Test captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2008 a skinhead who shop lifts a beer, why would you ever end that case without requiring that person to undergo a tolerance program. So ive had the great privilege of sitting down with prosecution and Law Enforcement leaders, in jersey city, in tea neck, in new york and now by the way also in germany, i met with prosecutors and justice officials, from seven separate german states, to coordinate our efforts, and specifically to talk about dealing with hate crimes, even when the conduct is very low level. Because if we intervene, early, in an alienated angry kids life, not only are we protecting the Jewish Community from future violence, but we are doing the best thing we could do for that young man, by intervening and correcting their path. And so this is a critical point. Commissioner bauer . Always great to see you, sir. And i commend you for the work that youre doing. I dont want to invite you to get into an area of American Foreign policy that you might not want to tread in, so forgive me if im making it incomparable, but iran has been in the news a lot lately. And the thought struck me that in addition to all of the other controversy iran is the only nation that im aware of that seems to have, as an item of their reason for existence, the promise of a second holocaust. Theyre the only government that im aware of that regularly uses Government Resources to bring tens of thousands of people into the street to chant death to the jews or death to israel. And yet, it seems to me that everything from corporations, looking to where to invest, or European Countries, trying to make trade deals, theres always a great deal of resistance about doing much about iran, and isnt this the perfect example of how people give lip service to antisemitism, but theyre not willing to ever call out a a very a nation with some power and its getting more powerful and it threatens to have a Nuclear Weapon some day, when antisemitism appears to be one of the core reasons they exist . Well, commissioner bauer, thank you, and i couldnt agree with you more. Iran is not only the worlds leading state sponsor of terrorism, it is the worlds chief trafficker in antisemitism. Iran, the Islamic Republic of iran has pushed antisemitic dogma throughout the middle east and throughout the muslim world beyond the middle east and when one looks at violence against jews in western europe, much of which comes from a radicalized Muslim Community, you have to look back at iran that is responsible for so much antisemitism venom throughout the arab world. What happens in the middle east doesnt stay in the middle east. What happens in the middle east affects the european street and in many cases the u. S. College campus. Antisemitism is not ancillary to the ideology of the Islamic Republic of iran. It is a central foundational component of the ideology of that regime. And we have to be clear about it and we have to confront it, and call it out for what it is. And you know, ive been asking our friends around the world, how is it possible to talk about protecting jews and to talk about fighting antisemitism, when theres a refusal to designate hezbollah a terrorist organization . If youre not willing to designate hezbollah a terrorist organization, then protecting jews seems to be a goal that has not been achieved. And so i thank you for your question and for shedding light on this. Its a critical component of what iran is doing and weve got to confront it. Thank you, sir. Vice chair manchin . Thank you so much for your remarks and insight, and i want to dig a little deeper when youre talking about the internet and that dark world and i think across the world, even here in the United States, i think that something as parents and teachers, we fear that dark underside. As you go into this new decade, are there any ideas on how we really go about attacking in some way limiting or blocking or, what are the ideas, moving forward, that we start combatting this force thats out there . Thank you, vice chair manchin, for that question. Its a vexing policy challenge because we dont want to trespass upon the First Amendment certainly. That is one of the things that makes america great. And we would never attenuate freedom of speech. So how do we do this . There are several things that we can and should be doing and i had the privilege of participating in a meeting with leading social Media Companies, together with the agls, hosted in new york by the agl, and i was part of that meeting. First of all, antisemitic speech very often violates the terms of use of these sites and platforms. So we should be encouraging, not censorship, but these platforms, to enforce their own terms. Why wouldnt they . They are terms of use. Well, they should enforce the terms of use it. Its not the government doing it, its them doing it. They claim theyre committed to doing it, so we should work with them to help them do that. Second of all, exposure. We have got to expose this very venom, especially whats being trafficked in the dark web. Americans have no idea whats going on. I will tell you one piece of information that was recently uncovered and that hasnt been widely disseminated yet, is that there is a campaign by, believe it or not, the neonazi far right, specifically focused on innercity africanamerican communities, to turn africanamericans against jews. Of course, they dont do it as neonazis but they hide their identities and theyre putting forth materials specifically meant to poison africanamerican jewish relations. These things need to be exposed. People have to understand whats being done, how focussed it is, how deliberate it is, that there are maligned actors that are actively working, utilizing the internet, for all of the good that, of course, technology has given our world, but utilizing this as a vehicle for enormous evil and great destructive power. So third of all, second of all, exposure. Third of all, incitement to violence is not protected speech by the First Amendment. We have to get very serious in enforcing that. Thats not censorship. If anything, leaves the realm of First Amendment protections, the United States should be coming down like a ton of bricks on that speech. We should say, okay, once you cross the line, thats it, we are absolutely going to, first of all, to the extent a crime is committed, prosecute that crime, but certainly, certainly, prevent it from being disseminated. That is not an encroachment on the First Amendment and thats something that weve got to do. Those three things will go a long way to addressing the problem. Thank you. Commissioner moore . What you said here is incredible. Youve already touched on this a bit. But do you feel like the Tech Companies in this country are utilizing the fullness of their resources to address this problem . And the reason why, is because it seems as if Silicon Valley can make anything happen, right . Its the place where miracles happen. And yet anyone who is a public figure, as soon as something controversial happens, automatically sees all of these things, you know, i know a number of evangelical leaders across america who are the subject of iranian trolling just a couple of days ago, you know, threats, these things are everywhere, and so you wonder, are these Tech Companies, are they really, really paying attention . Are they really, really working on this problem . My impression, and obviously, there are a lot of Tech Companies so i would never paint them with a broad brush, and Different Companies are doing different things, and implementing different measures. My impression is that there is a growing awareness that this is a problem that has to be dealt with and that if the Tech Companies dont do deal with it, the United States government may deal with. And now, im not going to i deal with antisemitism, im not advocating policy or legislation here. However, i think there is a growing realization in the tech world that the leadership of our country and our policymakers understand that something has to be done. And so i have Seen Real Movement here and a real willingness to take on this problem. Im very encouraged by that. So i think weve got to give it time and see, and i think weve got to work with these Tech Companies to support them and to make sure that they understand that, you know, we want to let them have the space to take care of this problem. Thats very important. I look forward to doing that. Again, we had a very productive meeting in new york with several of these very prominent companies. I look forward to going to the bay area and actually meeting with them there. Ive already had those conversations. And im encouraged by the movement were seeing. It is not sufficient to this point. But were moving in the right direction. Mr. Carr, thank you so much for making time to be here today. We appreciate your testimony. Thank you to all of you for your vital work. [ applause ] were going to transition to our third panel of expert witnesses. I will introduce them as they come up. Deb bora lipst tax dt is professor of holocaust studies at Emory University in atlanta. [ applause ] we also have sharon nazarian, she is a Senior Vice President of International Affairs and heads adls work on fighting antisemitism and racial hatred globally, including in europe, latin america and the middle east. And then ambassador akbar ahmed, who is the chair of islamic studies at the American University here in washington, d. C. Grateful for all of them as well as Rabbi Abraham Cooper who is the associate dean global director social action agenda as well. Were glad to have him with us today as well. So we will begin with deb bora making her opening comments and we will go down the line and the commissioners will have questions. Thank you. Thank you to the commission, thank you to the chair of the commission for holding this very important gathering. Recently, a welleducated accomplished man, the ceo of a fortune 500 company was present when i was giving a talk and a seminar to a small group on antisemitism. He listened intently. Not a jew. And when it came time for questions, he said to me jews are so smart, so accomplished, how is it that they have not been able to solve this problem . His question was sincere. But i pointed out to him, kindly, that it was directed in the wrong direction. He should be asking the perpetrator. This past sunday, i marched across the Brooklyn Bridge. That was unexpected. I marched across the Brooklyn Bridge standing next to a woman who carried a sign, this catholic hates antisemitism. When i thanked her for being there, she said its more, its our problem, more than its your problem. And she was right. But its the victim who bleeds. Suffice it to say, that antisemitism is a problem for all of us. There is no easy solution to antisemitism because its a prej ju disand prejudice is irrational. Think of the word prejudice, prejudge, ive made up my mind, dont confuse me with the facts, we decide who and what a person is, the person may still be two blocks away, but their stereotype is in front of us. That doesnt mean that members of a particular group cant be people who do bad things. But when one person, or even a small group, from a Minority Group or a particular group does something wrong and then the people say oh, they are all like that, weve moved into the realm of prejudice. Now, while antisemitism is a prejudice and shares many of the characteristics of racism, homophobia, other prejudices, fear of muslims, it is different, also. First of all, its a conspiracy theory. Conspiracy theorists find culprits to blame for something that they find threatening or bothersome. The conspiracy theorists reject logic. So if you were to explain antisemitism, the irrationality of antisemitism to a conspiracy theorist, they would just blow you off. They arent interested in logic. They are prejudiced, and thats how they look at things. Secondly, antisemitism is unlike other prejudices because it comes from the right and from the left. Usually a prejudice only comes from one side, but here, this is the one place where the right and the left, the far right, the far left, however you want to describe it, exists in perfect and happy harmony. Thirdly, antisemitism is different and contrasted to racism. The racist punches down. The racist looks at the person of color, whomever they may be, whatever color they may be, and says youre not as smart as us. Theyre not as capable as us. If their children go to our schools, there goes the school, if they move into our neighborhood, there goes the neighborhood. In contrast, the antisemite, who often is a racist punches up, the jews are more powerful, theyre smarter, theyre richer, so they not only have to be hated, they have to be feared and when you put that together with the conspiracy theory, you have a toxic brew. Simply put, antisemitism makes people stupid. It is delusional. Think about it. The antisemite says the jew is the communist. The antisemite says the jew is the rothchild, the capitalist, last time i checked you cant be both at the same time. The antisemite says the jews are clannish and stick together, the antisemite says the jews are pushy and always want to live in neighborhoods where theyre not wanted, be in schools and clubs and groups where theyre not wanted. Last time i checked you cant be clannish and pushing into other groups at the same time. But thats logic. And the antisemite detests logic. Antisemitism isnt something random, its not disliking a jew, i dislike a lot of jews, everyone here, come on, you want to see disliking, come to my synagogue, oh, theyre watching. You are going to make me compare it with baptists dont. Do that. Afterwards, well, have you know, i would say we would have a drink, but i dont know if thats allowed. Antisemitism is not disliking a jew. It is disliking someone because they are a jew. It is persistent. It has a structure. And it has a template. You can recognize it. It began as antijudaism, but soon, as christianity, differentiated itself from another religion, not something unheard of, when there are two religions, particularly so closely connected, but it quickly migrated out of the confines of the church, out of the confines of religion, to the opposite end of the spectrum, to karl marx who hated all religion but if you read what he wrote about jews it sounded line the worst of an antisemitic Church Father and the nazis, the eugenisists they were all saying the same thing, left, right, center, it doesnt matter. One of the most widely known antisemitic sources, easily available, youre talking about hightech, previously with special envoy carr, is the protocols of the elders of zion, easily available on amazon, in many different iterations. A publication that began having nothing to do with jews and was in the hands of czarist russia, they changed the culprit from someone else to put in jews, and it has maintained itself as a best seller. Car magnet henry ford distributed half a million copies in the early decades of the previous century. And despite the fact that it has been exposed, its available today in french and german and arabic and an array of other languages. Holocaust denial. Holocaust denial is not only contra to history, the holocaust says the dubious distinction of being the best documented genocide in the world. For deniers to be right, who would have to be wrong . The victims . The bystanders who watch the trains going into the camps day after day or who were near the shooting sites . Thousands of historians would either have to be in on the hoax or have been duped. And the perpetrators themselves, in not one war crimes trial since the end of world war ii, not just of germans but of anyone of any nationality as a perpetrator said it didnt happen. I didnt do it. I was only following orders. But not, it didnt happen. But what will deniers tell you . Oh, the jews did this why, to get reparations, a fancy word for money, part of the antisemitic template. They forceded the allies to have hearings in nuremberg, they were so powerful, money, power, conspiracy, the antisemitic template. S as youve heard before, today we see antisemitism on the right. We see it on the left. We see it from islamic extremists. We see it from atheists. Always relying on the same things. Ultimately, as i said, i believe that on some level, and its a sad thing to say because i fight it and i write about it and i teach about it in lecture, but antisemitism can be described as a herpes disease. If you know, herpes until recently, there was no way of curing forms of herpes, if you had it, you were under pressure, the bride who wakes up on the morning of her wedding of a cold sore, the person who gets a outbreak of herpes before a big interview, it was always there and came out with tension, and so too with antisemitism, it takes many different forms and it persists. What then can we do about it . Its irrational. We cant simply throw up our hands in defeat. We must understand it. Understand its history. We must call it out. Youve heard some very good suggestions from the two previous people testifying. We must challenge it. We must take it seriously. We must never let it overwhelm us. The costs of doing so are too great. And we must act now. Later will be too late. Thank you very much. [ applause ] thank you, dr. Lipstadt. Ms. Nazarian. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for holding this hearing and for inviting me to testify today. Since 1913, adls mission has been to stop the defamation of the jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment for all. I lead adls International Affairs division, which seeks to promote the security of jewish communities