he applied to leave the country we received a return reply denied. We constantly tried and eventually my mother was able to bribe one of the officials that was in charge of giving visas and in 1950, we received the visa to leave for israel. Meantime, i lived in israel for 10 years, i served in a unit of the army, i married, i have five children and 12 grandchildren. All of them are named for one of the people murdered by the nazis. I thank you for listening. Thank you so much for sharing your story. E will hear from mr. Orsini thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you on this issue. In january 2017, i retired after 32 years of government service, four years in the marine corps, and 28 years as a special agent in the fbi. I joined the jewish preparation in Pittsburgh Federation in pittsburgh and became there for security director. In the first synagogue i visited i asked if they received hate mail. The answer was yes and i asked them, what do you do with that mail . They say they throw it away. That would not be the first, her that. Our goal from that point on was to conduct an Awareness Campaign stressing the importance of filing hatred and building security. The see something, Say Something model. Over the next 18 months until october 2018 the Pittsburgh Community continue to experience antisemitism on a routine basis. This time the community started to report incidents. We would no longer ignore hate and encourage the community not only in pittsburgh but all over the country to report every incident. In pittsburgh, we developed a Program Based on three prongs to keep our people safe. First, assessment of the organizations and buildings which lead to target hardening and a development of Emergency Operation plans. Rwo, constant training for our people. Three, threat mitigation and a way to facilitate action from Law Enforcement. To fully understand what happened you need to understand the majors the community took regarding the Communal Security leading up to the shooting. Several majors that are outlined in my written statement made a difference in october to help numerous people survive, to get out and help others, protect themselves and get to safety. Unfortunately, we still lost 11 lives that day. Our Communal Security Program Prior to october trained over 6000 people in pittsburgh and secured a protocol to include active shooter and stop the bleed training. We have taken used tree of less survivor testimonies to train all of the country and demonstrate why people lived that day and the importance of training. Training helps minimize lossoflife and it did that day. It is unfortunate we have to teach the Jewish Community and prepare our community to live 35 minutes to Law Enforcement responding to various protocols. Two other important initiatives that took place in velti pittsburgh t Police Department. Every officer spends four hours at the Holocaust Center prior to graduating the police academy. The department initiated 1027ue task force on we had a trauma surgeon rendering first aid in the building while shooting was going on. When it comes to tracking antisemitism and threat mitigation we partnered with the fbi. We forged important relationships between the community and Law Enforcement. As soon as we receive any antisemitic threat through any platform to the community we reported to the Virtual Command Center which is linked directly to the fbi. They see everything we do in real time to track, assess, and mitigate the threat. On october 27, 2018 the community witnessed the deadliest antisemitic attack in history. The shooting had a profound impact on jews across the country. In pittsburgh, the Community Security efforts were focused on preparedness through awareness and education. Not everybody thought it was necessary to prepare or take an active role. Some left that to Law Enforcement and ignore the issues. Changede shooting that and not only in pittsburgh but across the country. I will never forget walking through that horrific crime scene. Witnessing the destruction that one man caused because of hateful antisemitism. I am certain those in that , as well as First Responders and community members, will never forget those images. People were murdered because they were jews gathered to pray. For countless number of people the image will never be erased. They will never be forgotten. We need to build a strong, resilient Jewish Community. Ive spent over 35 years of my professional career protecting the country in the Jewish Community. It is an honor to serve the jewish people and i continue to spend the rest of my professional career working to protect the jewish and other faithbased communities. Thank you and i look forward to answering any questions you may have. Thank you so much. Mr. Jonathan greenblatt. I want to thank you and all members of the committee. Good morning. Adl thank you for the opportunity to testify. And share our perspective it is a privilege for me to be here. I want to recognize mr. Shaffir and acknowledge your strength and courage which is an inspiration. Movedeling particularly because i just returned from the world holocaust form in jerusalem for more than 45 World Leaders recommitted themselves to addressing hate. It was great to see a bipartisan delegate from congress including congressman Wasserman Schultz. I want to give a thank you to chairman maloney for leading the never again education act. Adl is already working to build upon the 11 states that mandate holocaust and Genocide Education in the Public School curriculum. Thank you. I could asks a boy, my grandfather who was a refugee from nancy germany what it was like. I could speak to people in my synagogue in bridgeport, connecticut who had survived. That is no longer the case. As time passes, memory fades. Saysdy released last week millennials know less about the holocaust and prior generations. Estimated 54 an of the entire World Population has even heard about the holocaust. Others think it is not important. A survey adl released this morning reported 19 of American Adults say choose still talk too much about the jews still talk too much about the holocaust. When violence is up against marginalized communities this is important. A football coach is defending hitler to troopers in wisconsin snapping nazi salute. Activists in chicago being booted out of a pride march because they carried a flag curing a jewish symbol. Jews harassed in manhattan or assaulted in broad daylight in brooklyn. Instances of antisemitism are up. Recordedt recent audit more than 1800 antijewish acts in 2018. That is the third highest total we have tracked in 40 years. The hate is getting more violent. Not just against jews but against all minority groups from charlottesville to pittsburgh, el paso, jersey city. Extremists feel emboldened in the environment to act out their hate. What surprised you is that the increase in incidents is happening against the backdrop of steady low level Antisemitic Attitudes among the general population. Why is that . First, we have leading voices in our nation who are normalizing antisemitism. Who are making hate routine. They are using antisemitic tropes about globalist controlling government, bankers trying to destroy borders, accusing jews of having dual loyalty, attacking the jewish state with the same myths they used to demonize the jewish people. This renders intolerance routine. Second, the internet and social media are spawning and spreading hate particularly Holocaust Denial is hiism. Facebook is the largest and most established of these offenders. Its policies still do not describe Holocaust Denial is hate speech. Youtube has not done enough. They used ingenuity and innovation to reinvent media and build billiondollar brands. They need to apply the same capability to remove hate from their platforms and build stronger better societies. Let me conclude with key recommendations. Leaders must speak out against hate at every opportunity. Platformscial media must act more responsibly in ban Holocaust Denial for what it is. Three, the never again education act must become law. We should spark local hate crime training and prevention. Fund thegress should Grant Program to protect all at risk nonprofits especially faithbased institutions. Toally, we Implore Congress pass the domestic terrorism act to allocate resources against White Supremacy. I applaud the leadership of this committee. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and i look forward to your questions. Thank you. Mr. Shelton. You for asking me here today thank you for asking me here today. The continued presence and growth of White Nationalism and you aremacy recommended as leaders. The resolution rejecting White Nationalism and White Supremacy in america. A preamble to the associations constitution the naacp is worn to fight for justice until all, without regard to race, gender, creed, enjoy equal status. We were founded as an antithesis of the White Nationalism and members of followers of the naacp have continued to this day to uphold the ideal of equal opportunity and protection. And weot an easy path continue to face challenges. Throughout history, White Supremacy has been espoused to the detriment of others due to race, religion, origin, or family background. As we know White Supremacy can lead to atrocities like genocide of native americans, the holocaust, slavery, lynching, segregation, and other horrors. We have back against these terrorists through the hate crimes statistics act. Can and should do more. We must be ever vigilant. Strongly support a position to hate assault and threats. To equality. The legislation addresses the problems of underreporting to the fbi under the hate crimes statistics act and allows courts to require the defendant participate in Educational Programs our immunity serves as a condition of supervised release. We must address the problems associated with the online hate. I am quick to note a word of caution. The line between hate speech and once First Amendment rights is narrow. The naacp endorses the domestic terrorism act. This legislation would enhance the federal governments efforts to prevent domestic terrorism by requiring federal enforcement law agencies to assess the threat posed by what supremacists and others and take concrete steps to address the threat. Thetrongly support antilynching act which would make lynching a federal hate crime and eligible for additional tools needed in local communities and resources to investigate and prosecute these heinous crimes. The naacp supports legislation that was just introduced yesterday in the senate. Justice for victims of hate crimes act which will make it easier to prosecute hate crimes. I cannot emphasize this strongly enough. We need to boost the education of our youth on the horrors of the genocide of native americans, the holocaust, slavery, lynching, and all other acts of terror that White Nationalism and what supremacists have brought upon us as a nation and a world. To fail to do so would be a crime in and of itself and an insult to the millions of ancestors who struggled and died to address these concerns. We need to remember and learn from the past so it is never repeated. I said at the beginning that the leaders of this community commend you for rejecting White Nationalism and White Supremacy but we still have political leaders who talk racially thoughtless questions like white nationalists, what supremacists, western civilization. How does that become offensive . The make statements such as you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. On the shows for demonstration that resulted in a violent demonstration between neonazis against social justice advocate supporting diversity through the nation and equal opportunity. This was the confrontation that led to the death of Heather Heyer. There is a need for more research, understanding, reflection and education. I thank you for inviting me here today and your interest in the naacp. I look forward in answering any questions. Thank you. Gold . Sador dory done well done. Madame chairwoman, Ranking Member jordan, thank you for your invitation. Im an israeli citizen and diplomat and i happen to have been in washington yesterday because of the ceremonies that occurred in the white house with the United States issued a new peace plan with the middle east. I was glad to join you here and express some of my conclusions on this issue. This hearing was conceived to deal with three related issues. First, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz at the end of world war ii. Second, we are using this moment to consider the rise of antisemitism in recent years. Especially in states that fought nazism it is disturbing. When antisemitism is rising in france, germany, britain, and the United States we have to pay attention. Perhaps in ways that we would not otherwise. Finally, we consider with the legacy of auschwitz requires from us today. I have served in multiple diplomatic positions for the state of israel including as ambassador to the united nations, director general of the ministry of Foreign Affairs. Wherever i was posted the holocaust was a National Disaster that we, the representatives of the reborn jewish state, could never forget. During my tenure as director general, when coming for a dialogue with the german government, we took time off to outskirts ofs berlin and the village were senior ss officers convened a meeting in january 1942 to plan the final solution of the jews of europe. It was here that a plan was conceived for the jews of german occupied europe that included the building of auschwitz. As in many historical sites that ancy had arved, v guestbook which i was asked to sign. Write in such a book at such a location . Have a nice day . Burden of history on my shoulders, they wrote a terse comment. I wrote we will never allow anyone to do this to us again. I remember that in the course of world war ii 6 million jews were exterminated by the germans and in auschwitz alone, 960,000 jews were killed. Auschwitz was located in the eastern part of the nazi empire. That meant it was vulnerable to the red army along the Eastern Front. The german determination to complete their mission of extermination, despite the advances of the russians, because to the germans to transfer the inmates from auschwitz to other concentration camps further west and within the borders of the german state. That is what led jews from auschwitz to bergenbelsen on forced marches during the frigid winters of northern europe. Sister,nk and her margot, were moved from auschwitz to bergenbelsen where they both died. On a personal note, my motherinlaw and her sister were relocated from auschwitz to bergenbelsen with thousands of others. Armydays after the british liberated bergenbelsen, a bbc blebeeer named richard dim entered the camp and recorded prisoners rising up with their frail bodies on a friday night and breaking into the hebrew song. They were reminding the world their hope was 2000 years old and dated back to when they lived as a free people in their own land. It was time for them to go home. That is what they were saying. It became the National Anthem of the state of israel. Modern israel is committed to fighting antisemitism and defending jews worldwide. Is notday antisemitism just active in venezuela or remote areas of yemen it is being revived in the heart of western civilization in france, the united kingdom, germany and the u. S. In candida. Antisemitismof can be fought with legal tools. And education. Antisemitic incitement can have lethal consequences. We ask our allies in the west to stand firm and help us vanquish hate speech, vanquish this phenomenon before it gains strength. We have a very important tool to fight this. 48, the International Community signed the Genocide Convention. The Genocide Convention contains a specific clause outlining incitement and genocide. Iranian leadership spoke about wiping israel off of map, we convened a Group International legal scholars to look into whether they had crossed the line of incitement to genocide. When i was in rwanda with the ministry of Foreign Affairs and met with the minister of Foreign Affairs anyone who reads about the rwanda genocide will find incitement to genocide was a key component. It was a warning signal that something is about to happen. And ifharpen these tools we actually use them, not just leave them in textbooks at law school, i believe we can take narrow, toures to speechin the use of hate and we can also come back directly theombat spreading of antisemitism and other forms of hatred. Thank you very much. Dr. Edna friedberg. Good morning. Thank you, madam chair for your leadership and for having me here today. When i became a holocaust historian more than 20 years ago i thought i was dealing only with the past. I was so naive. Over the course of my career, i have seen the veracity of the holocaust questioned. I have seen the very language and symbols of the nazis resurrected as weapons in new recess attacks racist attacks. Researchperiencing a and racism of all types. You do not need to be jewish to be seriously alarmed by this dangerous trend. As a historian, i can testify that whenever antisemitism is expressed publicly and without shame, an entire society is at risk. It is an indicator of poor health of a society. The holocaust did not begin with gas chambers. It started with words. With racist cartoons, Childrens Book that taught girls and boys to be afraid of neighbors, with posters that portray jewish men sts. Api hitler was obsessed with race long before becoming chancellor. His speeches and writing spread belief that the world was engaged in an endless racial struggle. When the nazis came to power these were spread in posters, radios, movies, and classrooms. They served as the basis to reorder german society. First through the exclusion of jews from public life and through the systematic the nazis rose as part of a powersharing agreement in a fledgling democracy. In order to make jewish persecution palatable, nazi propaganda granted jews as a threat. Governmentsponsored propaganda denounced jews as alien and parasites and said they were responsible for remedys economic degeneration. Germanys economic degeneration. Persecution and violence were not only acceptable but an imperative. Propaganda builds on existing stereotypes to directly link jews to spread of disease like vermin as part of their racial campaign to cleanse a society, nazi leaders implemented racial hygiene policies to protect nonjews. In poland, nazi germany reinforced its policy of confining jews to urban prison zones known as ghettos by portraying jews as a health threat, requiring quarantine. This approach was a selffulfilling prophecy. By depriving thousands of human beings of food, water, sanitation, and medical care, the nazis created a diseased population. German propaganda films that were shown to schoolchildren characterized the jew as the carrier of life and typhus stereotypes about jews, that they are smarter than other people, wellconnected, or powerful these draw a much older antisemitic Conspiracy Theory about global jewish domination. The nazis invoked links between jews and communism that use were warmongers. Similar accusations are leveled regularly against prominent jews around the world. During the nazi era, celebrated americans like henry ford and Charles Limburg spread antijewish propaganda and characterized American Jews as an enemy element that threatened the United States interest. In august 2017, selfproclaimed white nationalists carried torches through charlottesville virginia. Fire is more than a dramatic flair. In a charged context, it singles signals violence. The nazi regime began by carrying torches at parades and rallies, by 1938, burning buildings. It eventually burned the bodies of millions of human beings. The very word holocaust derives from the greek meaning sacrifice by fire. Marching with torches in the American South has an additional nightsknights of of firebombs and lynchings. Our country has checks and balances to prevent racism from dominating our laws. The torches carried during a nighttime march two years ago deliberately echoed the smoke of an earlier racist era. In closing, hate speech and violence against jews are canaries in the coal mine for the health of democracy and civil society. A government that does not confront them does so at its own peril. , lord and nephew exasperated, once asked me, why cant jews ever stop talking about the holocaust and speaking as the daughter of a survivor, i had to take a deep breath before i answered. His question was why do we study the holocaust . Why . Because it is the best documented crime in human genocidalne driven by racism. Lets hear the warning signs. Thank you. Want to thank all of the witnesses for their very moving and important testimony. I want to thank all of you for appearing here today. I would like to begin my mr. Jesse or given how difficult it is for you to relive this pain, why did you agree to come here and share your story . Why is it so important to you that other people hear this story . We need to share this historical tragedy. It is impossible for people to remember and some of the public will forget what happened. How many millions of innocent people were killed because they were jews or any other faith. If i do not speak out, if i do not share my information, i only have myself to blame. That is one of the reasons why i am here and trying to share my information as best i can. Messageere a single that you would hope to convey to the american public, many of whom are watching on television and are members of the Younger Generation . What would that key message be that you would like to convey to them . The message i would like to convey, i can summarize in two powerful words. Speak out. It is very important that we do not remain silent. Week we passed Bipartisan Legislation to provide additional funding to give students the opportunity to learn from people like you and to hear from survivors. This will would also expand the Educational Program of the Holocaust Museum. I understand that you work at the Holocaust Museum, is that correct . Yes i do. I have been an associate. Teach whatng to happened and make sure things like this never happen again. Can you tell us why these Education Programs at the museum are so important to educate future generations ago in the 1930s and 40s, we had one enemy, that was helpful or hitler. Hitlers if we do not tell the story, we need to educate young people right now while i still have my voice. Once i am gone, we need the Younger Generation to be our voices. Why do you think it is so important that our nation remembers the lessons of the holocaust . Why do you think it is so important that we do not forget about it, that it is not manufactured or ignored or altered . If we do not member the past if we do not remember the past, our future will not be very bright. The horror has two meanings, one, remember and one, do not forget. Thember the atrocities that nazis have committed against innocent people. Do not forget all of these who perished. We need to remember all of these things and pass on to our children so they will not forget. I want to thank you for your very moving testimony. You know better than any of us what can happen when hate is allowed to flourish. As our committee continues to examine the spread of White Supremacy in the weeks and months ahead with the other hearings we have scheduled, they are fortunate to have your prescriptive perspective and we are grateful for your time and testimony. Recognize mr. Jody hice. Octobersthis past democratic debate, Bernie Sanders stated that in his opinion the u. S. Should leverage military aid to israel in order to manufacture changes to israeli domestic policy. Specifically as it relates to gaza. He was saying we need to withhold funds for that. Do you believe that kind of action would be helpful . Turn on your my, please. Mic, please. Ur one has to understand what is in gaza. What is in dollars today is people gaza today is people who are miserable. Hamas has allies. Putting levers on israel is oning up putting leverage israel is mixing up fire with fire and will not produce a more stable outcome. Veryt to say that i am optimistic about the middle east as a whole. There are arab states that eye to eye with israel about the need to extinguish hatred, the need to Work Together to build a better region. We are seeing evidence for the first time of senior arab diplomats who will go to poland and visit auschwitz. That is something that did not happen before. Nots encourage that and schemes to put pressure on israel by denying military assistance because of a situation that it did not create. I think the bottom line is that it would not be helpful to withhold military aid to israel. Madam chair, i would ask unanimous request that this article about those comments the submitted to the record. Granted. Thank you very much. Quolieve it is a quid pro that will provide this money provided israel make some changes. It is interesting to me who that came from. It is really what many of my colleagues have been claiming as an impeachable offense. Let me go to you, this plast weekend ais past member of this committee we did an unsubstantiated claim that israelis kidnapped and killed a sevenyearold palestinian boy. You confronted this claim on twitter as a vicious lie. You also called it liable. Of course, the incident was proven false. The words themselves i suppose are not necessarily antisemitic. But indirectly, they certainly are. They were up substantiated. They were reckless and proven false. These comments are at all helpful . Thank you for the question. , the accusation that jews are responsible for the murder of children, gentile children, nonjewish children, christian or muslim has followed used for centuries jews for centuries. It has been used to demonize them. It has been used as the basis for persecution and slaughter. Nearly going back almost 1000 years to england in the mid evil times mid evil times. Accusationsout liable whenever and wherever they happen. It is important to note that the use of the blood liable and these antisemitic slurs, we should not use them as weapons. I will call it out whoever says it whenever it happens on the base of the fact that hate is acceptable. On a time when antisemitism is on the rise, i spent a fair amount of energy paying respect to the victims of hate crimes in pittsburgh, san diego, new jersey, new york. We should not tolerate anyone from either side who engages in that kind of behavior. I would ask to be added to greenblattsr. Reply to this situation. Granted. As a member of our delegation without objection, the gentleman will be added to the panel. I recognize the gentleman from the District Of Columbia for questions. Thank you, madam chair. I want to thank you for holding his hearing on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz. I particularly thanked the witnesses who agreed to appear today. Sheltono say to mr. That i think it was perfectly highpriate to have a representative of the naacp on this panel. Hate to indicate that recuse. To be a if you find someone who hates jews, you will also find that he hates africanamericans. And we that together perhaps can understand the latest fbi statistics. The most frequently targeted group for hate offenses is africanamericans. 47 of hate offenses are motivated by race or ethnicity or ancestry. That may be because they are looking at people they can identify by those characteristics. Perhaps in recent times, the most notorious of the hate crimes was the roof. Roof dylan an invasion of a church in south carolina, the Oldest Church in the south during bible study. I do not know if he chose the church and at the time but the symbolism cannot be lost on any of us. I am concerned with the increase in antisemitism and want to know where in the world does this come from. Why wasnt there an increase 10 years ago . Mr. Shelton, do you see a relationship between an increase andntisemitic antisemitism, antisemitic attacks and the increase i just spoke of, the increase in hate offenses motivated by race or ethnicity . Absolutely. The ideology shared as we look at those who committed these crimes is very similar. Made listen to those who visitations about experiences of the Jewish Community, i suspect they are checking off boxes of the same strategies is often being utilized against africanamericans. Racist, all going to be violent and rapist as well. We heard the same stories told weut what was happening are seeing an increase of the same organizations that hate africanamericans, Jewish Americans, and anyone who is not anglosaxon. The similarities are clearly there. As we look at the hate crimes data shared with us by the Justice Department making sure we have categories to cover all of these areas and seeing the increases as consistent regardless of the group you are talking about and the experiences of the Africanamerican Community are extremely subtler to those of the Jewish Community. There has been a long special relationship between americans used and africanamericans. Whites who have consistently been vocal and active on the Civil Rights Movement with respect to matters having nothing to do with themselves have been americans jews. That relationship is long even to the founding of the naacp itself. Could i ask you in light of your what has the league found about threats and againsts of violence africanamericans i just spoke of and of the relationship and what do you think can be done about the rise of antisemitism and racist attacks going on at the same time . Congressman, thank you for the question. First and foremost i would reinforce what you said. The relationship between Jewish Americans and africanamericans is long and deep. There is a shared history of suffering. There is a shared history of diaspora, if you will. The holocaust was a Pivotal Moment in the modern jewish and so was slavery for african americans. I am proud of the fact that epstein who is the head of the adl in the 50s and 60s stood king inhed with dr. Xoma. Selma. I am proud that we worked together on so many issues together. Make no mistake, from charleston to charlottesville to pittsburgh , White Supremacy is a violent threat against all marginalized groups. Jews also who hate hate africanamericans simply because they and we are different from their george view. N view i would like to commend these congressman for helping start this caucus. I had the privilege of addressing a group of black and jewish legislators two years ago. There is so much more work to do. At adl we were founded after a jewish man was lynched in 1913. He was lynched after having been falsely accused of a crime of murdering a christian girl. What i would note is that when that man was lynched the founders of adl wrote a charter for this new organization and in it are the words we still used today as our mission statement. What they wrote was that this organization would stop the defamation of the jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment to all. Gentlemans time is expired. You cannot defend americans used unless you defend all americans. We are deeply committed to that mission even today. Recognize virginia foxx. She has additional time. I yield to virginia. Thank you very much, madam chairman. I want to thank our witnesses for being here today. I dont think it is possible that we can overstate the tragedy of the holocaust. I just do not think it is possible that we can do that. Any kind of hate is unacceptable. Any kind of discrimination is unacceptable. I believe that is how the people on my side of the aisle feel and we feel it every day and express it every day. I want to say having hearings and reminding people of what has happened is appropriate for us to do. On december 11, 2019, President Trump signed an executive order to combat any antisemitism on college campuses. Order that thee president signed was based on a bipartisan piece of legislation that we indeed did support. That i should note, the antisemitism awareness act was based on rulings that came out of the Education Department under president bush and president obama. It i think it is affirms the definition of the holocaust and antisemitism specifically developed academics from a number of different countries. We do support it. I just need a simple yes or no. Yes we supported. Thank you very much for that. It. Yes, we support list ofoduced a top 10 worst instances of antisemitism. Unfortunately, seeing as antisemitism is still alive and well, in december we mentioned the numerous attacks against jews during the hanukkah season. Do you know that the number of antisemitic attacks is on the rise and do you believe that social media platforms have provided greater access for people to spread antisemitism . I am completely aware that the number of antisemitic incidents around the world is on the rise. I am also aware that as much as can bemedia platforms great vehicles for education and mutual awareness, they are also being used by some of the most vile organizations in the world to spread hatred. Between free speech and incitement to killing is a real tension that lawyers and scholars have to work out. Israel is a Democratic Society. The United States is a Democratic Society and we cherish our democracy and free speech. Vehicleannot provide a that allows the spread of hatred. At my center that i now run since i left the government, we have been examining how the internet is used by radical islamic organizations particularly in canada. They are spreading antisemitism. We have found a way and our percentage of in canada has found a way of presenting this information to the canadian authorities. Use yourto used legal system to combat this and you have to shine your flashlight on where this is coming from. I have another question for you. White neonazis the only one perpetrating antisemitic attacks . Fair to say that antisemitism is prevalent across all races and genders . I believe it is evident among all races and genders and has to be fought and combated regardless of its point of origin. See hotbeds, you mentioned canada. Are there other hotbeds of antisemitism that your group has recognized and that we should be aware of . We have done a lot of work on the united kingdom. There are real Serious Problems of antisemitism. We have seen it enter into parliamentarye life in the u. K. They look to britain as a beacon of democracy. There is a lot of work to be done worldwide. I comeme assure you that from an area of North Carolina in this country where we have great reverence to the people of israel and for all jews. As you know, most christians feel that jews are gods chosen people and it is our place to support israel. Ideas to follow up on what you just said on why antisemitism knows no racial ethnic, gender, geographic boundaries when we have historically, again, those of us who are very strong christians felt so positively toward israel and the jewish people . Not the kind of on onen i can answer length. But it does indicate that we have work to do. We have work to research, we have to find where it is coming from and we have to make recommendations of how it can be dealt with. We cannot just sit back and let it happen. It is getting much worse. It is not good for the people fordwide and it is terrible the countries where it is occurring. Inas heavily involved israels efforts in 2016 to restore double medic ties and ties and diplomatic political activity across the continent of africa. I remember sitting with the foreign minister of rwanda and she told me, you have one hard nut to crack. I thought she was talking about libya. She was talking about south africa which is led by a Political Party which has been movement the whole bds which has spread worldwide. Persisted in trying to reach out to south africa and will continue to do so. Thank you, madam chairman. You have been very tolerant. I yield back. I want to thank all of our witnesses for appearing here today. Haffir. Thank. S you for your very moving and personal story. Now ask mr. Orsini. That day as you mentioned a man armed with an Assault Rifle and three handguns entered a congregation. Houting antisemitic slurs attack, youof the were working as a director of security for the Jewish Federation of pittsburgh, is that right . Collects yes, yes, sir. That attack not only affected the Squirrel Hill section of pittsburgh or jews in pittsburgh but the entire city. We live in a day and age where we have to think about protection in a house of worship. Go there as the most vulnerable you can be and you get gunned down. Since that shooting, the three congregations that pray in that synagogue are still effective. The entire Jewish Community has been affected. The effects of that shooting are longlasting. They are not going to go away anytime soon. It is important in our community in pittsburgh to make our folks feel safe so they can get back in to worship no matter what denomination it is. Children witnessed that . Ck yet there were enough people in there to witness that attack. What has been the impact on children generally since that attack . Important after that attack to work on a quick resolution. It was important for us to get our kids back in school. Facilities, our day schools, our preschools and work with our community to get them back in there. It is a longlasting effect. I went from school to school, preschool to preschool to talk to parents about how terrified their children were. Children,ied students, and adults were to walk to the synagogue. We had to work hard as we do every day to make them resilient and strong and we continue to do that. The Jewish Community unfortunately is a targeted community. Let me jump in. I think one of the things that folks everywhere understand is that regardless of whether you were in pittsburgh or not, i think folks who worship at feared going to their synagogues for a long time after this incident. Viewsd like to hear your on what you think the role of Holocaust Education plays in hate Crime Prevention generally . I think it is paramount. The city of pittsburgh is one of and it may be the only city in the country that requires its Police Department and all cadets training to go to the Holocaust Center and spent time there prior to going out on the street. It is a model based out of the National Holocaust museum. The only other group i know is fbi agent that go through there. It is important for Holocaust Education to continue and it needs to start in middle school up. How can the federal government must support either this type of education awareness or hate Crime Prevention generally at the local level . I think at the local level there are several things. Quite honestly, it takes money and it takes time. Holocaust education in my view is important to be mandated in Public Schools, and education platforms. Have to teach our community what happened there and what rises out of hate. I think for our community and the Jewish Community it is ever so important. I have worked civil rights in the fbi for many years as a civil rights coordinator, i have worked hates for numerous years. Hate is generational. Crimes for numerous years. Educating them on hate, what happened at the holocaust, what hate does. I am out of time but i want to underscore that last point hate, because it is generational, you have to start with the kids and you have to teach them that antisemitism and hatredophobia, of all kinds is not right and i think that we at the federal level have to support that. Thank you so much. Recognize the general gentle man from kentucky. Your testimony. A group from kentucky comes, we always recommend the Holocaust Museums. Of all of the museums in washington, that is the most moving, most Educational Museum that makes such a difference. We have not had anyone say anything but how much they were touched by that museum. I would like to focus my policy. S on israeli can you explain how dangerous . Ran is to israel hit the microphone. Iran is a country which is stated regime which is its determination to destroy the state of israel. Institute we have theected statements made by iranian leadership right across the board. Civilian leadership, military leadership which calls for wiping israel off the map. Is this justis rhetoric to show off or is there something behind it. I will give you a specific example. In the Iranian Armed forces, there is a missile caused 3 which canhiab strike israel from iranian territory. Recently, the iranians have only put conventional warheads in dismissal this missile. They are aiming to replace the warheads according to documents that israel has with a future nuclear warhead. Those missiles are prorated ed once a year. Ad write,missile they israel must be wiped off the map. They juxtapose their intentions with the military capability they are building. It is not going to stop with israel. They will go much further. Iran is firstout and foremost its Nuclear Weapons program which we do not see jcpoa been altered by the. As a program, it has gotten much worse. That leads me to my next question. Lets focus on the president s policy. Such ast trumps action withdrawing from the nuclear deal and and emanating International Terrorist Qassim Suleimani made israel safer in your opinion . Of qassimmination suleimani. Right. One was gratifying International Acts before i return to be working for the government of israel, i had set up a dialogue. Saudiup a dialogue with a general and we had this dialogue going on. Would point he says, how you like to go to the u. S. Congress with me and lobby against the jcpoa . I said i agree with your intentions. I think it is a bad idea to lobby here on capitol hill out of the interests of saudi arabia and israel. There is nothing that prohibits us from going to a think tank in the United States and voicing our views. That is exactly what we did. We were invited here in washington. He appeared and spoke in arabic. I spoke in english and the whole place was filled with american press. I am telling you that because the threat to israel is a threat to many of our neighbors in the region who are becoming our friends. A new Security Architecture from the middle east is growing. As a result of the perception of a shared security threat. I think we have to build on that. It has given me optimism about many of my neighbors. Not just friends, but allies. Hopefully that is something which we can work on with the Trump Administration and with the american National Security bureaucracy. I now recognize the gentleman from maryland for questions. Thank you, madam chair. Mr. Greenblatt, you have spoken out against tweets by democratic members of congress that circulate intentionally antisemitic tropes. You have spoken out strongly against commercials run by donald trump in the 2016 president ial election that globalistssons as and enemies of the American People. Quips by out against aboutent trump spoken out the events that took place in charlottesville. What is the importance of speaking out against antisemitism whenever you see it and not permitting it to be a partisan weapon . Thank you for the question, congressman. You are correct. Clearly inen out response to antisemitism. We are living in a moment where extremists feel emboldened because the talking points of White Supremacists are the talking points of other radicals jumping off of the pages of their propaganda and enter the talking points of elected officials. There is no excuse for it. We call it out whenever it happens and wherever it happens because we want to make sure that elected officials and political candidates understand that they should not used antisemitism or any form of hate for partisan gain. I wrote a letter to Congress Last year specifically asking prevent the tendency from using these kinds tropes to gain or make score political points. , antisemitism is not just a jewish problem. It is everyones problem because it is typically, historically a sign of the decay of democracy. It is a tool that populists used to press their own authoritarian agendas. We have to have the moral courage and the intellectual honesty to call it out whenever it happens no matter who says it. I thank you for that in our country, antisemitism and racism both are the gateway to destruction of liberal democracy and equal rights for all of our people. I want to thank all the members of the panel for underscoring the importance of the memory as to all of the events that have taken place assaulting the rights of minorities. Going back to the dispossession and violence against native americans and our experience as all ofry as well the horrific events that took place last century with respect to antisemitism, i wanted to say this. I have been reading a book called the plot to break america about Vladimir Putins plan to in theartisan poison 2016 election and beyond. Very scary book in some ways. Ultimately i find it to be uplifting because we are not a racist country. The country that elected barack obama president. We are not an antisemitic country. There was a very deliberate effort to activate the most unstable and extremist elements of the country. Even if that is 1 of the American People, that is still a few Million People. It bore fruit for Vladimir Putin in a lot of different ways but certainly in what took place in charlottesville where you have americans marching right out in the open as nazis, clansmen, fascists in our country. I want to ask a question about online hatred and efforts to go out and find people using the dark triad of narcissism, machiavelli and his him and people who are predisposed to go out and demonstrate hate in a violent way. What are we going to do about that . Even if the majority of the country does not stand for that, what is the proper response . Others have whether any thoughts about that. Saying as wein by look at these challenges and these problems, it is important that we point out how similar strategies,w the the ideologies that have been used to lace these together are so clear that if you separate them out, as we think about the attacks on africanamericans as we look at the slavery experience, we know it was done as a tool to be able to marginalize africanamericans and to continue to take advantage and seeks whatever the spoils they wanted along those lines and what would be perceived as acceptable. Onn we think of the attacks our jewish friends, the same thing applies. Think about native americans, we do not talk about it enough, the genocide that took place and the land that was taken and the Natural Resources being sought in those cases and to make it acceptable to be able to show them as less than human beings. One of the things that goes through all of this is the marginalization that goes through the characterization of each of these groups as being less than human beings making it acceptable for the horrific offenses to be done to them and nothing should be done about it. Indeed it is important when we look at these issues and think about them in that context and even though, the white supremacist and what they seeks to gain and what those who actually fund them seeks to gain. It needs to be worked together. If i may, thank you. I think it is a very important question. I am an individual that is on the ground looking at antisemitism, trying to keep the community safe. I think it is very important for our community to report everything. However, i have spent a lifetime raising my right hand to protect the constitution. Firmly believing the First Amendment rights speech is important. However what we see on the , not ais hate speech crime, but it leads into a hate crime. We have to have a mechanism for Law Enforcement officials when they see a swastika and it gets isorted not to say, it protecting first minute right speech. We need to Work Together with our lawenforcement partners to come up with a way to assess with the truth spreaders from these groups because it is out there. Whocommunity does not know patriots are. We see signs of hate everywhere across the country. They are recorded. Most of the things out there are protected First Amendment speech. Unfortunately, the Africanamerican Community, the muslim community, those signs of hate are important to understand and report. It is important for us to work with the government to come up with a method where we just do not dismiss it as tech did First Amendment speech. We truly do need to assess and mitigate those threats out there that thank you for that important point. Your time is expired. I now recognize the judgment from ohio. Thank you for your work to make sure that these horrific events that happened, never happen again. Thank you for coming and giving hopefullystimony and nothing like that is ever done again. Our hearts go out to you and god bless you. By dr. Lso stunned friedbergs testimony. I googled it. In the early 20th century, it was stunning to me. I had no idea. I learn something every day. It is just amazing to me that that was going on. I wanted to make that comment. Gold, trimester netanyahu Prime Minister netanyahu said these. I want to list them quickly. He recognized Golan Heights as part of israel. Withdrew from the field iran nuclear deal. He is a strong opponent of boycott Sanction Movement dds as you saw this week, the historic peace plan. These are impressing accomplishments, would you agree . Get drawn into your american domestic pingpong. Somebody does something for you which is ,xceptional, which stands out it is rude not to say thank you. I am grateful for what President Trump has done. These are ideas that have been out there in the american discussion for a long time. In 1995, you had the Jerusalem Embassy act supported by tom daschle and bob dole. Why is that important . Because there was a bipartisan spirit supporting these kinds of moves but it got stuck and no one did anything and the first one who did it was President Trump. Actually moved the embassy. Many of the actions the president has taken our actions that have been suggested, thought about, legislated about but no one did anything. He did it. That is appreciated by the people of israel. I appreciate that. Last year, the house wanted to voted to condemn the bds movement. Some of my colleagues here in songress support the bd movement. What signal does that send to israel . We had a strong bipartisan vote but then we had some strongly against us supporting the movement. I will put it this way. Bds from my standpoint is evil. Do you know why it is so painful . For us to build a new future in the middle east with our arab neighbors, we cannot have boycotts. We cannot have divestment. We cannot have sanctions on each other. What is happening now, in parts of the west bank, for example, is that we are building new malls, new factories in which jews and palestinians are shopping together, working together, living together. You want to be inspired . Want to make peace . Go to a hospital, do you know what you will save . See . Jewish doctors, palestinian doctors, jewish patients, palestinian patient all working together to build a Health System for the city of jerusalem. That is what we need. We dont need people to come with ideologies from south africa or from other places telling us we should be boycotting each other. That is not going to make peace. That is going to make the hatred worse. I totally agree. The more we interact and have commerce and trade, we build those relationships and we have more respect for each other. I totally agree with you. I hope the peace plan that the president put out this week moves forward and we get it done. I yield back. Thank you. Thank you. I recognize the gentleman from california. Thank you, chairwoman, and thank you for convening this important hearing. Im anxious to bring it back to the bipartisan purposes we are all here for. Thank you to all the witnesses for your testimonies as well. I know we talked about how we have seen with recent surveys that many of our teenagers dont fully understand what occurred in world war ii, what occurred in the holocaust and the rise of hitler. In my district, we have seen firsthand the consequences of this ignorance. In my district, a Young College student was murdered by a high school acquaintance who joined a farright neonazi group. In my district, teens played a drinking game around cups shaped like a swastika. In my district, members of a Water Polo Team held her hands up in a nazi salute while singing a nazi propaganda song. In my district, synagogues have been desecrated while neonazi recruitment flyers appear again and again on campuses out of high schools and colleges. In my district, watermelons have been thrown on front steps of africanamerican students. In my district, it is not uncommon to see White Supremacy flags flying behind cars and trucks as they travel across the roads and highways. In the aftermath of many of these incidents, what we have seen is encouraging. The Southern California Jewish Community did something incredible. They embraced the teens that have been involved in these incidents and educated them. They sat down with kids, invited them into their synagogues and helped em understand what had transpired, showing very clearly how important education and elimination of ignorance is. I want to turn to dr. Freeburg. Dr. Friedberg. Can you tell us why this education is so important . Not just for teenagers here in the United States but for all of us in the United States and across the globe. Thank you, congressman, and i wish you did not have such a long list to give. It is about more than just Holocaust Education. As an historian, i am disturbed by the general decline in the teaching of history in this nation. When our partners from abroad come, they are surprised because the United States does not have a National Curriculum or education standards. In most other countries, there are standards. It is not a uniform thing. One of our goals at the museum is to lift levels of quality Holocaust Education across the country by training teachers. Resfacilitating regional co so that local teachers are experienced. It does not just have to be in history. They could be in a literature class, in what we used to call civics, they could be in a faithbased class to enable them to work with the direct evidence of the holocaust and teach and facilitate in a responsible and meticulous way. One of the points i would most like to make, even people who think they know about the holocaust often talk about it in such a simplistic way where it is like a morality tale where there is pure evil and pure good. The vast majority of people who lived in europe during the time were a mixture. They either were onlookers or complicit in some ways and helpful in others. We had a special exhibit a few years ago on this topic called some work neighbors. Neighbors. It describes the way that everyday people, ordinary people had choices about whether to get involved, whether to stand by, whether to facilitate. It is about more than just numbers and statistics and dates. It is about social cohesion and psychology. Currently only 12 states across the country require Holocaust Education and on monday, i am proud that chairwoman maloney introduced legislation to ensure that teachers across the country have access to the resources they need to teach about the holocaust. I want to point out we can legislate all we want to fight hate, fight antisemitism but the reality is, it has to start in our hearts and our head. It requires leaders across our country, leaders in the white house, the administration, in this body, academia, and elsewhere to make sure we are all fighting hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder to fight this. Mr. Greenblatt, i would like to turn to you. Can you talk about some of your education initiatives . You for the question. We reach over 1. 5 million students, including many in and acrossty Southern California. We think education is the best antidote to intolerance. Teaching about the holocaust, we have seen the studies when students understand what happened, it leads to a greater awareness and a greater tolerance for people in minority groups. Lets hope the Senate Passes the the never again education act. I recognize the gentleman from texas. You ink you, each of think each of you for taking time to visit with us today. I want to say thank you for being here. Thank you for your testimony and i dont mean your testimony here but your testimony of faith triumphant and what you represent. Rest assured, there are many of us committed to ensuring the history of the horrors of the holocaust are known and that what i believe is the hope for humanity that now emerges and a hope we see in jewish people is something we will be able to Carry Forward together. Thank you for being here. I have had the fortunate to visit israel twice. I always get great joy going there. My wife and i were struck by two things we went there on a bipartisan basis. We were there and we joined together for a shabbat dinner and broke bread, drank wine and were talking about most things nonpolitical. And we were struck by the happiness of the jewish people. We were struck by the fact that they often poll happiness, worldwide, and i do not know who does this, but israelis tend to poll in the top happiness. This is despite being under constant siege. A nation that is the fraction of the size of new jersey. It struck us how happy the jewish people are and as a result, my wife and i came back and joined with some friend of ours in austin, texas, and we have shut down on sundays and we put our telephones and ipads down and we join sunday suppers and trying to restore the sense of community. We have been doing that religiously, so to speak, ever since last august on our return from israel. It was a response to our great affection for our experience and our time in israel. The second thing that struck us , i had not had the chance to go there on my previous trip and i was struck by the feeling of hope that you get as you walk through the horrors of the history of the holocaust but you see sort of light at the end of the journey. The design of the museum is extraordinary. You look through the old letters and the hope of the jewish people and it struck us in an extraordinary way. Mr. Gold, i have a couple of questions. Yes or no, can there be any room for error for israel defending herself from her enemies . Is there much room for error . Some of that comes down to a space and time. How long does it take to fly across the United States . In a jet plane . It depends on where you are going. To fly from the jordan river to the mediterranean, three minutes. The margin for error is pretty much reduced. Are there currently attacks coming in from gaza despite unilateral withdrawal from israel . Absolutely. I can tell you that we withdrew from gaza in 2005 and in the period right after the withdrawal, the amount of rocket fire on israel went up by 500 . About there currently 120,000 rockets pointing at jerusalem and tel aviv . And other places. Would israel be safe without these things to knock down . No, it would require israel to live on a hairtrigger. Iran is an ongoing threat to israel. How important is a strong and sovereign israel to the hope of the jewish people . Excellent question. A Blind Squirrel finds a net every once in a while. Nut every once in a while. I would say this, the historical connection between the jewish people in jerusalem is something which can be documented, which can be shown, demonstrated in terms of archaeological finds that we have. And when countries get behind resolutions that try to deny that connection, it delays peace. It makes our adversaries think, you know what, maybe we are right. And it is a vile lie. You know how you know that . Open the koran. See the mention of the temple. The arabs knew it. The muslims know it. We are connected with jerusalem and the land. I have two articles i want to get into the record. I ran out of time. Two articles, just yesterday, attorney general barr announced a zerotolerance policy against perpetrators of antisemitic crimes. He says the Justice Department get more involved in fighting antisemitic attacks. So ordered. I recognize Debbie Wasserman schultz. Thank you. I just want to stipulate at the outset my questions that it would be hard to feel more strongly about the absolute necessity that israel remain a jewish and Democratic State and also that this hearing has nothing to do with our support for and belief that israel should remain so. To return to the focus of this hearing, which is the ongoing battle against hate, with a backdrop of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz, i returned from poland and israel to mark that anniversary and when you walk down the platform, the the train platform, and i have been to auschwitz before. But the normandy the enormity of that evil and the Human Capacity for evil that exists today very clearly really overwhelms you. The importance of this hearing and shining the spotlight continuously, never forgetting the Human Capacity for hatred has not diminished is absolutely critical. The statistics have been documented. In 2018 they tracked a staggering 1800 antisemitic incidents. When i landed at the airport in my district, at the end of the trip last week, i landed to a text from one of my mayors with a flyer that was being distributed through the city that says, a red flyer with the nazi ss henchmen on it that says our patience has its limits. One day we will shut their dirty jewish mouths. Hatred knows no boundaries and it has existed for thousands of years. Mr. Greenblatt, i appreciate the efforts of adl. Given that we appear to be living in an age where we have had a resurgence of conspiracy theories that are festering and growing and being promoted by the highest levels of power in our country and condoned by the highest level of power in our country, do you see a connection between the growth of conspiratorial thinking and the rise of antisemitism and bigotry . Youhank you dank thank about that. We should talk offline about that flyer. There is no doubt the pension penchant for conspiracy theories are contributing to the spike in antisemitism. Essentially it is a Conspiracy Theory that the jews somehow have too much power. That we are responsible for all the worlds ills. Power promote prejudice, it endangers all of us. The jews are typically the first to be harmed. Antisemitism never ends with the jews. It consumes everyone. Whether you are the president of the United States or the president of the university or school board, we need everyone to speak up firmly and forcibly against antisemitism. Thank you. I did not speak out and there was no one left to speak for me. Thank you so much for the work of the naacp in combating bigotry in all its forms and being relentless and always being in the forefront of our nations leadership on combating hatred. The jewish and africanamerican communities have walked in lockstep for generations and that is the purpose of our forming a Bipartisan Coalition of black jewish caucus in the congress. Given that we are dealing with the 21st century version of ageold bigotry and antisemitism and hatred in all its forms, can you talk about what we can do through both of our communities to Work Together to fight, to renew our fight against hatred directed at both of our communities . Thank you so much for the comments. It is important that we focus on the challenges and recognize a convergence in interest. If you think about what our communities want, it is amazing when you speak to different groups separately, they will say the same thing. We want our families to be safe and secure and have an opportunity for our future, topnotch education and good health care. Understanding each of our pathways that brings us to this conversation is important as well. We may come from different places but we are in the same boat now. Understanding those experiences makes a difference. When i talk to my jewish friends about the experience, it is amazing how challenges and negative impacts are described in such similar ways. A different experience, a different time, but the outcomes are similar. The attacks are so eerily similar and the challenges are similar, too. Coming together to celebrate who we are, the passions for life and experiences is a very important part of it but also understanding what our vision for the future is. When i sit down with my friends from adl or other organizations, we talk about this issue. I would say that applies to some of the other communities as well. It is a wonderful thing that we see that we have on through a lot of pain for Different Reasons in different ways, but when we understand that working together we can achieve these goals, that is where we find ourselves locking arms a little more tightly. Our communities are inextricably linked. The moral imperative for us to come together and unite against hate and continue to shine a light on the evil that is permeating societies across the globe. Thank you. We now recognize the gentle men the gentleman from wisconsin. Some good news, i spent as much time as anyone in my district, and i know the macyessman from california rising amounts of this in his district, but i have never heard anybody uttering the least bit antisemitic, maybe one guy told a racist joke, but in my district, it is not like california. It is much more accepting in my district. I do not to make it appear that all of america is that way. There seems to be more mainstream politicians trafficking in hate to raise their profile. Even before i was involved in politics, reading about the Crown Heights affair in new york, a person posing as a christian minister inciting hatred, winding up, encouraging someone to die. Haduld not believe we somebody like that in new york. I am glad he was not in milwaukee. What concerns me is rather than being swept into historys background, we recently have had this person become somebody who a lot of politicians like to stand with and look for him for getting more votes, mainstream politicians, successful politicians. Nancy pelosi, reverend sharpton, thank you for saving america and crediting him with getting the majority back in the house. This is something that mainstream politicians are embracing this individual. One after another, people looking to become president have met with this guy in new york. Amy klobuchar, the mayor of south bend, it concerns me, and if any of you would comment how this christian minister, why this guy is so beloved or apparently respected by so many . If i might just generally respond, first of all i would say that what we have talked about like what is happened in new york or pittsburgh, no state is immune from hate. There are 84 hate incidents in the state of wisconsin in 2019. In a suburb of milwaukee, we had High School Students doing the salute last year in the photo for their student prompt. I just want to point out the fact that prejudice can happen in any geography. It can be a problem in the majority communities and minority communities and Christian Communities and nonChristian Communities. The question becomes, what do we do about it . What i am trying to get to is, what is this about this embrace of reverend sharpton . Say, i thinkg to reverend sharpton has a long track record. I am not agreed with all of his statements. After the situation and the murder in jersey city, i got a text from him on my phone. What can we do about this . He has addressed these issues on his television programs. He has a mixed track record, but i appreciate some of the responses he has had of late. Is a group that sometimes sends me stuff called this initiative, and they sometimes talk about antisemitism on college campuses. I wonder if any of you could comment on what is going on on college campuses, and why this is where the minds of the future are molded. You would callat it, but why american campuses seem to be a place where it seems to foment a little bit more. What is the deal on the campuses . I think one of the challenges that the way the jewish state is often demonized on college campuses, using the same tropes that have often been used to demonize the jewish people. They say that jewish people were foreign, illegitimate, should go back to their countries. Now they say that about the jewish state. We need University President s to recognize i certainly believe in free speech deeply, even speech we dont like but there is a price for free speech. University president s need to not dismiss when antisemitism is used demonize the state of israel. They need to call that out and make sure all students realize that prejudice should not be tolerated. I now recognize the gentleman from maryland for questions. I thank everyone on the panel for staying with us so long and for your incredibly compelling and important testimony on the topic in todays hearing. Mr. Shelton, you talked about conversions of interest. I think that is an important point to emphasize. I was recalling the american hellenic progressive association, the most active organization in the country that represents interests of the Greek American community, it was formed in the south in response to klan activity directed at Greek Americans in the 1920s and 1930s. That convergence of interests is very directly bearing on that. All of these communities we are speaking about today have that convergence of interest. There are two important responses we need to have when these incidents of hate speech, antireligious, racial incidents, acts of violence occur. One is to show an immediate sense of solidarity in responding to it, the other is to take practical steps to respond to these attacks. If i could go back to the solidarity element, often our concept of solidarity is reactive. In other words, something occurs and then we assemble a kind of unified Coalition Response to that to condemn it. That is an important thing to do. What that seeks to overcome is human nature. When an incident occurs, the immediate reflexive human response is to think, am i part of the group that was attacked or not . If you werent part of the specific group that experienced the attack, your reflex is, in a sense, relief. You momentarily set yourself apart. That is a difficult thing to overcome. We need to get to a place where this convergence concept is so deep and abiding that if any particular subgroup within our society feels pain or attacked, we feel it regardless of whether we are part of that group. What i want anyone to comment on is what opportunities do you see, or activities underway that are knitting together the sense of solidarity at the ground level, on the front end, if you will, so that when the attack occurs, the Broader Community feels it in that instant rather than there being that delayed response, which is important, but delayed. Maybe you can speak to where different communities are allying with each other, creating coalitions so they feel equally these attacks regardless of which group it is directed at. That is an important point. What happened prior to the attack in pittsburgh we had a Community Relations council. Our Council Director in pittsburgh spends time with all faithbased groups. That is his group. He convenes an interfaith committee. We talk to different groups. When the attack happened in pittsburgh, it was instantaneous. We had every faithbased group, afrin africanamerican, muslim, surrounding us. That happened by the interfaith immunity working together. We felt that through the community in pittsburgh right away. We had a muslim group working with us. They were one of the first groups that donated to the victims of terror fund. It was heartening to see that. That work was done prior to that shooting. I now recognize the gentlelady from illinois. Pardon me. I did not see him come in. The gentleman is recognized. Thank you, madam chair. I would like to thank the witnesses on this panel. When discussing the issue of education, president george w. Bush said continuing failed policies means leaving children stuck with a soft bigotry of low expectations. When we are discussing antisemitism, we can say we are facing hard bigotry. These words come in boycott, divestment, sanctions of israel. They come from deafening silence of people in this country when terrorists or bigots kill people of the jewish faith merely because of their religion. Americans must not be silent. Antisemitism is unfortunately still alive, now 75 years after the liberation of auschwitz. The Simon Wiesenthal center produced a list of the worst incidences of antisemitism. Some more as recent as last month. Ambassador gold, can you speak to the trend we have seen with these antisemitic attacks and what we can do toward eliminating the boycott, divestment, and section and and sanction and other forms of antisemitism . I am a big believer in knowing your adversary. If you are in the military, there is an intelligence branch. It tries to give a picture of how your adversary is laying out his forces. That is what you have to do in this business, find out who they are and what they are doing. Many times it is left to oped writers to conjecture where this is coming from. But you can find out. It is important if you are going to figure out where the antisemitism is coming from to have multilingual capacity. When i wrote a book back in 2003 called hatreds kingdom about the hatred that entered into, that was part of the attack on 9 11, where did it come from . I hired a team which could actually read off the web some of the most sensitive arabic information. It was not classified. People were not even aware of it. That is what you have to do. Whether it is in arabic or farsi or urdu, you have to see where it is coming from. Once you do that, you should have a criminal Justice System that should operate. Have a criminal Justice System that should operate. I want to stress to everyone when i bring up subjects that sounds like the problems of radical islam, it is not against all muslims. It should not be misinterpreted. Radical islam is as much a threat to muslims as it is jews or christians. People that are silent may want to consider some of those may be adversarial too. I wanted to get to another point for the ambassador. President trump has been taking action such as relocating the u. S. Embassy to jerusalem, recognizing israels sovereignty of the Golan Heights, combating antisemitism on college campuses, just yesterday releasing his blueprint for peace with the palestinians. For the ambassador, how have these actions impacted the u. S. Relationship with israel . What will it look like moving forward . I think the actions taken by President Trump are dear to the israeli body politic. We have already built up over the years a strong bond between the American People and of israel. Certainly these actions strengthen that bond and allow us to move forward to build a safer region. Thank you. I yield back. I now recognize the gentlelady from illinois. Say, since al sharptons name was raised, and i i dont believe in anything i dont believe in everything he said either, but i believe we have one of the most divisive people in this 21st century that we have seen in a long time, and he has a base and elected officials that follow him. Just to pick on al sharpton is very interesting to me. Thank you all for your testimony as we remember the horrors of the holocaust. Dhank you for your courage an wanting to educate the next generation. You are a treasure. Will the gentlelady yield for a second on al sharpton . We have had a terrible increase of incidents of antisemitism in new york. The community has come together. He has been one of the leaders in bringing the community together. His National Organization has had numerous meetings reaching out to the community, preaching that we have to unify and fight this. I thank the gentlelady for the point you made. Sadly we have seen a rise in neonazi rhetoric field by this fueled by disinformation campaigns on social media. It is important not only to study the holocaust as a historical event, but use its as the fragility of democracy and promoting human rights. We have seen an increase in hate, period. People frequently dismiss comparisons to hitler and nazi germany because the regime and holocaust were so significant. Can you tell us what germany was like prior to the rise of the nazi party . Was it considered advanced economically and culturally . Was there a Representative Government . Democracy,many was a although a very young democracy. It had been in existence for over 10 years at the time the nazis rose to power. They rose as part of a democratic process. Nonetheless, that did not inoculate that society from the dangers of naziism. The holocaust was not a tsunami. Say somethingo surprising. I find a great deal of inspiration in history of the holocaust, not in the horrors of it, but where things went in a different direction. The holocaust was not implemented uniformly. Studying it in the specifics of each context with precision, we are able to identify the ofiables, context, and roles different people in society that made it better for jews in some places and worse for others. We are pleased to have a Longstanding Partnership with the adl. Our Law Enforcement program trains members of the police, trains every new fbi agent and analyst every year. We look back to this history not just to make people sad, but to say, who are those people that sit in roles that can protect our society so that the extremists do not come forward . We have trained close to 60,000 members of state judiciaries, members of the military. We work with every military academy. It is not about whether society is advanced. How do we make them aware of their roles and responsibilities . Andow does a diverse culturally rich nation devolve to genocide . My grandfather was from germany and lived through nazi germany and watched the democratic country to send into madness descend into madness. What he injured was unspeakable endured was unspeakable. We havent even talked about it this morning, how nazi germany used the instruments of democracy to dehumanize and lead to a path of genocide. In particular, social media. We havent talked about the role of Silicon Valley. It has to be talked about if we want to stop hate from spreading further. I am a diversity trainer. Bravo. I yield back. I now recognize the gentlewoman from michigan for her questions. Thank you. I want to be on the record. This is a serious issue. I am a descendent of slaves. We just marked the 400th year where this country that i love enslaved, killed, and oppressed people, a democracy. Ofs is the 75th year recognizing the holocaust that happened in a country where others saw a group of people identified and persecuted. This is not a platform to promote and use this discussion to have political endorsements. We are talking about the United States of america. What are we doing here . How do we as a country not repeat what we know happened in this world and in the United States . Shame on anyone that wants to use this to promote a candidate. I will continue with my statement now. Raised by and i was this woman whose tears were falling from her eyes during the Civil Rights Movement. I watched her cry as the hoses and dogs were sicced on people in the south. She told me you will have to educate people, because we know racism is ignorance. It is the stereotypes. We spokeerational, as of. Just hatred that is passed along. She said you have to forgive them, because if you dont, you consume their hatred and anger. Why did i want to bring together is groups in this body that supposed to pass policies to stand together, to fight against hatred in america . Onestatement i used was Martin Luther king used. If we see it happen to one, it will happen to others. Throughout history, so many people sit on the sideline. To sit in America Today and say oh, i dont see it happening, they need to be slapped in the face with history and reality. We have so much work to do. Re me the experience and the ignorance and lack of compassion. America,k woman in having a double winning being ismmy being a woman that oppressed. I served as a mayor of a city i had to go to to protect the Jewish Community. I will not sit here and be silent, as so many people did when these incidents happen. Theuestion, has Antidefamation League witnessed a similar uptick in violent hate crimes . To what do you attribute this increase . We have not talked about what is happening. It is more violent. Now we are seeing violence. Is of you, please, what happening that we as policymakers need to step up . Mr. Greenblatt i applaud your leadership. So important. Hope we can find ways to Work Together. Naacpike the adl and worked together for generations. We talk about the pyramid of hate. Bigotry can lead to acts of hate like harassment which can lead to violence, ultimately to genocide. We believe prevention is better than response. The bullys by using pulpit. Leaders need to lead. They need to not allow intolerance to happen on their watch. That means using inclusive language and creating environments comfortable for everyone no matter how you pray or who you love. We need more of that in this country. The new technology is extremely important thinking about these hate manifests. If you think about the utilization of social media tools for everything from television to radio to music to further indoctrinate ideologies of hate in everyday society. Keep doing what you are doing. Keep hearing from groups like ours and develop new strategies, tools, and resources to stop it along the way. We must address social media that has become the new weapon of hatred and racism. I want you all to know we have so much work to do. Thank you for being here. I now recognize the gentlelady from west virginia. Thank you all for being here today. This is such an important and somber topic. We must continue to draw attention to make sure things like the holocaust never happen again. Monday was the 75th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz. It is the unspeakable horrors that occurred at the hands of the nazis. At one point, when Million People. The world watched in horror. I dont know if it was naivete or the lack of instant news like we have today that they did not comprehend that such things would happen. I grew up within the city of columbus in a Jewish Community. I grew up going to bar mitzvahs. I went to my nephews bar mitzvahs. Now they are all adults. I think back to high school. One girls mother had numbers tattooed on her arm. I was born in 1950. I didnt understand until one thentil i was an adult, horror. It is so important we pass this along, because history will repeat if we dont let people know what happened in our past. I am thankful for the efforts our president has taken to strengthen our relationship with israel. It is so important. We moved the mark by doing what we have done and having the embassy in jerusalem. I just cant comprehend the antisemitism that we are witnessing today. Andfight against hate education about the holocaust is so important to keep in mind as we create our policy in the future. How has the holocausts dark legacy impacted the people of israel . My son served in the armor court of the Armored Corps of the israeli army. At one point he officer shows him the disaster that the jewish during theronted holocaust. Him aficers try and imbue nd other soldiers with that message. The holocaust is very much in the conscience of israels citizenry. Us less prone to compromise or to understand our neighbors. By no means. But it adds to the inner convictions of the importance of our selfdefense, especially when we have certain neighbors that still use language that looks like it came out of germany in the 1930s. I have seen some of that language. I was fortunate to go to the museum in israel. When the guide took us in, he said you have 45 minutes to view something that would take eight or nine hours. It is so overwhelming. I cant say enough about how we need to educate children to understand. Policy it impacted the coming out of israel . The policymakers. The policy. Amb. Gold i think people have to separate as much as possible what happened in the holocaust from everyday policymaking in the state of israel. You may have a vicious threat emerging in the east. You have to cope with it. For an example, if somebodys going to say your country has to be wiped off the face of the earth and hangs a poster saying that on his latest generation weaponry, you cant ignore it. You just cant turn the other way. , therefore, the israeli leadership from the highest levels down to the private of the army understands what is at stake. It is very serious. I think we approach it with a tremendous responsibility. Ourink we also have to use diplomatic arm. Frankly, not long after 9 11, that we would take up the Genocide Convention, which has been signed by the United States, by his real, by israel, by many countries in the world, and start using it against countries using genocidal language. I should Say Something that represents my personal view, not the state of israel. I feel, having been an israeli diplomat, that one of the toponsibilities we have is use our talents and skills and our technical abilities to identify genocide when it is occurring anywhere in the world, and acting diplomatically to nip it in the bud. I have studied what happened in africa during the 1990s. I stumbled the battle studied the battle in bosnia. State toant the jewish be part of the International Effort to prevent those from reoccurring. The holocaust is a unique event. I dont like to mix the holocaust with other developments around the world, but the holocaust teaches us how organic man how barbaric man can become. As victims, we have the responsibility to update people. You something . You can say one more thing, because i want to hear it too. Amb. Gold the state of israel has many countries that turn to us. You would be surprised to know who they are. They indicate a desire to, under the table, have relations with us. I remember sitting with a senior european diplomat and asking them, we are in a dilemma. We want to expand diplomatic relations around the world, but sometimes these are rather horrible countries. What would you do . From the most important countries in western europe, i heard statements like, look, we believe in realpolitik. We would try and expand our diplomatic relations and basically turn away from the crimes that these countries are engaging in. That is horrible. As the state of israel, we should stand against that. We should advance policies that fight genocide, which is the most evil development, most evil policy, which we, part of the core of civilized countries, have to face. The now recognize gentlewoman from michigan for questions. Thank you so much for coming here and your incredible courage. I will make sure my sons hear yo ur testimony. It is important for my children to consistently hear exactly what the holocaust means so we dont repeat it. You are right, humankind, what it can lead to if we do nothing. Thank you for holding this important hearing today. It is comparative we imperative we learn from the lessons of holocaust and fight against antisemitism. In michigan i would tell young people you have to take on hate with action. I am honored to be a cosponsor of the never again education act as we make sure every generation understands what it means when we talk about the holocaust. When i visited the Holocaust Memorial center with my young son, i remember you spent the day reading everything he spent the day reading everything he could. They said he might be too young for the visuals. I said no, if he can see them in video games, he can see the reality. He was reading a whole wall of news clippings. Even the clippings documenting unspeakable atrocities of the holocaust. I never forget when he looked at me and said mamma, why did it take so long for people to do something about this . Even at that young age, he noticed the years before we finally set jews free. At such a young age, he recognized how slow the International Community was taking action. He could not comprehend how the world stepped back we are going to find out much too late about what is happening. What can you tell me about the environment that enabled hitler and the nazis to rise to power . Aboutan history teaches such atrocities . Thank you for sharing your personal perspective. I brought my son with me today. When you study the holocaust beyond nazi germany, you see hat e is only part of the story. It would be a mistake to think if we could just inoculate ourselves against racism, that people will not do bad things to other people. Much of what enabled the nazi rise to power has to do with motivations that are much more relatable, things like career aspirations, greed, fear, opportunism. Regimesee that the nazi offered great opportunities for women to be in roles they had not been in before. Many were complicit in killings as a result. The Eastern Front represented an environment in which social norms were broken down. I want us to be careful to think there was not a brainwashing of the german people, but the nuremberg laws most of what happened to what happened to jews was legal. Adam noticed that. He saw the slow but sure taking away of peoples properties. Smart kid. In the nuremberg laws, jewish doctors were not able to treat arion patient aryans patients. When your jewish dr. Doctor is gone, you will be quiet and think of it as an opportunity. Any one of us could have been part of that process, whether or not we were an antisemite in our hearts. One of the reasons i took my son to the Holocaust Museum is when he was nine years old, he heard me talk to his father about awful cartoon that depicted muslims that would invoke Violence Toward muslims. He comes into the bedroom and was like, dont worry, if anybody asks i am muslim, i will lie and say i am not. That struck me. Honey, no. Let this continue. You are doing incredible work. I love to see the naacp here. A pastor in detroit said it beautifully, we are not a country divided, we are disconnected. We need to understand each other as human beings that never need to be targeted based on faith or anything else. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for taking your son to witness Something Like that. Would take parents their children to places like that. Thank you very much. I now recognize the gentlelady from california for questions. Thank you. My colleague and i have the same age of sons. In sod to interest him many things. The only place he wanted to visit was the Holocaust Museum. The ongoing battle against hate is personal for my community in orange county. According to the San Diego County sheriffs department, the shooter posted an antisemitic message on 8chan before he went on his rampage. Ane man accused of killing 18yearold in lake forest was reportedly a number of a neonazi member of a neonazi group. He openly described himself as a nazi. I want to focus on the role of social media and their potential use as a platform for White Supremacists to spread hate. Did social media play a role in the execution of the attack at the tree of life synagogue . I cant answer that. Unfortunately the case is still under prosecution. I appreciate your professionalism. On a more general level, could you comment about what Research Tells Us about how White Supremacists are using social media today . Social media today has become a breeding ground of bigotry. Ran teams ofducts, engineers. Facebook is the front line in fighting hate. It used to be if you are a white supremacist, you had to go to a compound in idaho to find a rally. Now you can find them a click with a click. Your kids can literally, with a couple clicks on their phone, can engage in content that could never be printed on television or in film, it is now available to our children. There are Things Companies can do to start the process. We believe in the First Amendment at the adl. We started a center on technology and society. I had phds in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. Thingsshare some of the Silicon Valley could do today to tackle this problem. Number one, they have terms of service that prevent hate spee ch. All they need to do is recognize places, not private they are public companies. Just like you cant sit in panera and yell at mexicans, haters should be pushed out like that. You can find salacious content on cable in the middle of the night. Have editorial guidelines. Number three, slow it down. The shooter in christchurch who murdered 15 muslims, the shooter who tried to burst into a synagogue, the shooter in el paso used go pro cameras and livestreamed their snuff films. There is no law that says when i click publish, it should be available f billions for billions to see. They should use ai to stop it. Youtube shouldnt allow neonazis to make money on its content. Twitter should not allow extremists to literally profiteer off prejudice. Companies should to regular thirdparty audits. Facebook, youtube, twitter, these businesses have taken steps, but they have not done enough. If they would apply transparency and submit to the same practices all other businesses submit to, he would be able to independently verify whether they are doing enough to take the venom out of their systems. Thank you for your concrete suggestions. Im excited about bringing the u. S. Holocaust memorial newseums traveling museums traveling exhibition to irvine. I hope you can share with this committee what you hope the exhibit will be able to accomplish. I encourage those in d. C. To see it and i will speak in irvine. I have seen it twice. I now recognize the gentlelady from new mexico. Thank you for being here today. Thank you for your strength, courage, and sacrifice. I would like to honor the man fight ked tirelessly to hate and move the u. N. Genocide convention move forward. He also coined the word genocide. He would be proud of everyone of you for carrying on his legacy. , the fbi18 report found victims of antihispanic hate crimes increased 21 over the previous year. In my home state of new mexico, hate crimes have increased over 400 . That includes recently the shooting death and beating death of homeless native americans in turkey. In albuquerque. In elust, 2019, a gunman paso, texas shot and killed 22 people. Minutes before the rampage, the shooter posted an antiimmigrant manifesto and vowed to shoot as many mexicans as possible. Among those was a woman murdered that day. That she was 84 years old, the oldest of 10 siblings. She had 21 children and greatgrandchildren. Parents have lost their children, and yet we cant figure out how to stop reliving this night when nightmare. No one should have to live it, especially our immigrant communities. Hate has been weaponize to against so many weaponized against so any different communities. Beyour view, what might driving the increase of antilatino sentiment . I am grateful you asked this question. Vastlyimes are underreported. Sometimes this comes from the fact that people in the communities dont know to report their experience as hate crimes. Am deeply concerned about the immigrant and latino communities afraid to report these incidents. I know this because i have heard from them. Adl partnered with the government of mexico. We provided hate crimes training to officials across the United States. Over 2000. Mexican nationals living in the u. S. Are literally going to their consulates to say my child is being bullied at school. They are worried about rumors of i. C. E. Enforcement. Why is this happening . The antiimmigrant movement in the u. S. Has been empowered in ways we have never seen before. You have the kind of hateful rhetoric coming from people in positions of authority, starting with the white house, demonizing immigrants, dehumanizing latinos and people seeking refuge in ways that are unconscionable. Adl has done reporting on this. We need people in positions of authority to use it wisely and recognize this country needs to be welcoming of everyone, particularly Vulnerable People seeking refuge on our shores. We need to live up to those values today. Holocaust, many countries erected barriers to make it impossible for jewish people to emigrate. Is that correct . Not exactly. They did not need to erect barriers during the holocaust because the barriers were already in place. Immigration laws passed in this body in 1924 severely restricted immigration based on country of oregon. Of origin. The United States did not have any refugee policy. There was no refugee policy and the United States during the holocaust. We simply did not treat peoplewh who were fleeing from violence differently than an economic immigrant. It was not a priority of the United States government at the time. I have one more. I think i am out of time. I yield. I now recognize the gentleman from missouri for questions. Thanks for convening this hearing today on this important subject. I want to thank the panel for your testimony. In my district in st. Louis, i have a large and historic Jewish Community, which i have enjoyed a great friendship with over many decades. Three years ago, a few blocks from my home, a Historic Jewish cemetery in missouri was vandalized, causing shock and pain to families. I had the opportunity to work with them to make the cemetery whole again. I considered it not only my duty, but an obligation of faith. Earlier the st. Louis generation announced an extension of this remarkable holocaust expansion of this remarkable Holocaust Museum. It is essential not just to honor the memory of the victims, but because future generations can beginevil deeds with hateful words. And people running silent. Remain silent. Many of us remember the quote from the united the right rally in charlottesville. We watched in horror as White Supremacists and neonazis boldly marched with their torches, changing jews will not replace us and into the ovens. One selfdescribed neonazi rammed his car into a group of protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring others. Is athe ovens, i believe, holocaust reference, would you agree . Yes. Do you believe the public at large understood the words . Cance of those some do, some dont. In the aftermath of charlottesville, we created an educational website so people could understand the dog whistles and symbols being invoked. After everything you experienced, how does it make you feel to see seems like charlottesville scenes like charlottesville . What does that do for you . Memories like that keep coming back. When i was seven and eight, i saw violence against jewish children. It wakes me up more. I am trying to do as much as i can while i am alive. Once we are going, it is hard what it is hard to know happened. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you. How does the Antidefamation League define neonazi . Weathe adl, at the adl, defined asmists neonazi, its iconography. How would you characterize the threat of neonazism in the u. S. Today . Do you believe the charlottesville march reflects increasing antisemitism . The issue today is less nazi sm and more extremism. I worry about the violent rightwing extremism which has been responsible for 73 of the extremist related murders in this country in the last decade. I worry about the rightwing extremism responsible for murders in 2018. I worry about the right wing extremism that promotes a toxic ideology in which african americans, jews, muslims, lgbtq people, immigrants, anyone different is demonized and ultimately they think should be murdered. We have seen that play out in pittsburgh, in el paso, in too many places in the past few years. How would you characterize the actions of a Top White House official Stephen Miller and how he fed into this frenzy . We are on the record as calling for the resignation of Stephen Miller because of his utilization of white supremacist ideas and ideology. We have seen the documents released showing he was trying to promote this in the media. Ultimately we judge people based hishat they do and policies dont reflect our values in this country. Refugee dson of a it is a disgrace we dont embrace refugees here. I now recognize the very patient gentleman from new jersey. Fighttakes patience to antisemitism. [laughter] thank you. Mr. Greenblatt, you said adls Research Shows the increase of antisemitic attacks in the United States is not caused by a change of attitude among americans, but rather the millions of americans feeling these views are emboldened to act on hate. Obviously there is a lot of explicit antisemitic rhetoric in the public sphere today, charges of dual loyalty, for example. A number of questions focus on less explicit examples. Ms. Debbie Wasserman Schultz asked you about conspiracy theories. I wanted to be more explicit about that. When people in the publics fear public sphere rail against whenlists, the deep state, public jews are attacked for controlling the state department or mass media, does that make for a safer climate for Jewish Americans . Obviously those tropes create an environment that is dangerous for jews and all people. When you talk about it being the public sphere, let me give you an example. I invite you to open up youtube and look at the comments on this hearing, which i just learned are rpe are ripe with the antisemitic conspiracy he is asking me about. This is a clear and present danger unfolding as we speak. You were also asked about antiimmigrant rhetoric. Rhetorical attacks on immigrants threatening our country, statements in the same category about the impact of safety on Jewish Americans. Yes. These are invocations of classic antisemitic tropes and longstanding stereotypes. They were used to justify restrictive immigration laws in the 21st century and used to dehumanize people today. Shooter in pittsburgh cited his paranoid fears about immigrants invading america and blaming jews for funding refugees in the United States, is that not correct . That is accurate. Demonization of israel, such as movements like dbds, contributes to a less safe environment for Jewish Americans. Is it enough to be proisrael . I am unabashedly zionist. My organization is proud to be proisrael. I will tell you the architects of the bds campaign absolutely contributes to antisemitism. There is no doubt delegitimizing that you wis the jewish state delegitimize is the jewish people. Can be we need to say we proisrael but also be antibigotry. Those things are not necessarily the same. You mentioned the Embassy Opening in jerusalem. I was in favor of recognizing jerusalem as the capital of israel. An evangelical pastor was invited by the administration to say the opening prayer at that ceremony. He claims to be proisrael. He also said you cannot be saved being a jew. He said judaism, like other nonchristian religions, not only leads people away from the true god, they lead to an eternity of separation from god and hell. That is from someone who claims to be proisrael and gave the invocation at that ceremony. Do you see how it is possible to be superficially proisrael whlie contributing while intervening to the claimant that makes climate makes it less safe for jews in america . The expression is due diligence. Hopefully when you organize ceremonies of such importance, for the United States government or any power in the world, you have to check who is coming. A sense here. I really dont want to jump into the american domestic scene. But it seems like everything is coming from the right. And my understanding of the rebirth of antisemitism is its both leftwing and rightwing. Its both. You cant just lean over and say its one and ignore the other, whatpefully when we decide are the source of antisemitism that are confronting us, we are blind. We look at both sources. I fully agree and i think most of us would agree the extremes of left and right tend to come together. And antisemitism is the place where they come together. Thank you. I yield back. Without objection, the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Doyle, shall be permitted to participate in todays hearing. And the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for questions. I think the chair. First of all, i want to say for being hereu, today. Its a very hard testimony. We must continue to hear these stories so that we never, ever forget. I think its most important for young people, the young generations coming up, to make sure that they know this, too. I also want to welcome and thank you for being here today and what you did for the city of pittsburgh. For the panelists and people here in the audience, Squirrel Hill, a neighborhood in pittsburgh where this horrific attack took place, is a kind of neighborhood that you would never expect anything like this to be possible. This is a multiracial, communityral, vibrant where people of all faiths and ethnicities get along with one another and work on Community Projects together. When i saw the television that morning, i was in my kitchen, that there was an active shooter down and Squirrel Hill and the inf life, it almost the tree of life, it almost did not register at first. I guess we were learning that there is really no place that is 100 safe, no matter even though we had the sense of security in our neighborhoods that nothing bad ever happens, we see something bad can happen. Couldi wonder if you explain the ways and places you would never expect to have these kinds of incidents. For signs do you look for signs of hate and violence, and how do you engage with social media for security purposes, too . Do you think the attack on the tree of life changed the way the pittsburgh Jewish Community views their security . Sure. I think it was a watershed moment for the entire Jewish Community across the country. Nobody thatburke and Squirrel Hill would have ever imagined that. But i think anybody that has been involved in a mass casualty attack would say the same thing, it never happens to us. That is why our work is so important. The network that we do now across the country, to make awareness, teach our communities to be resilient, to be First Responders. It can happen to anyone, anywhere. A lot of things we have learned over the last five or six years during mass casualty events, active shooter events, is that we need to do a better job in educating our community on what to do in case they are attacked. In the case of social media, we are working very hard in the Jewish Community in National Platforms through the secure Community Network. The Organization Work the organization i work with now, to establish social media signs and to find these of hate. In pittsburgh, most people did not know who Patriot Front identity robot was. We see those signs all over pittsburg. Its important to us to educate the community. Any piece this miss of hate, even if it is a piece of paper on a telephone pole. We want to identify them, assess the threat, and mitigate the next attack. Social media plays a big role in this. We work handinhand with the fbi. The fbi needs help. They cant openly search social media sites. They have to rely on the community. The Community Needs to be great partners with Law Enforcement so we cannot dismiss any signs of hate. Thank you. I seeyour testimony in your testimony something really powerful, that the enemy of the holocaust and Holocaust Survivors like yourself is just time. What are the ways you can spread and amplify your story and the story of other survivors to get it to young people some ensure they understand . Holocaust museum. We travel with a museum to various colleges. We speak to various groups. The important things that we do right now is educate. Very important to educate. I constantly say education is so important, and i will continue to do so. Somadam chair, thank you much for your gracious time. Yourank you for contribution. Without objection, the following documents shall be made a part of the hearing record, written testimony from organizations and theviduals including liz, holocaust survivor and president of the Central Valley holocaust educators network, julie raymond, the political outreach director, deborah lawter, executive director of new York City Office for prevention of hate crimes, the director of legislative affairs and Deputy Director of the International Center for human aghts and public policy, report from the Jewish Federations of north america, adl president rom jonathan greenblad. I want to thank all of my colleagues, especially a remarkable distinguished panel, for your wisdom, your insight, your ideas, and your time. For being with us and sharing this incredible hearing with us. I think we know that we have a lot more work to do and that we cant sit back and let these acts of hate go on confronted unconfronted. Combat bigotry and hatred of all kinds. I thank you for your advocacy in your guidance. The committee will be continuing the series of hearings. I welcome all of you, all of the members of the panel here, and of congress to give me your ideas for an additional thoughts, proposals you think the committee should review. I want to thank you again and i would like to thank our witnesses for testifying today. Without objection, all members will have five legislative days with which to submit additional written questions for the witnesses to the chair, which will be forwarded to the witnesses for the responses. Pleasehe witness is to respond as promptly as you are able. I do want to say a very special thank you to the Holocaust Museum for working with congress , dr. Friedberg, we are hopeful they were passed our bill in the senate. Will pass our bill in the senate. That teachers can access fair lesson plans to teach acceptance. We hope it will pass with the allocation and funding so that we can take some of your exhibits to every Congressional District in the country to learn more about how we can combat hate. Again. To thank you its been a remarkable hearing. I am very inspired. Thank you for being here and your wisdom and inspiring all of us. This meeting is adjourned. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performe [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] join us today at 65 p. M. Eastern for the results of the nevada caucuses. Present results, candidate speeches from joe biden, senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and amy kojak, Pete Buttigieg and your calls about campaign 2020. Ive coverage on cspan on demand on cspan. Org or listen live on the free cspan radio app. One of the factors is the especially high turnout. About 75,000 votes were cast in four days of early voting. The first time that option has been used in a caucus anywhere. You had all these people, people who were trying to get donald trump elected, did you ever call them despicable . The what you said it was despicable for me to represent the president of the United States . [applause] why are you drawing the lines calling me despicable because i was the lawyer standing up for the constitution of the United States but it is ok to not call despicable. To get trumpg elected. Im trying to defend the constitution of the americans and you call that despicable. [applause] that is not a question, it is a speech. Let me tell you something, you did not defend the constitution of the United States. You could constitution of the United States into the gutter. I feel that very strongly and thats why i said it was. See more of this debate between Alan Dershowitz and bob shrum sunday night at 9 00 eastern on cspan, cspan. Org and the cspan radio app. Experts from George Washington university, the Royal United Services institute and the state department talked about combating propaganda and this information campaigns state and nonstate actors. They also explored this information campaigns and how western democracies can respond