On the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke about the terrifying rise in antisemitism in the U.S.
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00:00 the rise of anti-Semitism in America.
00:03 I feel compelled to speak because I'm the highest-ranking
00:08 Jewish elected official in America.
00:11 In fact, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official ever
00:16 in American history.
00:18 And I have noticed a significant disparity
00:22 between how Jewish people regard the rise of anti-Semitism
00:27 and how many of my non-Jewish friends regard it.
00:31 To us, the Jewish people, the rise of anti-Semitism
00:35 is a crisis, a five-alarm fire that must be extinguished.
00:40 For so many other people of goodwill,
00:46 it is merely a problem, a matter of concern.
00:50 So today, I want to use my platform to explain why
00:55 so many Jewish people see this problem as a crisis.
00:59 Before I get into that, I want to offer
01:04 two important caveats about what this speech is not.
01:08 This speech is not an attempt to label most criticism
01:13 of Israel and the Israeli government
01:17 generally as anti-Semitic.
01:20 I don't believe that criticism is.
01:22 And this speech is also not an attempt
01:26 to pit hate towards one group against that of another.
01:31 I believe that bigotry against one group of Americans
01:34 is bigotry against all,
01:36 and that's why I've championed legislation
01:39 like the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act,
01:42 which targets violence against Asian Americans,
01:45 and the Nonprofit Security Grant Program,
01:48 which provides funding to help all houses of worship,
01:51 churches, mosques, synagogues, gurdwaras,
01:55 and to protect them from extremists.
01:58 When President Trump called for a Muslim ban
02:02 during the first weeks of his presidency,
02:05 I held an emergency press conference
02:07 to protest the ban alongside a Muslim mom
02:11 and four of her daughters, all dressed in chadors,
02:15 who said they feared they might never
02:18 see their father again.
02:21 It was a deeply distressing moment,
02:23 and I'm an emotional sort.
02:26 I began to cry.
02:28 President Trump saw me crying on TV
02:31 and gave me a nickname, Cryin' Chuck Schumer.
02:35 I was and am proud of that moniker.
02:38 The growing and vibrant Arab community,
02:42 Arab American community,
02:44 is a vital part of our nation and of my city,
02:48 and I condemn unequivocally any vitriol
02:51 and hatred against them.
02:53 We tragically saw where such hatred can lead sometimes
02:58 in Vermont this week, and that is unacceptable.
03:02 But today, I want to focus my remarks on antisemitism,
03:08 because it hits so close to home for me,
03:11 and because I believe this moment demands it.
03:16 I've just said what this speech is not.
03:20 So what is this speech about?
03:22 I want to describe the fears and anxieties
03:25 of many Jewish Americans right now,
03:27 particularly after October 7th,
03:30 who feel there are aspects of the debate
03:33 around Israel and Gaza that are crossing over
03:36 into antisemitism, rank antisemitism,
03:39 with Jewish people simply being targeted for being Jewish.
03:45 Having nothing to do with Israel.
03:48 I want to explain through the lens of history
03:51 why this is so dangerous.
03:53 The normalization and exacerbation of this rise in hate
03:57 is the danger many Jewish people fear most.
04:01 And finally, I want to suggest how and why I hope
04:05 that all Americans of goodwill can come together
04:08 and do a better job of condemning such views
04:11 and such behavior.
04:13 But first, let us establish the facts.
04:17 There's no question that antisemitism
04:19 is a serious problem in America.
04:21 In general, Jewish Americans represent 2%
04:25 of the US population, yet we are the targets
04:29 of 55% of all religion-based hate crimes
04:32 recorded by the FBI.
04:34 This problem has been steadily worsening in recent years,
04:40 but after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th,
04:44 hate crimes against Jewish Americans have skyrocketed.
04:48 The Anti-Defamation League estimates
04:49 that antisemitic incidents have increased
04:51 nearly 300% since October 7th.
04:55 The NYPD has recorded a 214% increase in New York City.
05:00 And after October 7th, Jewish Americans
05:04 are feeling singled out, targeted,
05:09 and isolated.
05:10 In many ways, we feel alone.
05:14 The solidarity that Jewish Americans initially received
05:19 from many of our fellow citizens
05:21 was quickly drowned out by other voices.
05:25 While the dead bodies of Jewish Israelis were still warm,
05:29 while hundreds of Jewish Israelis
05:31 were being carried as hostages
05:33 back to Hamas tunnels under Gaza,
05:35 Jewish Americans were alone.
05:38 Jewish Americans were alarmed to see
05:40 some of our fellow citizens
05:42 characterize a brutal terrorist attack as justified
05:46 because of the actions of the Israeli government.
05:50 A vicious, blood-curdling, premeditated massacre
05:54 of innocent women, men, children, the elderly, justified.
05:59 Even worse, in some cases,
06:03 people even celebrated what happened,
06:07 describing it as the deserved fate of, quote, colonizers,
06:11 and calling for glory to the martyrs
06:16 who carried out these heinous attacks.
06:19 That happened here in America.
06:22 Many of the people who expressed these sentiments
06:25 in America aren't neo-Nazis, or card-carrying Klan members,
06:29 or Islamist extremists.
06:32 They're, in many cases, people that most liberal
06:35 Jewish Americans felt previously
06:37 were their ideological fellow travelers.
06:41 Not long ago, many of us marched together
06:44 for black and brown lives.
06:46 We stood against anti-Asian hatred.
06:48 We protested bigotry against the LGBTQ community.
06:52 We fought for reproductive justice
06:55 out of the recognition that injustice
06:58 against one oppressed group is injustice against all.
07:04 But apparently, Mr. President, in the eyes of some,
07:08 this principle does not extend to the Jewish people.
07:13 The largely Ashkenazi survivors of decades of pogroms
07:16 in Imperial Russia and the Holocaust under Nazi Germany,
07:20 their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren,
07:23 the Mizrahi who were forcibly evicted from Arab countries
07:27 and their descendants, the many Sephardim
07:30 who were scattered across the Mediterranean
07:32 after they were expelled from Spain and Portugal
07:35 in the late 1400s, do they not deserve the solidarity
07:40 of those who advocate for the rights
07:42 and dignity of the oppressed,
07:44 given the long history of persecution
07:47 of the Jewish people throughout the world?
07:50 Many of those protesting Israeli policy
07:53 note that at least 700,000 Palestinians
07:57 displaced or forced from their homes in 1948,
08:01 but they never mention the 600,000 Mizrahi Jews
08:04 across the Arab world who were also displaced,
08:08 whose property was confiscated,
08:09 whose lives were threatened,
08:12 who were expelled from their communities.
08:14 The hope at the time was that there would be two states,
08:19 a Jewish state and a Palestinian state,
08:21 living side by side.
08:23 The plan was for the state of Israel
08:25 to absorb the Jewish people from Arab lands
08:28 and the new Palestinian state to absorb the Palestinians
08:31 who now lived in Israel.
08:33 In fact, Israel did absorb the displaced Jewish people
08:36 of Arab lands, but the Arab nations insisted,
08:40 but the Arab nations instead sanctioned the United Nations
08:45 to set up refugee camps for the Palestinians,
08:48 refusing to accept the possibility
08:51 that any of them would ever be relocated.
08:53 Several times throughout history,
08:56 Israeli prime ministers called for a return
09:00 to close to the pre-1967 borders
09:03 established by the United Nations plan.
09:06 Those calls were rejected by Yasser Arafat,
09:11 the PLO, and the wider Arab community.
09:15 Many, if not most Jewish Americans, including myself,
09:20 supported two-state solution.
09:22 We disagree with Prime Minister Netanyahu
09:25 and his administration's encouragement
09:28 of militant settlers in the West Bank,
09:30 which has become a considerable obstacle
09:32 to a two-state nation.
09:33 But the reason why I invoke history
09:37 about the founding of the Israeli state
09:40 is because forgetting or even deliberately ignoring
09:43 this vital context is dangerous.
09:46 Some of the most extreme rhetoric against Israel
09:50 has emboldened anti-Semites who are attacking Jewish people
09:53 simply because they are Jewish,
09:55 independent of anything having to do with Israel.
09:59 And those who are inclined to examine the world
10:04 through the lens of oppressors versus the oppressed
10:06 should take note that the many thousands of years
10:12 of Jewish history are defined by oppression.
10:16 From October 7th, 2023 in Southern Israel,
10:21 to 2018 at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh,
10:23 to 1999 at the Los Angeles JCC,
10:27 to 1986 at the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul,
10:31 to 1974 at the Netev Meir Elementary School in Malot,
10:35 to Yom Kippur, 1973 in the Golan Heights,
10:39 to 1972 at the Munich Olympics in Lod Airport,
10:43 to 1967 at the Straits of Tehran,
10:47 to the 1940s and '30s in Germany and Central Europe,
10:50 to the 1800s in the Pale of Settlement,
10:53 to 1679 in Yemen, to 1492 in Spain,
10:57 1394 in France, to 1290 in England,
11:01 to the Crusades in the Middle Ages,
11:03 to 629 in Galilee,
11:05 to the year 73 in Jerusalem, to 586 BC in Judea,
11:14 to 722 BCE CE in Samaria,
11:17 to the 13th century BCE in Egypt,
11:20 the Jewish people.
11:23 Have been humiliated, ostracized, expelled,
11:28 enslaved, and massacred for millennia.
11:33 To paraphrase lines recited every year,
11:37 century after century at Passover Seder,
11:40 this is the bread of affliction
11:44 that our forefathers ate in the land of Egypt.
11:47 In every generation, they rise up to destroy us.
11:53 For Jewish people all across the world,
11:56 the history of our trauma going back many generations
11:59 is central to any discussion about our future.
12:03 To many Americans, especially in our younger generation,
12:08 too many Americans, especially in our younger generation,
12:11 don't have a full understanding of this history
12:15 because some Jewish people have done well in America,
12:18 because Israel has increased its power and territory,
12:21 there are people who feel that Jewish Americans
12:24 are not vulnerable, that we have the strength and security
12:27 to overcome prejudice and bigotry,
12:30 that we have, to quote the language of some,
12:34 become the quote oppressors.
12:36 In fact, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories
12:41 throughout the generations often theorize,
12:44 often weaponize this very dynamic
12:50 by pitting what successes the Jewish people
12:53 have achieved against them
12:55 and against their fellow countrymen.
12:58 That's been throughout history, it's happening now.
13:00 But for many Jewish Americans,
13:04 any strength and security that we enjoy
13:06 always feels tenuous.
13:08 No matter how well we're doing,
13:10 it can all be taken away in an instant.
13:13 That's just how it is.
13:16 We only have to look back a century, a few generations,
13:19 to see how this can happen.
13:20 Growing up, I remember my grandfather telling me
13:25 that he rooted for Germany over Russia in World War I
13:29 because Germans treated the Jewish people
13:31 so much better than Russia did.
13:34 In the early 1900s, German Jews were one of the most secure
13:38 and prosperous ethnic communities in Europe.
13:41 But in the span of a decade, all of that changed.
13:45 When the Nazis first marched in the streets
13:47 and held rallies decrying the so-called
13:50 international financiers, war profiteers, communists,
13:54 many Germans of goodwill either stayed silent
13:58 or marched alongside of them,
14:00 not necessarily realizing what they were aiding and abetting.
14:03 But when Adolf Hitler took the podium
14:06 just a few years later at the Reichstag,
14:08 it was clear by then that the terms international financiers,
14:13 war profiteers, communists, represented the Jewish people,
14:17 who Hitler called parasites,
14:20 feeding on the body and productive work of other nations.
14:24 By bits and pieces, the Nazis softened the ground rhetorically
14:29 for what Hitler eventually stated was his true goal,
14:33 quote, "The annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe."
14:38 And so many of those Germans of goodwill
14:42 who marched in the early years of Hitler's ascension
14:45 stayed on the sidelines
14:47 after his horrifying intent was made clear.
14:49 The end result, as we all know,
14:54 was the most targeted and systematic genocide
14:57 in all of human history.
15:00 Six million Jewish people were exterminated in a few years,
15:04 while so many others turned a blind eye.
15:08 History shows that anti-Semitism is deeply embedded in Europe.
15:13 I have always said it is the poison of European societies.
15:17 Anti-Semitism is the poison of European societies,
15:20 just as racism against black Americans
15:22 is the poison of our society.
15:25 And while we're thankfully a far ways away
15:28 from Nazi Germany today,
15:30 this is why many people worry about the marches today,
15:34 especially in Europe.
15:36 What may begin as legitimate criticism of Israeli policy,
15:40 or even a valid debate over other religious,
15:42 economic, and political issues,
15:44 can sometimes cross into something darker,
15:48 attacking Jewish people for simply being Jewish.
15:52 Obviously, many of those marching here in the US
15:57 do not have any evil intent.
15:59 But when Jewish people hear chants
16:01 like "From the River to the Sea,"
16:04 a founding slogan of Hamas,
16:06 a terrorist group that is not shy about their goal
16:09 to eradicate the Jewish people in Israel
16:12 and around the globe,
16:14 we are alarmed.
16:15 When we see signs in the crowd
16:19 that read "By any means necessary,"
16:24 after the most violent attack ever
16:26 against Israeli civilians,
16:28 we are appalled at the casual invocation
16:33 of such savagery.
16:34 When we see protesters at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
16:38 compare the genocide of the Holocaust
16:41 equivalently to the Israeli Army's action
16:45 to defeat Hamas in self-defense of their people,
16:48 we are shocked.
16:49 And when we see many people in news organizations
16:54 remain neutral about the basic absurdity
16:56 of these claims and actions,
16:59 we are deeply disappointed.
17:02 More than anything, we're worried.
17:04 Quite naturally, given the twists and turns of history
17:10 about where these actions and sentiments
17:12 could eventually lead.
17:13 Now, this is no intellectual exercise for us.
17:20 For many Jewish people,
17:22 it's like a matter of survival
17:23 informed once again by history.
17:26 In this case, very personal history to me.
17:29 Take the story of my own family.
17:32 My grandfather came to Ellis Island
17:33 at a very young age from Eastern Europe
17:36 without an education, without a penny to his name.
17:39 He was a street urchin,
17:40 stealing apples from the pushcarts just to survive.
17:44 But he dreamt of a brighter future
17:45 for himself and his family.
17:47 My grandfather ended up with the paper workers
17:50 in Utica, New York,
17:51 and helped form the union there.
17:54 But he lost his job in the lead up to World War II,
17:56 so he came back to New York City
17:59 and bought a little exterminating business.
18:01 His son, my father, followed in his footsteps
18:05 and eventually took over that exterminating business.
18:08 My father struggled in that job,
18:10 barely making ends meet.
18:12 But together with my mom,
18:14 he provided a stable and loving home in Brooklyn
18:16 for my siblings and me,
18:18 where we were able to flourish.
18:20 And because of the tolerance and the openness
18:23 and the opportunity that courses
18:25 through all of American life,
18:28 I now stand before you
18:30 as the majority leader of the United States Senate,
18:33 the highest elected office a Jewish person
18:35 has ever attained in the history of this country.
18:38 Only in America, only in America,
18:41 could an exterminator's son
18:44 grow up to be the first Jewish party leader in the Senate.
18:47 But it must be said also,
18:51 this is not the norm in the grand and long scheme
18:53 of Jewish history.
18:54 While my grandfather came to America
18:57 and encountered opportunity,
18:59 many of his siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles,
19:01 and other family members remained behind in Eastern Europe.
19:04 When I was still a young boy,
19:06 I was told why many branches of our family tree
19:09 stopped growing forever.
19:11 In 1941, when the Nazis invaded Ukraine,
19:15 then part of Galicia,
19:16 they asked my great-grandmother,
19:18 the matriarch of the family,
19:19 the wife of a locally revered rabbi,
19:22 to gather her children, her grandchildren,
19:24 her great-grandchildren on the porch of her home,
19:27 which was located in the town square.
19:29 As more than 30 people gathered on the porch,
19:33 aged 85 to three months,
19:35 the Nazis forced the remaining Jewish citizens of the town
19:38 to gather in the town square and watch.
19:41 When the Nazis told my great-grandmother,
19:44 you are coming with us,
19:46 she refused.
19:47 And they machine gunned down every last one of them.
19:52 The babies, the elderly,
19:55 everybody in between.
19:57 This story resonated deeply in my heart
20:01 when I first started learning the details
20:03 of the October 7th massacre in Israel.
20:06 I was in China with a bipartisan delegation
20:09 of my fellow senators,
20:10 trying to get President Xi Jinping
20:13 to open up Chinese markets to American companies
20:16 and stop the flow of fentanyl across our borders.
20:19 As the horrors of October 7th started coming into focus,
20:23 the Israeli ambassador to China
20:25 shared with me the story of what she heard
20:28 had just happened in one of the kibbutzim called Be'arit.
20:31 Hamas terrorists entered the kibbutz on October 7th
20:35 and killed more than 120 Jewish residents,
20:40 from the elderly to the babies.
20:42 Sadly, it was not the first time I heard of such evil
20:48 being committed against the Jewish people.
20:51 Most, if not all Jewish Americans,
20:54 know stories similar to that of my family.
20:57 And most, if not all of us,
20:59 learned this story at a young age.
21:03 It will be imprinted in our hearts
21:05 for as long as we live.
21:06 All Jewish Americans carry in them
21:09 the scar tissue of this generational trauma,
21:12 and that directly informs how we are experiencing
21:16 and processing the rhetoric of today.
21:20 We see and hear things differently from others
21:22 'cause we're deeply sensitive to the deprivation
21:25 and horrors that can follow the targeting of Jewish people
21:29 if it is not repudiated,
21:30 which brings me back to today.
21:34 While many protesters, no doubt,
21:38 view their actions as a compassionate expression
21:40 of solidarity with the Palestinian people,
21:43 for many Jewish Americans, we feel in too many instances
21:47 some of the most extreme rhetoric
21:48 gives license to darker ideas
21:50 that have always lurked below the surface
21:53 of every question involving the Jewish people.
21:57 Anti-Semites have always trafficked in coded language,
22:05 and action to define Jewish people
22:07 is unworthy of the rights and privileges
22:09 afforded to other groups.
22:10 I believe there are plenty of people
22:12 who chant from the river to the sea,
22:14 Palestine will be free,
22:16 not because they hate Jewish people,
22:18 but because they support a better future for Palestinians.
22:22 But there is no question that Hamas
22:25 and other terrorist organizations have used this slogan
22:29 to represent their intention to eliminate Jewish people,
22:32 not only from Israel, but from every corner of the earth.
22:37 Given the history of oppression, expulsion,
22:40 and state violence that is practically embedded
22:42 in Jewish DNA, can you blame the Jewish people
22:46 for hearing a violently anti-Semitic message,
22:49 loud and clear, any time we hear that chant?
22:52 We shouldn't accept this sort of language from anybody,
22:56 any more than we accept other racist dog whistles,
23:01 like invoking welfare queens
23:02 to criticize safety net programs,
23:05 or calling COVID-19 the Chinese virus.
23:08 And that goes for extreme right-wing Jewish settlers
23:11 who also use deplorable language,
23:14 and who don't believe there should be any Palestinians
23:17 between the river and the sea.
23:19 Anti-Semites are taking advantage
23:24 of the pro-Palestinian movement
23:26 to espouse hatred and bigotry towards Jewish people.
23:31 But rather than call out this dangerous behavior
23:33 for what it is, we see so many of our friends
23:36 and fellow citizens, particularly young people
23:39 who yearn for justice, unknowingly aiding
23:42 and abetting their cause.
23:44 And worse, many of our friends and allies
23:48 whose support we need now more than ever
23:49 during this moment of intense Jewish pain,
23:52 have brushed aside these concerns.
23:56 Suddenly, they don't wanna hear about anti-Semitism,
23:59 or the ultimate goal of Hamas.
24:01 When I've asked some of the marchers
24:04 what they would do about Hamas, they don't have an answer.
24:08 Many don't seem to care.
24:11 And so Jewish Americans are left alone,
24:15 at least in our eyes, to ponder what this all means
24:20 and where it could lead.
24:22 Can you understand why the Jewish people feel isolated
24:26 when we hear some praise Hamas and chant its vicious slogan?
24:31 Can you blame us for feeling vulnerable only 80 years
24:35 after Hitler wiped out half the Jewish population
24:37 across the world, while so many countries
24:40 turned their back?
24:42 Can you appreciate the deep fear we have
24:45 about what Hamas might do if left to their own devices?
24:49 Because the long arc of Jewish history
24:54 teaches us a lesson that is hard to forget.
24:58 Ultimately, we are alone.
25:00 As a teenager, growing halfway across the world
25:06 from Israel in Brooklyn during the '50s and '60s,
25:09 I remember this feeling of aloneness myself.
25:13 When many of the world's airlines boycotted Israel
25:17 so that they could maintain business with the Arab world,
25:20 I admired Air France, this little boy,
25:22 because only they would fly to Israel.
25:27 I preferred to drink Coca-Cola to Pepsi
25:30 because Coca-Cola did business in Israel
25:32 and refused to participate in a biased boycott.
25:36 Later, I remember in June of 1967,
25:41 walking in solitary silence to class
25:45 in Madison High School with a transistor radio
25:49 held to my ear, listening to the news reports
25:53 about the Six-Day War and praying to God
25:56 that Israel would survive.
25:57 On top of feeling alone, the second dominant feeling
26:04 that Jewish people have endured throughout history
26:07 has been the sting of the double standard,
26:10 which is the way the world has practiced anti-Semitism
26:13 over and over again.
26:15 To the Jewish people, the double standard
26:17 has been ever-present and is at the root of anti-Semitism.
26:22 The double standard is very simple.
26:24 What is good for everybody is never good for the Jew.
26:28 And when it comes time to assign blame for some problem,
26:32 the Jew is always the first target.
26:34 And in recent decades, this double standard
26:39 has manifested itself in the way much of the world
26:41 treats Israel differently than anybody else.
26:45 The double standard was made clear to me
26:48 when I was in college.
26:50 I remember the day when the great and articulate
26:53 Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Abba Eban,
26:57 was invited to come lecture on campus
26:59 while the Students for Democratic Society
27:02 and the Progressive Labor Party were waging a campaign
27:05 against Israel's right to exist.
27:07 2,000 people gathered in a large auditorium
27:11 to see Ambassador Eban.
27:13 And the members of the SDS-PLP sat in the gallery
27:16 and hung a banner saying, "Fight the Zionist imperialists."
27:20 When the members of the SDS and the PLP
27:24 tried to shout him down,
27:27 Eban pointed his finger to the protesters in the gallery.
27:31 And with his Etonian inflection,
27:33 he calmly but strongly delivered a statement
27:36 I will never forget and that I will paraphrase to now.
27:40 He said, "I am talking to you up there in the gallery.
27:44 "Every time a people gets their statehood, you applaud it.
27:50 "The Nigerians, the Pakistanis, the Zambians,
27:53 "you applaud their getting statehood.
27:55 "There is only one people when they gain statehood,
27:58 "you don't applaud, you condemn it,
28:01 "and that is the Jewish people.
28:03 "We Jews are used to that," he said.
28:07 "We have lived with a double standard
28:08 "throughout the centuries.
28:10 "There were always things the Jews couldn't do.
28:12 "Everyone could be a farmer but not the Jew.
28:14 "Everyone could be a carpenter but not the Jew," he said.
28:17 "Everyone could move to Moscow but not the Jew.
28:20 "And everyone can have their own state but not the Jew."
28:25 "There is a word for it," he said to them.
28:28 "That is anti-Semitism and I accuse you
28:31 "in the gallery of it."
28:33 And the protesters slinked off.
28:41 This double standard persists in America today
28:44 and it is once again leaving Jewish people
28:46 feel isolated and alone.
28:49 In the immediate aftermath of October 7th,
28:51 an attack on defenseless civilians,
28:53 elderly women, babies,
28:56 a good number of people skipped over
28:57 expressing sympathy for its victims in their haste
29:00 to blame the attack on the past actions
29:02 of the Israeli government.
29:04 Can anyone imagine a horrific terrorist attack
29:07 in another country receiving such a reception?
29:11 And when Hamas terrorists actively hide
29:13 behind innocent Palestinians,
29:16 knowing that many of those civilians
29:18 will die in the Israeli response,
29:21 why does the criticism for any civilian death
29:25 seem to fall exclusively on Israel
29:28 and not at all on Hamas?
29:30 My heart breaks for the thousands of Palestinian civilians
29:36 who have been killed or suffering in this conflict,
29:38 so many children.
29:40 And I have urged the Israeli government
29:42 to minimize civilian casualties on many occasions.
29:46 But by committing such heinous atrocities on October 7th,
29:50 as for sneaking back into their tunnels
29:52 underneath hospitals and in refugee camps in Gaza,
29:56 Hamas has knowingly invited an immense civilian toll
30:00 during the war, exploiting the double standard
30:04 that so much of the world applies to Israel.
30:07 Of course, let me repeat,
30:11 that does not relieve Israel of the responsibility
30:13 to protect innocents' Palestinian lives.
30:16 And I've been among the first to tell Israeli leaders
30:19 that they must act according to international law.
30:22 I'm also fighting for critical humanitarian aid
30:25 for Palestinians that this Senate, under my leadership,
30:28 is working to deliver.
30:30 So, I rise in this chamber today.
30:35 I am speaking up to issue a warning
30:40 informed by lessons of history too often forgotten.
30:44 No matter what our beliefs,
30:46 no matter where we stand on the war in Gaza,
30:48 all of us must condemn anti-Semitism
30:52 with full-throated clarity wherever we see it
30:55 before it metastasizes into something even worse.
30:59 Because right now, that's what Jewish Americans fear most.
31:04 The spike in anti-Semitism we're experiencing right now
31:09 in America began after the worst instance of violence
31:12 committed against Jewish people since the Holocaust.
31:16 The vitriol against Israel in the wake of October 7th
31:19 is all too often crossing a line
31:22 into brazen and widespread anti-Semitism,
31:25 the likes of which we haven't seen
31:28 for generations in this country, if ever.
31:31 Which is why we need to name it clearly any time we see it.
31:38 After October 7th, when boycotts were organized
31:41 against Jewish businesses in Philadelphia
31:44 that have nothing to do with Israel,
31:46 that is anti-Semitism.
31:48 After October 7th, when swastikas appeared
31:52 on Jewish delis on the Upper East Side,
31:55 that is anti-Semitism.
31:57 After October 7th, when protesters in California
32:01 shouted at Jewish Americans,
32:03 "Hitler should have smashed you,"
32:06 that is anti-Semitism.
32:08 After October 7th, when a Jewish US senator
32:12 is violently threatened for her views on Israel,
32:15 that is anti-Semitism.
32:17 After October 7th, when students on college campuses
32:22 across the country who wear a yarmulke
32:24 or display a Jewish star are harassed,
32:26 verbally vilified, pushed, even spat upon and punched,
32:30 that is anti-Semitism.
32:32 After October 7th, when an author
32:36 in a prominent left-wing magazine
32:38 labeled a pro-Israeli rally in Washington a hate rally,
32:42 that is anti-Semitism.
32:44 I attended that rally like tens of thousands,
32:47 hundreds of thousands of others,
32:50 because I believe there should be a place of refuge
32:53 for the Jewish people,
32:55 not because I wish violence on Palestinians
32:58 or any other people.
33:00 And Mr. President, after October 7th,
33:05 when students at Hillcrest High School in Queens
33:09 ran rampant in the hallways
33:12 and demanded the firing of a teacher,
33:14 these are high school students,
33:16 demanding the firing of a teacher
33:18 just because that teacher attended a rally support in Israel
33:22 and forced her to hide in a locked office for hours
33:28 while staff struggled to regain control,
33:32 that is anti-Semitism.
33:34 Walking out of the school to march in support
33:38 of Palestinians is completely legitimate,
33:41 forcing a Jewish teacher to remain, as she described,
33:45 locked in an office because she attended a rally
33:49 in support for Israel is anti-Semitism, pure and simple.
33:53 In fact, Mr. President, the teacher who I'm speaking about
34:00 is sitting in the gallery today, right now.
34:04 I invited her to come and listen,
34:06 and I am truly honored that she accepted my invitation.
34:11 That is true courage.
34:14 I believe it shows just how strongly
34:16 so many Jewish Americans feel about the issue.
34:19 She has requested anonymity,
34:23 which I ask everybody present and everyone in the media
34:26 to please respect,
34:28 but I say to her from the bottom of my heart,
34:31 thank you for being here.
34:34 Thank you for caring.
34:39 I have just listed a few of the so many examples,
34:43 there are so many more,
34:45 of pure, unadulterated anti-Semitism
34:48 has dramatically increased since October 7th,
34:52 but the roots of pluralistic,
34:56 multi-ethnic democracy are deep in America.
35:00 This is a place where Jewish people have been able
35:02 to flourish alongside so many other immigrant groups.
35:05 We must never lose sight of just how special that is,
35:09 nor must we ever stop fighting for it.
35:12 All Americans share a responsibility and an obligation
35:17 to fight back whenever we see the rise of prejudice
35:20 of any type in our midst,
35:23 to preserve this nation as a promised land of refuge,
35:27 as a land that honors the dignity of every individual,
35:32 as a land of opportunity for all.
35:35 So my plea, my plea, my fervent plea,
35:38 to the American people of all creeds and backgrounds
35:42 is this, first, learn the history of the Jewish people
35:46 who have been abandoned repeatedly
35:48 by their fellow countrymen.
35:50 I say this particularly to younger people
35:52 who didn't live with any of this history.
35:54 Learn the history of the Jewish people
35:57 who have been left isolated and alone
36:05 to combat antisemitism through the centuries.
36:09 Second, reject the illogical
36:13 and antisemitic double standard
36:18 that is once again being applied
36:21 to the plight of Jewish victims and hostages,
36:24 to some of the actions of the Israeli government,
36:27 and even to the very existence of a Jewish state
36:31 that is a double standard.
36:34 No ducking from it.
36:36 Third, understand why Jewish people defend Israel,
36:41 not because we wish harm on Palestinians,
36:44 but because we fear a world where Israel is forced
36:49 to tolerate the existence of groups like Hamas
36:52 that want to wipe out all Jewish people from the planet.
36:56 Some of us watch this film, which the public can't see,
36:58 which showed the brutality and viciousness
37:01 that every Israeli citizen and every Jew feels.
37:05 We fear a world where Israel,
37:10 the place of refuge for Jewish people,
37:13 will no longer exist.
37:15 If there is no Israel, there will be no place,
37:19 no place for Jewish people to go
37:21 when they are persecuted in other countries.
37:26 As an adult, I remember watching my grandfather,
37:29 one of the few in his family to survive the Holocaust,
37:32 being overwhelmed by emotion and breaking down in tears
37:37 when he saw Israel for the first time.
37:40 This had nothing to do with politics or with money
37:42 or with racism or with oppression.
37:45 It was deeply human.
37:47 The emotional catharsis of a man
37:50 whose family was uprooted and exterminated
37:54 finally stepping foot in the place of refuge for his people.
37:59 A place that the Jewish people had yearned for,
38:02 not just for decades or centuries, but for millennia.
38:06 So many of my aunts and uncles and cousins
38:11 and nieces and nephews would be alive today
38:14 had Israel existed before World War II, as I said before.
38:18 Many Jewish Americans fear what the future may bring
38:22 based on the repeated lessons of history.
38:26 Many Jewish Americans see clear anti-Semitism
38:29 in the double standard that is being wielded
38:31 by too many opponents of Israel.
38:33 And we see it in attacks on Jewish people
38:35 for simply being Jewish,
38:37 apart from having anything to do with Israel.
38:41 And maybe worst of all,
38:43 many Jewish Americans feel alone to face all of this,
38:48 abandoned by too many of our friends and allies
38:50 in our greatest time of need
38:53 as anti-Semitic hate crimes skyrocket across the country.
38:57 I implore every person, every community, every institution
39:02 to stand with Jewish Americans, not to ignore it,
39:05 not to shrug your shoulders,
39:07 to denounce anti-Semitism in all its forms,
39:12 especially the double standard
39:14 that has been wielded against the Jewish people
39:16 for generations to isolate us.
39:20 The time for solidarity must be now.
39:23 Nothing less than the future of the American experiment
39:26 hangs in the balance.
39:28 Building a more perfect union,
39:31 one that fulfills our founding ideals,
39:34 is our longest and most solemn struggle as a country.
39:39 And as Americans, we are called on to do all we can
39:42 to achieve that higher standard.
39:44 We are stewards of the flames of liberty,
39:48 tolerance, equality,
39:50 that warm our American melting pot
39:53 and make it possible for Jewish Americans
39:56 to prosper alongside Palestinian Americans
39:59 and every other immigrant group from all over the world.
40:03 Are we a nation that can defy
40:08 the regular course of human history,
40:10 where the Jewish people have been ostracized,
40:12 expelled, and massacred over and over again?
40:17 I believe, truly believe in my heart,
40:21 that the answer can and must be a resounding yes.
40:25 And I will do everything in my power
40:30 as Senate Majority Leader, as a Jewish American,
40:34 as a citizen of a free society,
40:36 as a human being, to make it happen.
40:40 (speaking in foreign language)
40:44 May it be God's will.
40:46 the floor.
40:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]