Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing On Combating Hate Crimes 20240713

Good morning. Key committee will come to order, and without objection, the chair is authorized to. Eclare a recess at any time worldys ago, the entire came together to mark holocaust Remembrance Day. In january of 1945, the auschwitz birkenau concentration camp was liberated from the nazis. It was one of the most infamous sites of the nazi genocide. The purpose of todays hearing is to commemorate these grave anniversaries, term member those we have lost, and to honor those who are with us. But it is not enough to simply recognize these dates but we must contemplate what led the atrocities we must combat bigotry, hate, and violence of all kinds day. I am so pleased to have our distinguished panel that have asked them to come together on helps solemn occasion to unify red, hope and inclusion. That. We can all do the best way to help remember is to hear from those who lived through it and we will do that today. Ae block from here is gripping institution dedicated to remembering the holocaust fight hate today. Im also pleased to announce that on monday, the house is evidence past bipartisan votes 393ith votes to pass a resolution i authored 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 attempts to fight hate today. This morning, we will hear testimony about the shooting at the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh, the most deadly assault against the Jewish Community in american history. After that a group of Holocaust Survivors wrote to the pittsburgh Jewish Community insult 30, explaining why they dedicated their lives to sharing the horrors they experienced. Quote we seek termite people, especially young people that. Ate can never be ignored complacency is dangerous standing up and pushing back is the only way we can make a better future. Unfortunately, there has been a sinister increase in hate crimes recently. Not only against jewish communities, but African Americans, muslims, and others. Showingreleased data the highest number of reported hate crimes in the United States and 16 years the number of hate groups exploded two of thousand high and a a record 30 increase over the last three years. We watch the gruesome video footage of the attack in charlottesville, we see in excruciating detail the people that still poisons our society to this day. I want our members to know that our committee is dedicated to start fighting bigotry and this hearinginds is one in a series we are holding on these issues the 116th congress. Kevin raskin has held for hearings in the subcommittee to confront White Supremacy, religious persecution, and our government response. The subcommittee has worked with the chairman to investigate the National Security implications of these threats. Going forward, we are planning additional hearings, including one on Voter Suppression and minority communities, antimuslim discrimination, antiimmigrant actions, and issues facing the lgbtq community. I have been in touch with many of you and i hope youll come to me with any additional thoughts, ideas, or proposals. We mark this day of remembrance after a recent spate of antisemitic attacks in new york city. I hope we can Work Together with the 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 Education act. Thank you for calling this hearing today eared thank you for our witnesses for being with us today and your testimony today. I want to apologize on the frontend, i have to cross to the other side of the capital in a few minutes. On monday we recognize holocaust Remembrance Day. We pause to remember innocent lives taken by this evil. As Vice President pence said, we have the obligation to never let the memory of those who died never be forgotten. We must always condemn antisemitism in all its forms. Ould like to take moment take a moment to recognize a holocaust survivor, it is an incredible honor to have you with us today. One of the most important ways we continue to support the jewish people through our unwavering support of israel. Since 1948, the United States has had a special bond with the israeli people. Since President Trump took office, he has made it his mission to strengthen this bond. He has worked to ensure the whole world knows the United States stands firmly with israel. In just three years, here is what has happened. He has recognize the Golan Heights as part of israel, withdrawn from the failed takenn nuclear deal, and effective action to eliminate soleimani. He has imposed a sanctions movement championed by those who want to diminish israel. Yesterday, President Trump released a groundbreaking peace plan. But maybe most importantly, he fulfilled a decadesold promise to the people of israel and recognized jerusalem as the capital of the state. Routinelydents have failed to deliver on this promise. The u. S. Embassy should be moved to tel aviv, according to carter. President clinton said israel is still the capital and bush said that as soon as i take office, i will begin the process of moving the ambassador to israel. Two jerusalem. Barack obama said jerusalem will be the capital of israel. President trump fulfilled that. Romise we have shown people that they have the support of the United States of america. Should be proud of this friendship and the work the president has done to solidify the relationship. We would be wise to listen to and learn from testimony today. Thank you, madam chairwoman. I would like to recognize two of my colleagues. Founding members of the congressional caucus on ajewish relations. On africanamericanjewish relations. Thank you for holding this hearing and bringing attention to the alarming rise of hate crimes. Im glad to see our committee will be using our Oversight Authority to find innovative ways for our government to combat the rise in White Supremacy. Formed thei congressional caucus on blackjewish relations to discuss the relations between africanamerican and the Jewish Community, also to highlight our shared history of combating racism and how the two groups can Work Together to combat hate crimes going forward. A shared history of slavery and the holocaust has given us a hatredned sensitivity to and racism. The two cochairs of the caucus includes myan and colleagues on this committee. Unfortunately, antisemitic acts have become far too prevalent in our society. Already there have been incidents reported in my home state and more than 25 across the United States. Last two years have seen a disturbing spike in antisemitic attacks of more than 1800 reported in 2018 alone. According to the defamation Antidefamation League , a 57 increase. Communities experience a substantial rise in hate crimes, the federal government must assist state and local government and Law Enforcement entities to develop ways to combat a rise in identitybased hate crimes. This pattern of hate illustrates a disturbing trend in our country that must be reversed. Actsfilled antisemitic will not be tolerated and i will predatorsby idly as of these antisemitic attacks continue across our country. All americans have the right to freedom and religion and we will not allow that right hindered by a small fraction who use their awful agenda to spread hate and crime. I look forward to working with committeeship of this , members of the caucus on black and jewish relations, and all members of this congress. In the words of Martin Luther king, a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Thank you, madam chair. The firstroudly as jewish woman to represent florida in the United States congress and i have just with ad from israel Bipartisan Coalition led by nancy pelosi. Over one million women and children lost their lives in auschwitz alone. Visiting this historic monument only reaffirmed to me that we cannot reaffirm the resurgence in hate we see now. Deliver this moral imperative of never again, we must have hearings like this and sharon shine a light on bigotry and racist ideology. Oris important to understand underscore that this is more about support for israel. We must be clear that the systematic mass extinction did not happen overnight it began with hate speech, harassment, and attacks on vulnerable communities. As these symptoms reemerge, we must speak out and act, and today, we will do that. We must also educate the American People by highlighting the amazing compliments of persecuted communities during Upcoming Events like black History Month or jewish heritage month in may. Educating one another and so many across the country are unfamiliar with minority achievements and traditions. It,ach of us thinks about there are many of us who have populations of communities in our own districts that are either tiny or minuscule and the first time members of congress interact with the community is when they join the United States congress. That is why it is important to hold hearings like this one and i appreciate our ability to make sure we can rid our nation of every denial of one anothers humanity. The panelistsk for being here and in the fight every day to make sure that we continue to shine a spotlight on bigotry and hate. I particularly want to thank my colleague and dear friend Brenda Lawrence for her leadership and vision to establish this caucus. Im proud to join her as a cochair and i look forward to our work. I would like to welcome our witnesses. I recognize representative raskin to introduce our first distinguished witness. Chair forou, madam giving me the opportunity to introduce a remarkable constituent. Romania little boy in when a policeman arrived to arrest him, his sisters, and his parents to take them to a ghetto for the crime of being jewish. Astonishingly, they survived the holocaust but he lost 32 other family members to the genocidal war waged upon the Jewish Community of europe. Since the holocaust ended, the civilized world has come together with one refrain, never again, and yet we live in a time of resurgent propaganda, conspiracies, psychological relation, human rights fanaticism, and violence. The Civil Rights Committee held a hearing on limiting global persecution taking place under the blasphemy laws and ological against the rohingya in burma. , Vladimir Putin is injecting poison into social media and helping to activate the most dangerous and unstable elements of our society, crating a wave of white supremacist care against black churches, hispanics shopping at walmart, and anybody deemed to be an outsider. Get a hold on rising white supremacist violence and gun violence. We must continue to pressure the federal government, as we have been doing, and create a plan to battle White Supremacy and domestic terrorism. Safirwe can focus on mr. West dear, that 82 years old, he became the only holocaust survivor known ever to skilled mount kilimanjaro. The feet he accomplished by keeping the words in mind of his father that he spoke to him, never give up. But you back to you. Honored you and we are to have you. Congratulations on your recent achievement. We look forward to your testimony. We are also fortunate to have , he is former director of Community Security for the Jewish Federation and writer pittsburgh. Resident ank representative doyle and we look forward to his testimony. He may be able to join us later. Edna. O welcome dr. Jonathan green plant is the chief executive officer for the Antidefamation League and Hilary Shelton is the director and senior Vice President for advocacy and policy for the National Association for the advancement of colored people. We also welcome ambassador formergold and the israeli ambassador to the United Nations andy former director general of the Israel Ministry of foreign affairs, so if you would all rise and raise your right hand, i will begin by swearing u. N. In. Wearing you do you swear the testimony you are about to give is the whole truth celtic got . So hope you got god . Thank you and be seated. The microphones are very sensitive, so please speak directly into them. With that, you are now recognized for five minutes for your opening statement. Thank you. I am honored to share with you a little bit about the personal experience. Pull the microphone a little closer to you. Thank you. Honored to be here and share a little bit of my personal experience. Father established a farm and for 18 years, he and my mother worked the farm. My two sisters and myself were born there. I went to kindergarten and i started first grade. Everything was ok. One of our neighbors was a priest. We used to come by once a week to ask my father for donation to the church and for dairy products. One day, the same priest showed up and however, this time showed up with a armed Police Officer and two armed guard soldiers come also armed. We did not know why that happened this time, so we went down to find out what was going on. As we get close to the priest, he is looking at the police , sayingpointing to us this is the jews, so we were turned into authorities by a priest. The Police Officer said we had four hours to vacate because he was going to relocate us to a different part of the city. At this point, my mother and father tried to convince him that he could forget the border to relocate us. It did not help. 1941, it was established to your earlier. We came into the house, packed what other whatever bibles we had in police told us it was time for us to leave and we were escorted to the ghetto. Once we arrived, we were turned over to the Ghetto Police where we received our orientation of what we can and cannot do. Longerpeople could no her to dissipate in public prayers and we were given ration given five yellow starts stars with the word jew that we had to wear on our lapel. Was to be going to work on a daily basis. My fathers job was to sweep the streets in the summertime and shoveled the snow in the wintertime. Hospital. Was in the at this point, we did not know what we could do to survive because there was a certain mode of survival that we try to constantly focus on. In 1943, a big sign was posted in the ghetto area that said any individual mail between the ages of 18 and 50 yard of thee at the main ghetto square and bring extra clothing if you had it. Wasnight before, my father we cried at night and the next morning, we also cried, but did not know when. Left,st minute before he i asked my father if it is ok for me to walk with him. He agreed. We walked handinhand because i got to the area that he was supposed to be and at that point we did not say anything to each other, we just held on tight. My father said it is time for you to go back and he turned to and saidoth his hands five words to me. They will remain with me for the rest of my life. He said matt, take care of the girls. At this point, i am seven years old. You cannot imagine the pressure. I told him i would try and do my i didnt. I said i would take care of the girls. I cannot give up because i promised my father i would take care of the girls. Same day, my father was shipped away at a forced labor camp and 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, so one of the things you would see was the ration cards. They allowed us to receive a quarter loaf of bread and five leaders of kerosene. We had to walk out of the ghetto and since my sister was two years older, my father would send out my sister to get these rations and so one day he found out some of the hooligans were picking on jewish girls and he started sending me out to get these rations. Home,imes, i would come beat up the bloody face, but that never hurt so much as it did when they took away my bread. Happened realized what and she realized this would happen again. From that point on, she started rationing and try to save a little bit. While. Nt on for a all of our family left back in these theot nazis invaded hungary in 1944 april, 440,000 jews were taken to auschwitz. Young ones were put to death in the gas chambers and those able to work were sent to different camps. My grandfather died of starvation a month before he was liberated. Two of my uncles survived. One was 21 years old and one was 22 years old. Someone, thiso individual looked like a skeleton or skin and bones, that is pretty much what they look like. When the red cross came in, they immediately put them on ships to recuperate. One of the two brothers did not make it to sweden. He died and was buried at sea. One did die and was in the hospital for four years to gain his weight. We were liberated by the russians in 1945. We still never heard from a father. We do not know if he was alive or dead. The antisemitism was very 1947, finally, my father was able to come back and in 1947, he realized there was no longer a future between jewish people and romania. The only country that would accept refugees was palestine. For a visa and every denied. Applied, we were eventually, my mother was able to bribe one of the officials that was in charge of giving out the visas and we received a visa to leave for israel. Meantime, i lived in israel for 10 years, i served in the army, i married, i have five children, 12 grandchildren. All are named by people murdered by the nazis. I thank you for listening. Appreciate it. Thank you for sharing your story. Distinguished members of the committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you on this very important issue. Four years in the United States or in court and 28 years as a special agent in the fbi. I joined the Jewish Federation in pittsburgh and develop a Security Program. The first synagogue i ever visited, i asked if they had received hate mail. The answer was yes. I asked them what you do with it . They said they dont away. It would not be the first time i heard that. Our goal is to conduct an Awareness Campaign stressing the importance of reporting every sign of hate and provide the tools necessary for building a culture of security. We followed the see something, Say Something model and requested the community to commit action. Over the next 18 months, the Pittsburgh Community continued to experience antifeminism on a routine basis, however this time our community started to report incidents. We would we encourage our community not only in pittsburgh , but all over the country to report every incident. Based onped a Program Three prongs. The first was assessment of the organizations and buildings that lead to target hardening and number two, constant training and three, threat mitigation and a way to facilitate action from Law Enforcement. Whatlly understand happened on october 27, you need to understand the Security Program leading up to the shooting. Statement toake a help people survive and get out and help others, protect themselves and get to safety. Unfortunately, we still lost 11 lives that day. Our Security Program trained over 6000 people to include active shooter training. Survivalw taken testimony to train over the country and demonstrate the importance of training, simply stating that trend helped minimize loss of life and it did that day. It is unfortunate that we have through our community various training protocols. Two other training initiatives that took place, the first is the Holocaust Police initiative were every Police Officer spends four hours in a Holocaust Center prior to graduating the police academy. Issued a rescue task force and it was the first time the task force was deployed in we had a trauma surgeon rendering aid in the building while the shooting was going on. When it comes to tracking antisemitism, we partnered with the fbi. We forge an important relationship between the community and Law Enforcement. As soon as we receive any threat, we reported through our 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. 27, we witness the deadliest antisemitic attack in our countrys history. Efforts prior to the shooting were focused on preparedness through awareness and education. That everybody in the community thought it was necessary to prepare. Some left that up to Law Enforcement. After the shooting, that all changed, notably in pittsburgh, but in jewish communities across the country. I will never forget walking through the horrific crime scene on october 27 and witnessing the destruction that one man caused. Im certain those in the building that day, as well as First Responders will never forget those images as well. People were murdered simply because they were jews gathered to pray. For countless number of people, that image will never be erased. We need to build a strong, resilient Jewish Community. I have spent 35 years protecting the Jewish Community and my country. I continue to spend the rest of my career working to protect jewish and other faithbased communities. Attention andyour i look forward to answering any questions. Thank you. You and all thank the distinguished members of the committee. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to testify and share our perspective. It is a privilege to be here on this decembers panel. Im feeling particularly moved because ive just returned to the world holocaust form were committedrs themselves. I also want to give a special thank you to chairman maloney for leading the passage of the never again movement. On working to build boy, i could ask my grandfather who was a refugee from not to germany what it was like. I could speak to people in my community who survived, but that is no longer the case. As time passes, memories fade. A few studies indicate that millennials no less than prior generations. Only anetermined that estimated 54 of the entire World Population had even heard about the holocaust and others think it is not important. A survey released this morning reported that 19 of American Adults say jews still talk too much about the holocaust. This, at a time when hate crimes are up, violence is up against jews and other marginalized communities. From a College Football coach in trooper anda state activists in chicago getting tot getting booted out visibly identifiable jews arrest in a subway and assaulted and brought daylight in brooklyn. Instances of antisummoned as a antisemitism is up. It is the third highest total we have ever tracked in 40 years and it is getting more violent not just against jews, but all minority groups from charlottesville to pittsburgh. Extremists feel emboldened in this environment to act out their hate. It might surprise you that the increase is happening as a backdrop of steady lowlevel attitudes among the general population. So why is that . First, we have leading voices who are normalizing antifeminism, making hate routine. Ofy are accusing jews disloyalty, attacking the jewish state with the same things they all of retire this renders intolerance routine. Second, the social media and online game environment are spreading hate. Members,ly 2 billion facebook is the largest of these. Youtube has made some progress, but not nearly enough. Just as these market leaders have used ingenuity and invasion to help build billiondollar brands, they need to apply those same abilities to remove hate from their platforms and bro build stronger societies. Leaders must speak up against hate at every opportunity. Number two, social media platforms must act more responsibly and band holocaust and i will deniability for what is. Congress should pass a no hate have hate Crime Prevention. All at risk protect profits and faithbased institutions and Implore Congress to protect pass the domestic terrorism act to ensure the government is appropriately allocating resources to the threat of White Supremacy. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and i look forward to your questions. Thank you for coming. Good morning, state members of the committee. Foruld like to thank you asking me to discuss a topic crucial to the double acp and all the communities we serve and represent as well as the nation and a whole as a whole. You are to be recommended as leaders in the community as reflected in the nearly unanimous passage of the 116th congress. The resolution rejecting White Nationalism and White Supremacy ourmerica and a preamble to associates constitution, the ncaa continues to fight for Justice Without regard to race, gender, creed and in short, we were founded as an antithesis of White Supremacy and members have continued to uphold this idea of equal opportunity and equal protection under law. It is not an easy path and we continue to face challenges. As we all know, White Supremacy can lead to genocide of native americans, slavery, which ands, segregation and a whole host of other horse. We have successfully fought back against some of these. Yet, we can and should do more. We must be ever vigilant. The into double acp strongly supports the Heather Heyer National Opposition and equality act. It addresses the problems that are underreported to the fbi and allows courts to require the defendant to participate in Educational Programs or Community Services as a condition of supervised release. We must also address the problems associated with online hate, yet a line between hate speech and personnel right is extending narrow. The into double acp strongly supports and endorses the domestic terrorism act. It would enhance efforts by requiring agencies to regularly assess the threat by other violent domestic terrorist and take other steps. We also support the emmett till legislation which would make federal hate crime eligible for additional tools used to investigate and prosecute these crimes. Legislation was just introduced and it will make it. Asier to prosecute hate crimes finally, i cannot emphasize this strongly enough, we need to educate our youth on the horror of the genocide of native americans, lynchings, slavery and other acts of terror that White Supremacy has brought upon us as a nation and a world stop to fail to do so would be a crime and insult to rs and sisters who have died to address these concerns. We need to remember from the past so that it is never repeated. Recommend we commend you, yet we still have political anders who have thoughtful ask how the language became offensive. Or statements such as you have people who were very fine people on both sides. Resultedttesville, it in a group of neonazis against. Ocial justice advocates this was a confrontation which led to the death of Heather Heyer. There is an obvious need for more research and education, so we thank you again and for your therest of the views in into double acp and i look forward to that. In c naacp and a look forward to that. Thank you. I look forward to that. Thank you. Ranking member jordan, thank you for your invitation. Im an israeli diplomat and i happen to have been in washington yesterday because of were the United States issued a new peace plan for the middle east, but i was very glad to join you here and express some of my conclusions on this issue. This issue was conceived to deal with three 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 antifeminism antisemitism in recent years which is why it is so particularly disturbing. These are states at the center of our current civilization, so when it is rising in france, germany, and in the United States, you have to Pay Attention in ways that we wouldnt otherwise. We consider what the legacy of auschwitz requires us today. As 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 coming for a dialogue of the german government, we took and the villa,it where senior ss officers convened a meeting in january 1942 to plan the final [indiscernible] of jews in europe. It was here where a plan was conceived for the jews occupied in europe including the building about schmitz. Sites,any historical they had a guestbook, which i was asked to sign. Bookdo you write in such a . Hat such a location have a nice day . History onrden of our shoulders, i wrote a virtuous comment. I wont i wrote we will never allow anyone to do this to us again. Course of that in the world war ii, 6 million jews were exterminated by the germans and auschwitz alone, nine hits over 900,000 were killed. It was vulnerable first and foremost to the red army along the eastern front, the germans determination to complete their mission of extermination, despite the advances of the russians, cause the germans to transfer the inmates from auschwitz to other concentration camps further away than 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 and anne frank and her sister moved in this way where they both died. On a personal note, my motherinlaw and her sister were relocated from auschwitz with thousands of others. Armydays after the british liberated bergenbelsen, a camp andentered the recorded the jewish prisoners rising up with their frail andes on a friday night breaking into a hebrew song which means the hope. They were reminding the world that their hope was 2000 years old and dated back to when the jews lived back 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 defending jews worldwide, only today, antisemitism is not only just remote areas of the eminent, it is being revised in the heart of western civilization in france, the united kingdom, germany as well as in the u. S. And canada. This new wave can be fought with education. And antisemitic incitement can have. Legal consequences we ask our allies to stand firm phenomenonh this strength gains further. I want to close with an observation from a former as a former diplomat. We have a very important tool to fight this. In 1948, the International Community signed the Genocide Convention and the Genocide Convention contains a specific incitingtlined genocide. When the iranian leadership spoke about wiping israel off group ofwe convened a International Legal scholars to look into whether they had crossed the line of genocide. And metas in rwanda with the minister of foreign affairs, anyone who reads about the rwanda genocide will find that incitement to genocide was a key component. It was a warning signal that something is about to happen, so if we sharpen these tools and not leavese them and them in textbooks, we can take narrow, toures to speechin the use of hate and we can also come back directly combat directly the phenomenon of other forms of hatred today. Thank you. Dr. Edna freberg. Good morning. Your consistent leadership and for having me here today. When i became a holocaust historian, i thought it was only dealing with the past. So naive. Over the course of my career, i have seen the veracity of the holocaust questioned in the very language of the nazis and new racist attacks. Antisemiticencing violence and speech and races of all types feel emboldened. You dont need to be jewish to be seriously alarmed and as a historian, i can testify that whenever antisemitism is expressed public to and without shame, an entire society is at risk. The holocaust is not start with gas chambers. It started with racist words in childrens books that shot taught children to be afraid of their neighbors. Hiller was assessed with race long before becoming chancellor of germany. Wendy knoxs came to power, these beliefs became government ideology and were spread in posters, radio, movies, classrooms and newspapers. They also served as a basis for a campaign to reorder german society, first through the inclusion of jews to public life and the systematic murder of germans with mental and physical disabilities. In order to make jewish persecution powerbook, they branded jews as a biological threat and they announce jews as aliens, parasites and said they the responsible for cultural, political degeneration. They create an environment where persecution and violence were not just acceptable, but imperative. Not to propaganda existed on seared huts to link juice to the spread of disease like term berman. They implemented rasul hygiene polities best policies to protect nonjews. Not reinforce its policy of confining jews to prison zones known as ghettos by portraying jews as a Health Threat requiring quarantine. By depriving the hundreds of thousands of human beings in prison there in these ghettos of food, water, sanitation and medical care, the nazis created a disease population. German propaganda films characterized the jews as a life. R of life lice. Notches and vote links between jews and communism to allege that jews were warmongers. Similar accusations are currently leveled prominently against jews around the world and in our own country 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, white nationalists caret torches to invoke the legacy of nazi germany. In a charged context, it signaled violence and disruption. Buildings andng it eventually burnt the bodies of millions of human beings, the very word holocaust derives from the word meaning sacrifice by fire. Merchant torches in the American South has an additional resonance, nights of firebombs. , it preventsermany dominating our laws. [no audio] closing, hate speech and violence against jews are canaries of coal mine for the help of democracy and civil society. A government does not confront them does so at their own perl. My teenage nephew once asked me what 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 him. The holocaust . Because it is the best documented crime in human history. Lets heed its warning crimes warning signs. I would to thank all for their moving testimony and i want to thank all of you for appearing here today. I like to begin my questions with mr. Severe. We are very honored to have you here today and i was deeply moved by your testimony. You and your family suffered an incredible loss and showed incredible courage and i know that testifying today must be difficult for you, so i want to ask you, given how difficult it ,s for you to relive this pain why did you agree to come here and tell your story . Why is it important 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 people, how many innocent people were killed because of jews or others. If i dont speak out or share my information, i only have myself to blame. That is one of the reasons i share the information as best as i can. Is there a single message you would hope to convey to the american public, many of whom are watching . Many of whom are members of the younger generation. What with the key message be that you would like to convey . I can summarize that into words, speak up. It is very important that you not be silent. Monday, we passed Bipartisan Legislation to provide additional funding to give students the provide to provide the opportunity to hear from survivors in this bill would also expand on the Holocaust Museum and i understand that you work at the Holocaust Museum, correct . I give tourists to Law Enforcement agencies to make sure things like this never happened again. Could you tell us why these programs are so important to help educate future generations . In the 1940s, we had one common enemy. Unfortunately, all of us are getting older, many of us are dying out. We dont tell the story, do something about that, obviously we need to educate young people and want him gone, i need the young generation to be our voices. Why do you think it is so important that our nation remember the lessons of the holocaust . That we dont forget about it, that it is not manufactured or annoyed or altered . If you dont remember the past, our future, it will be very bright. Unfortunately, therefore letters. Hich means it is a horror the war has two meanings, one remember, and one dont forget. All these who perished, so you need to remember all these things passed on to our children so they would not forget. I want to thank you for your testimony as you know better than many of us when hate is. Llow to flourish we are fortunate to have your perspective and their grateful for your time and testimony. I will now recognize jodey for his questions. Thank you to each of our witnesses for being here today. Ambassador, let me begin with you. During the democratic debate, Bernie Sanders stated that the u. S. Should leverage military aid to israel in order to manufacture changes to israel and domestic policy, specifically as it relates to gaza. He was saying we need to hold funds for that. Do you believe that would be helpful . [inaudible] turn on your mike please. It is not my interest to jump into american politics, but at the same time, one has to understand what is in gaza. What is in gaza today are people that are miserable, people that have been taken over by one of the most hateful organizations on earth and it has allies like jihad and other groups. On israel isage mixing fire with the fire and will not produce a more stable outcome. I want to say that i am very optimistic as a whole and there are arab states that ci die with israel about the need to extinguish hatred, the need to Work Together to build a bigger region and we are seeing evidence of the first time of senior diplomats who will go to polls and visit auschwitz. That is something that did not happen before. Lets encourage that and not schemes to put pressure on israel by denying military assistance because of the situation that it did not create. Wouldgree and i think you not be helpful to withhold military aid to israel. Medicare would ask everquest that an article about those comments be submitted. Believe it is a quid pro quo. Weevil provide this money provided israel will make changes. Interesting of who that came from, really what my colleagues have been have been claiming is an impeachable offense. A member of the committee that israel is kidnapped and killed a palestinian boy. A viciousnted this as liable also called it and the incident was proven false. I suppose aemselves not antisemitic, but indirectly they certainly are. Unsubstantiated, reckless and proven false. Do you believe these comments are help full . Helpful . Thank you for the question. Accusation that jews are responsible for the murder of children, nonjewish children, as followor murder jews for century, has been used to demonize them, use as the basis for persecution, for slaughter, literally going back almost 1000 years to england in the medieval times. An organization that has been fighting antisemitism, i will wheneveraccusations and wherever they happen. I think it is important to note that the use of the antisemitic slayers, we should not use them as political partisan weapons. It,ll call out whoever says whenever it happens on the basis of the facts that hate is iteptable and at a time when is on the rise, when i spend a fair amount of energy paying respects to the victims of hate crimes in san diego in new jersey, and new york, anyone from either side. I would ask to be added to the record of unanimous consent. I yield. Member of our delegation without objection, the gentleman from new jersey will be added to the panel. Thank you. I recognize the gentlewoman from the District Of Columbia for questions. I want to thank you, especially for holding this hearing today on the anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz whoi think the witnesses agreed to appear today. I want to say that i think it was perfectly appropriate to have a representative of the naacp on this panel, first to indicate that hate appears to be all a piece. I would prophesies that if you that hates jews, you would also find that he hates africanamericans and if we keep that together, we can perhaps understand the latest fbi statistics, the most frequently offensesgroup for hate and 47 aremericans motivated by race, ethnicity or ancestry. That may be because they are looking at people they can identify with those characteristics. Wasaps the most recent churchoof, invasion of a no less at a storied africanamerican church in South Carolina during bible study. I dont know if he chose the time, but the symbolism cannot be lost on many of us. Thed concerned with increase i am concerned with the antisemitism anywhere in the world this is coming from. Do you see a relationship and an attacks in antisemitic and the increase i just spoke of, the increase in hate offenses . Absolutely. The ideology shared as we look at those who committed these crimes are very similar. As we listen to those who made presentations of the Jewish Community, they are checking off boxes of the same strategies used utilize against africanamericans and somehow deciding there will be violent rapists as well and the language is very similar, so we see an increase in the organizations that hate africanamericans and anyone that is not white anglosaxon. The similarities are very clear as he looked to the hate crime data by the Justice Department making sure we have categories and the increases are consistent regardless of who youre talking those of thetainly Jewish Community. There has been a long relationship between American Jews and africanamericans. The only whites who have consistently been vocal and active in the civil rights toement and with respect matters having nothing to do with themselves, but race alone have been American Jews. Long. Elationship is could i ask you in light of your what has the Antidefamation League found and violence against africanamericans i spoke of and the relationship and what you think can be done about the rise of antisemitism in racist attacks going on at the same time . I think i would reinforce what you said, the relationship between Jewish Americans and African Americans is long and deep. There is a shared history of suffering, a shared history of diaspora if you will and the holocaust was a Pivotal Moment in the modern jewish experiment as it was for africanamericans and i think understanding shared suffering has been critical and im proud of the fact that the head of the adl in the 1950s and 1960s started in march with king in some a somma selma. Im proud that we work on many of the issues today. Make no mistake that there is a through line. White supremacy is a violent threat against all marginalized groups and as my colleague hillary said, people who hate jews also hate africanamericans because they are different than their view. Theres a lot more work to be done. Commend Wasserman Schultz for [inaudible] after awe were founded jewish man was lynched in 1913. He was lynched after having been falsely accused of a crime, essentially a blood libel, murdering a christian girl. When that man was lynched, leo frank, the founders of adl wrote a charter for this new organization, and in it are the words we still use as our mission statement. They wrote that this organization would stop the defamation of the jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment to all. Cant defend you American Jews unless you defend all americans, and we are deeply committed to that mission 100 years later today. Recognize maloney i the gentlewoman from North Carolina, virginia foxx, for her additionalas she has time as additional time was taken on our side. Thank you, madam chairman. And i want to thank our witnesses. I dont think it is possible to overstate the tragedy of the holocaust. It is not possible we can do that. And 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. Hearings and reminding people of what has happened is appropriate for us to do. On december 11, 2019, President Trump assigned an executive order to combat antisemitism on College Campuses. Does the adl support this order . Thank you for the question. The executive order was based on a bipartisan piece of antisemitismhe antisemitism awareness act, that we indeed did support. The antisemitism awareness act was based on rulings out of the Education Department under president s bush and obama, and the executive order affirms the definition of the holocaust and the definition of antisemitism specifically, developed by academics from a number of countries. We do support it. Foxx i need a simple yes or no. Yes, we supported. ambassadorve foxx gold, the Simon Weisenthal center produced a top10 list of the worst incidents of antisemitism and antiisrael incidents. Seeing antisemitism is alive and well, in december we all mentioned numerous attacks against jews during the hanukkah season. Do you believe and know that the number of antisemitic attacks is on the rise . And you believe social media platforms have provided greater access for people to spread . Ntisemitism i am completely aware that the number of antisemitic incidents around the world is on the rise. As much asware that, social media platforms can be 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. And the tension between free killingnd incitement to 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, but we cannot provide a vehicle that allows the spread of hatred. Now runnter that i since i left government, we have been examining how the internet by radical islamic organizations, particularly in canada. And they are spreading antisemitism. Representative in canada has found a way of presenting this information to the canadian authorities. So you have to use your legal and youo combat this, have to shine your flashlight on where this is coming from. Foxx our white neonazis the only ones perpetrating antisemitic attacks . Antisemitism, you mentioned canada, and is it fair to say antisemitism is prevalent across all races and genders . it is evident among all races and all genders, and has to be fought and combated, regardless of its point of origin. Representative foxx do you see hotbeds . You mentioned canada. Are there other hotbeds of antisemitism your group has recognized, and that we should be aware of . we have done a lot of work on the united kingdom, on britain, and there are real Serious Problems of antisemitism, and we have seen it enter into parliamentary life in the u. K. , much to the horror of all of us who have always looked to britain as a beacon of democracy. So there is a lot of work to be done worldwide. i come frome foxx wherea of North Carolina we have great reverence for the people of israel, and all jews. Jews arestians feel gods chosen people, and that it is our place to support israel. Do you have ideas to followup on what you just said, on why antisemitism knows no racial, ethnic, gender, geographic boundaries, when we have historically, those of us who are very strong christians, felt so positively toward israel and toward the jewish people . Mr. Gold well, that is not the kind of question i can answer on one leg, but it does indicate that we have got work to do. We have got work to research. Weve got find where it is coming from and then we have to make recommendations of how it can be dealt with. Just sit back and let it happen. It is getting much worse. It is not good for the jewish people world worldwide, and it is also terrible for the countries where it is occurring. I was heavily involved in israels efforts in 2016 to restore diplomatic ties and political activity across the and ient of africa, remember sitting with the foreign minister of rwanda and you have gotdore, one hard not to crack. I thought she was going to talk about libya. She was talking about south africa, which is led by a Political Party which has been fathering the whole bvs movement, which is now spread worldwide. I persisted in trying to reach out to south africa, and will continue to do so. thank you,ve foxx madam chairman. You have been very tolerant and i yield back. Chairwoman maloney i want to recognize raja. Representative i want to thank all of our witnesses, especially mr. Safir, for your moving story. I would like to start with mr. R about whatini happened at the tree of life synagogue. A man armed with an Assault Rifle and a and the tree of life younger geisha and, shouting antisemitic slurs as he slaughtered 11 worshipers. It was the deadliest assault against the Jewish Community in american history. Youhe time of the attack, were director of Community Security for the Jewish Federation of pittsburgh. Could you spend a minute talking about the impact of this tragedy on the community and the congregation, since the attack. The attack not only affected the Squirrel Hills section of pittsburgh, or jews in pittsburgh, but the entire city. And agewe live in a day now where we have to think about protection in a house of worship , when you go there is the most vulnerable as you can be, and you get gunned down. Since that shooting, the three congregations that prayed in that synagogue are still affected. The entire Jewish Community has been affected. The effects of that shooting are long lasting and they are not going to go away soon. In pittsburgh to make our folks feel safe so they can get back into worship, no matter what denomination it is. Representative children witnessed that attack, right . My knowledge, there were no children in there. There were enough people in there to witness that horrific attack. Representative what has been on the impact what has been the impact on children generally, since that attack . Important iny pittsburgh after that attack for us to work toward a very quick resolution. What i mean is, it was very important for us to get our kids back in school, get our jewish facilities, our day schools, our preschools, and work with our community to get them back. It is a longlasting effect. I went from school to school, preschool to preschool, to talk to parents about how terrified howr children were, terrified children, students and honestly adults were, just to walk to synagogue. And we had to work hard to make them resilient and strong, and we continue to do that. Community,ish unfortunately, is a targeted community. Folksentative one thing probably everywhere understand is that, regardless of whether you were in pittsburgh, folks who worship at synagogues feared going to their synagogues for a long time after this incident. Anduld like to switch gears hear your views about what you think the role of holocaust plays in hate Crime Prevention . It is paramount. Pittsburgh is one of the few cities and may be one of the only cities in the country right now, that requires its Police Department and all cadets training to go to the Holocaust Center and spend time there prior to going out on the street. It is a model based after the national Holocaust Museum. The only group i know is that fbi agents go through there. Important for Holocaust Education to continue, and it needs to start in middle school up. Representative how can the federal government best support either this type of educational awareness or hateCrime Prevention generally come at the local level . At the local level there is several things. Honestly, it takes money, Human Capital and time. Is importantcation to be mandated in Public Schools and education platforms. Teach o never forget never forget, teach our community what happened, and what rises out of hate. And i think for the Jewish Community it is ever so important. Rights anded civil the fbi for many years. I was the civil rights coordinator. I have worked hate crimes for numerous years. Hate is generational. We need to be on the ground floor of children, educating them on hate, what happened in the holocaust, what hate does. Representative i am out of time but i want to underscore the end hate, that to because it is generational, you have to start with the kids. And you have to teach them that antisemitism, islamophobia, hatred of all kinds is not right. And we at the federal level have to support that. Thank you. Chairwoman maloney thank you. I will recognize the gentleman from kentucky, mr. James comber, for questioning. Representative comber mr. Schafer, and the witnesses, i appreciate your testimony. Every time we have a tour group from kentucky, we recommend the Holocaust Museum. Of all the museums in washington, that is the most moving,museum, the most most Educational Museum that makes such a difference. And we have not had anyone say anything about how much they were touched by that museum. I would like to focus my questions on israeli policy. Can you explain how dangerous iran is to israel and why the Golan Heights are so necessary to israels defense . iran is a country which is under a theocratic stated itsch has determination to destroy the state of israel. In my institute, but the government has done this as well, we have collected statements made by iranian leadership, military, civilian leadership, which calls for wiping israel off the map. The question is, is this rhetoric to show off, or is there something behind . I will give you a specific example. In the Iranian Armed forces, there is a missile called the three, which can strike israel from iranian territory. Up until recently it was an 800mile it is an 800mile range missile up until the iranians have only put conventional warheads in this missile. But now they are aiming to replace the conventional warheads, according to documents israel has, with a future nuclear warhead. Paraded onces are a year in tehran, and on the missile, as well as sometimes writessile carrier, they israel must be wiped off the map. They juxtapose their intentions with the military capability that they are building. And it is not just going to stop with israel. They will go much further. Our concern about iran is first and foremost its Nuclear Weapons program, which we dont see having been altered by the jcpoa it hast is a program probably gotten much worse. Comer ntative President Trumps actions such as withdrawing from the nuclear dreary and eliminating International Terrorist soleim ani, did that make israel safer in your opinion . Mr. Gold, the elimination of qassem soleimani, the commander of the quds force . One of the most gratifying International Acts i undertook before working for the government of israel, i set up a general,with a saudi and we had this dialogue going on between his think tank in jeddah and my think tank in jerusalem. And he said to me, how would you like to go to the u. S. Congress with me and lobby against the jcpoa . I agree with your intentions, i think it is a bad hillto lobby on capitol out of the interests of saudi arabia and the interests of israel . But we are think tanks, and there is nothing that prohibits us from going to a think tank in the United States and voicing our views. That is what we did. We were invited by the council on Foreign Relations in inhington, he appeared spoken arabic, i spoke in english, and the 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 slowly but surely becoming our friends. And a new Security Architecture for the middle east is growing as a result of that perception of a shared security threat. Butave to build on that, that has also given me optimism about many of my neighbors. We can become not just friends, but allies. And hopefully that is something which we can work on with the Trump Administration and with the american National Security bureaucracy. Chairwoman maloney i now recognize the gentleman from maryland, mr. Raskin. Raskin mr. Ve greenblatt, you have spoken out against sweets or retweets by democratic members of congress intentionally or not, antisemitic tropes. Stronglyave spoken against a tv commercial run by donald trump in the 2016 president ial election that attacked janet yellen and george soros and Lloyd Blankfein as globalists and enemies of the American People. You have spoken out also against the outrageous moral equivalent manifested by President Trump, stating there were very fine people on both sides in the events in charlottesville. What is the importance of speaking out against againstiment is him antisemitism wherever you see it, and not permit to be a partisan weapon . Mr. Greenblatt you are correct. Out clearly and consistently in response to antisemitism from both sides of the political aisle. We live in a moment when extremists feel emboldened because the talking points of White Supremacists and other radicals or jumping off the pages of their propaganda and into the talking points of elected officials. There is absolutely no excuse for it. Out whenever and wherever it happens, because we want to make sure elected officials and candidates understand they shouldnt use antisemitism or any form of hate for partisan gain. I wrote a letter to Congress Last year asking this body to prevent the tendency from using these kinds of tropes to gain or score political points. Antisemitism is not just a jewish problem. It is everyones problem, because it is historically a sign of the decay of democracy. Use to tool populists press their own authoritarian agendas. So we have got to have the moral courage and intellectual honesty to call it out whenever it happens, no matter who says it. Raskin thank you for that. In our country, antisemitism and racism are both the gateway to the destruction of democracy and equal rights. I want to thank the members of the panel for understanding the importance of historical memory as to all the events that have taken place assaulting the rights of minorities, going back to the dispossession and violence against native americans in our country, and as wellrience slavery as the horrific events that took place in the last century with respect to antisemitism. I have been reading a book by Christopher Riley called Cambridge Analytic a and the abouto break america Vladimir Putins religious, ethnic and political poison into our body politic in the 2016 election and beyond. But ia very scary book, find it to be an uplifting book because we are not a racist country, the country that elected barack obama president. We are not an antisemitic country, but there was a very deliberate effort to propagandize and promote the most unstable and extremist elements of the country. And even if that is only 1 of the American People, that is still a few million people. And it bore fruit for Vladimir Putin in a lot of ways, but certainly what took place in charlottesville, where you had americans marching out in the open as nazis, clansmen, fascists and our country in our country. I want to ask about online hatred and efforts to go out and find people using what Cambridge Analytic called the dark triad of narcissism, machiavelli and is him and psychopathy. Predisposed to go out and demonstrate hate in a violent way. What are we going to do about that . Even if the vast majority doesnt stand for that, what is the proper response . Shelton, also, if you have worked on it. As we look at these challenges, it is important we point out how similar they are, how the strategies, the ideologies used to lace these together are so clear. If you separate them, you see that as we think about attacks on africanamericans, as we look at the slavery experience, we know it was a tool to marginalize africanamericans, to take advantage and seek whatever the spoils they want and to perceived as acceptable. When we think about attacks on our jewish friends because of their beliefs, the same thing applies. We dont talk enough about native americans, about the genocide that took place in the land that was taken and the Natural Resources being sought itthose cases, and to make acceptable to show them as less than human beings. One thing throughout all of this is the marginalization that goes with the characterization of each of these groups as being less than human beings, making it acceptable for the horrific things done to them, and nothing should be done about it. So it is important when we look at all these issues to think about them in that context and , and those whom promote the ideologies of the third reich, the White Supremacists, and what those who fund them seek to gain as they continue. So it needs to be worked together. It is a very important question. Onm an individual that is the ground, looking at the antisemitism and trying to keep the community safe. It is very important for our community to report everything. Timever, i spent a life raising my right hand to protect the constitution. First amendment right to speech is important. However, what we see on the ground is hate speech. Not a crime, but it leads to a hate crime. We have to have a mechanism for Law Enforcement officials when they see a swastika, and it gets reported, not to say it is protected speech and there is nothing we can do. We need to work with Law Enforcement partners to come up with a way to assess what the truth is what the true threat is from these groups, because it is out there. Them large majority of the community doesnt know who hate are, theyntity europa are across the country. However, most of the things out there are protected First Amendment speech. In our community, the africanamerican community, the muslim community, affected communities, those signs of hate are important to recognize and report and it is understand and it is important for us to work with the government to come up with a method where we dont just dismiss it as protected First Amendment speech. We truly need to mitigate threats out there. Chairwoman maloney thank you for that important point. I recognize the gentleman from ohio, mr. Gibbs. Gibbs thank you all for coming, and thank you for your work to make sure these horrific events in the holocaust never happen again. Thank you for giving us your and hopefully no human being will ever do that to another human being again. Was stunned by dr. Freeburgs testimony, when she mentioned henry ford. I had no idea. I googled it and in the early 20th century, things occurred that were stunning to me. I had no idea. I guess i learn something every day. Surprising to me that was going on. Recently prime, minister netanyahu called President Trump the best friend israel has ever had in the white house. He has done numerous things to ensure israel is safe and secure and i want to list those quickly. He relocated the u. S. Embassy to jerusalem. He recognized the goal on heights as part of israel. An executive order condemning antisemitism at u. S. College campuses. He withdrew from the failed iran nuclear deal. He is a strong appointed of the andhistoric peace plan these are unprecedented accomplishments. Wouldnt you agree . Get drawni do not to into your american domestic pingpong. However, when somebody does something for you which is ,xceptional, which stands out it is rude not to say thank you. And i am particularly grateful for what President Trump has done. These are ideas that have been out there in the american discussion for a long time. Jerusalemou had the embassy act supported by tom daschle and bob dole. Spiritas a bipartisan supporting these kinds of moves but it got stuck and no one did anything in 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 curt laster, i appreciate that. Laster, the house wanted to , themn the last year house wanted to condemn the bds movement. What signal does that send to israel . Way. Will put it this bds 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. Partss happening now, in of the west bank, for example, we are building new malls, new factories in which jews and palestinians are shopping together, working together, living together. Want to be inspired . Want to make peace . Hospital. Jewish doctors, palestinian doctors, jewish patients, palestinian patient all working together to build a Health System for the city of jerusalem. 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. 100 , 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. I recognize the gentleman from california. Andhank you, chairwoman, thank you for convening this important hearing. Im anxious to bring it back to the bipartisan purposes we are all here for. Thank you 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 hitlers. 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 neonazi group. Ns played a Drinking Group upsrinking game around c shaped like a swastika. Synagogues have been sessa crated while neonazi appear againlyers and again on campuses out of high schools and colleges curt 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 tracks as they travel across the roads and highways. 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. , inviteddown with kids them into their synagogues and help them understand what had transpired, showing very clearly how important education and elimination of ignorance is. I want to turn to dr. Freeburg. 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 around the history the teaching of history in this nation. Our partners when our partners come when our partners for broad come, they when ourd partners from abroad come to visit, they are surprised. One of our goals at the Museum Holocaust levels of quality education across the country by training teachers. They could be in a literature class, and what we used to call civics, they could be 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 talk about it in such a simplistic way where it is like a morality tale. The vast majority of people who lived in europe during the time were a mixture. They were onlookers or complicit in some ways and helpful in others. A few a special exhibit years ago on this topic. It describes the way that everyday people had 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. Thank you for your leadership. 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. Tocan legislate all we want 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 . We reach over 1. 5 million students, including many in Orange County in 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 education act. I recognize the gentleman from texas. I think each of you for taking time to visit with us today. Say thank you for being here. Andk you for your testimony 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. Fortunate toe 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. And we joined together for a shabbat dinner and broke bread, drink 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 happiness,poll in the topnd to poll happiness. 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 we joined with some friend of ours in austin, texas, and we have shut down on sundays and we put our telephones and or ipads down and we join sunday suppers and trying to restore the community. We have been doing that religiously, so to speak, ever since last august on our return from israel. To our greatonse affection for our experience and our time in israel. The second thing that struck us 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 . 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 in theza in 2005 and period right after the withdrawal, the amount of rocket up by 500 . El went are there 120,000 rockets pointing at jerusalem and tel aviv . Israel be safe without iron dome . 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. 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 countriesve and when get behind resolutions that try to deny that connection, it delays peace. It makes our adversaries think, maybe we are right. Lie. T is a vile you know how you know that . Open the koran. Of the arabicn for the temple. The arabs knew it. The muslims know it. Where connected with jerusalem and the land we are connected with jerusalem and the land. I have two articles i want to get into the record. Articles, just yesterday, announcedeneral barr a zerotolerance against perpetrators of antisemitic crimes. He says the Justice Department get more involved in fighting antisemitic attacks. Ordered. So ordered. I recognize debbie Wasserman Schultz. 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 in 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. Enormityndy of the of that evil and the Human Capacity for evil that exists today very clearly really overwhelms the. 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. Statistics have been documented. 180018, they tracked antinet 1800 antisemitic incidents. When i landed at the airport in my district, at the end of the strip last week, i landed to a text from one of my mayors with a flyer that was being distributive throughout the city that says, a red flyer with the nazi ss henchmen on it that says our patients has its limits. One day we will shut their dirty line jewish mouse. Dirty lying jewish mouths. 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 and 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 . We should talk offline about that flyers about that flyer. There is no doubt the pension for penchant for conspiracy theories are contributing to the spike in antisemitism. As is asm Conspiracy Theory that the jews somehow have too much power. That we are responsible for all the worlds ills. With people in power who promote prejudice, it endangers all of us. The jews are typically the first to be harmed. Antisemitism never ends with the jews. 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. With that we are dealing the 21st century version of ageold big 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 amazingies want, it is 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 be 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 test we have gone through a lot f 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 from wisconsin. The gentleman from wisconsin. I know the congressman from 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 like what is that way. There seems to be more mainstream politicians tracking trafficking and hate 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 hatred windingng up encouraging someone to die. So ot believe we had 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 come somebody who a lot of politicians like to stand with. Look for him forgetting more votes. Mainstream politicians, successful politicians. Sharpton,si, reverend 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. You would comment how minister, why beloved or so apparently respected by so many . Respond i just would say that what we have talked about like what is happened in new york or pittsburgh, no state is immune from hate. Incidents inhate the state of wisconsin in 2019. 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. What is this about this embrace of reverend sharpton . Sharpton hasverend 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. I appreciate some of the responses he has had of late. There is a group that sometimes sends me stuff called 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 this is where the minds of the future are molded and why it seems to why antisemitism, why it campuseswhy american seem to be a place where it seems to foment a little bit more. Think one of the challenges that the way the jewish state is often demonized on college puses, saying that it is using the same tropes that have often been used to demonize the jewish people. 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 an ice images and is used when antisemitism is used demonize the state of israel. Prejudice should not be tolerated. I now 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. You talked about conversions of interest. I think that is an important point to emphasize. Americanalling the hellenic progressive association, the most active organization in the country that represents interests of the greekamerican 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 and responding to it in responding to it, the other is to take practical steps to respond to these attacks. The could go back to solidarity element, often our concept of solidarity is reactive. Occursr words, something and then we assemble a kind of unified Coalition Response to that to condemn it. That is an important thing to do. Ist that seeks to overcome human nature. When an incident occurs, the reflexive human response is to think, am i part of the group that was attacked or not . Partu want you werent 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 any and abiding that if 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. When the attack happened in pittsburgh, it was instantaneous. We had every faithbased group, us. Im, surrounding 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. That. Heartening to see that work was done prior to that shooting. Recognize the gentlelady from illinois. Pardon me. I did not see him come in. Recognized. N is 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. Boycott,ds come in divestment, sanctions of israel. They come from deafening silence of people in this country when terrorists or bigots kill people of the judiciary merely because of the jewish faith merely because of their religion. 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. Can you speakd, to the trend we have seen with these antisemitic attacks and what we can do toward eliminating the boycott, divestment, and section and other forms of antisemitism . And sanction and other forms of antisemitism . I am a big believer in knowing your adversary. If you are 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 find out where the images and where the antisemitism is coming from to have multilingual capacity. When i wrote a book back in 2003 kingdom abouts the hatred that entered into, that was part of the attack on 9 11, where did it come from . Couldd a team which actually read off the web some of the most sensitive arabic information. It was not classified. 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. I want to stress to everyone when i bring immediate free 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. Point for the ambassador. Captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2008 taking actions such as relocating the u. S. Em baedy to jerusalem, realizing the sovereignty of the Golan Heights, signing an executive order to combat antisemitism on College Campuses and releasing his plan for peace with the palestines. How do you think this has impacted the relationship with the israel today and what will its relationship look like moving forward . I think the actions taken by President Trump are very dear to the israeli body poly tick. Weve already built up over the years a strong bond between the American People and the people of israel, but certainly these actions strengthen that bond and allow us to move forward to build a safer region. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you. I now recognize the gentle lady from illinois for questions. Thank you, first of all, i have to say since al sharptons name was raised and i dont believe in everything that he has said either, but also, i just have to say i feel like we have one of the most divisive people in this 21st century that weve seen in a long time and he has a base and ehas elected officials that follow him. Just to, you know, pick on al sharpton, you know, is very interesting to me. But anyway, thank you all for your testimony on this important day as we remember the horrors of the holocaust and thank you so much for being here. Thank you for your courage and, you know, wanting to educate the next generation. You are very much a treasure. Will the gentlelady yield for a second on al sharpton. A second. I dont have a lot of time. Weve had a terrible increase of incidents of antisemitism in the city that i represent in new york and the community has come together, hes been one of the leaders in bringing the community together, his national organization, hes had numerous meetings reaching out to the community, preaching really that we have to unify and fight this, so i thank the gentle lady for the point you made. I yield back. Sadly in recent years weve seen a rise in antisemitic neo nazi rhetoric fueled by social media. Therefore, it is my opinion that it is really important not only to study the holocaust as a historical event, but also use its lessons as daily reminders of the fragility of democracy and the important of remaining vigilant in promoting human rights because weve seen an increase in hate period. People dismiss comparison to hitler and nazi germany because of the regime and the holocaust is so uniquely horrific can you explain what germany was like prior to the rise of the nazi party . Meaning was it considered an advanced country, economically and culturally . Was there a constitution, a representative of government . Thank you, congresswoman, for the question. Yes, germany was considered an advanced country. It was a democracy, although a very young democracy. It had been in existence for just over ten years at the time that the nazis rose to power. As i mentioned earlier they rose to power as part of a democratic process. Nonetheless, that did not inoculate that society from the dangers. However, i want to also emphasize that holocaust was not a tsunami. It was not something that once it started, there was no way for it to stop. I actually would like to Say Something that may be surprising to people, i find a great deal of inspiration in the history of the holocaust, not in the horrors of it, but in the places where things went in a different direction. The holocaust was not implemented uniformly and by studying it as i said, not in sort of raw, generalities of good and evil, but in the specific of each context and with precision, we are able to identify the variables, the contexts and the choices and the roles of different people in society that made it better for jews in some places and worse in others. We are pleased to have a Longstanding Partnership with the adl, our Law Enforcement and Society Program trains members of the police, trains every new fbi recruit, agent and analyst, every year because we look back to this history not just to make people feel sad or warn us about hate, but to say, who are those people . Who are those who sit in roles that actually can protect our society so that those on the margins, the extremist haters, do not come forward . We have trained close to, i dont know, 50 or 60,000 members of state judiciaries, members of the military. We work with every military academy. Just to say its not just about whether society is advanced, but how do we make people aware of their roles and responsibilities. I have another question. How did a modern, advanced, industrialized, diverse and culturally rich nation devolve to genocide . As i mentioned my grandfather was from germany and lived through and endured nazi germany and watched that industrialized democratic country descend into madness. Although he survived most of his family was slaughtered. What he endured was unspeakable. Didnt begin to touch on what mr. Saffir experienced. We havent talked about it, but how nazi germany used the instruments of democracy, to dehumanize, and lead to a path of genocide, in particular, media and social media. We havent talked about the role of Silicon Valley. It has to be talked about this morning if we want to try to stop antisemitism and other forms of hate from spreading further. I just wanted to share with you that i am a diversity trainer and i is that right . Started under you guys. Thats great. I yield back. I now recognize the gentlewoman from michigan, miss lawrence, for her questions. Thank you, madam chair. I just want to be on the record, this is a very, very serious issue. I am a descendent of slaves. We just marked the 400th year where this country that i love, the United States of america, enslaved, killed and oppressed people, a democracy. This, the 75th year of recognizing the holocaust that happened in a country where others saw a group of people being identified and persecuted. This is not a platform to promote and to 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 of america . Shame on anyone that wants to use this to promote a candidate. So i will continue with my statement now. We know and i was raised by this woman who tears were falling from her eyes during the civil rights movement. I was a little girl watching her cry as the hoses and the dogs were being sicked on people in the south. She told me, brenda, your lifetime, youre going to have to educate people because we know racism is ignorance. Its a stereotypes, its those generational as we spoke of, just hatred thats passed along. Then you will have to forgive them, because if you dont, you consume their hatred and their anger. Why did i want to start a conversation and bring together two groups in this body thats supposed to pass laws and policies, to stand together, to fight against hatred in america . The statement that i used, what Martin Luther king used, if we see it to one, its going to happen to others. We see through history that so many people sat on the sidelines and just sit anywhere in America Today and say, oh, i dont see it happening, they need to be slapped in the face with history and with reality. We have so much work to do and spare me the ignorance and the lack of compassion. As a black woman in america, having a double whammy being a woman who was oppressed, being an africanamerican, ive had the opportunity to serve as a mayor of a city that i had to go to to protect the Jewish Community because i have one of the largest jewish communities, now to be their representative in congress. I will not sit here and be silent as so many people did as we know when these incidents happened. My question, mr. Greenblatt, has the Antidefamation League witnessed a similar uptick in violent hate crime and what do you attribute this increase . We have not talked about what is happening where were seeing more and more its more violent. Weve talked about the word withes, the hatred of words, but now were seeing violence. Right. What any of you, please, what is it thats happening that we as policymakers. Right. Need to step up, so please congresswoman a few thoughts. Number one, i applaud your leadership starting the bipartisan black jewish congress. So important. Hope we can find ways to Work Together. Just like they have worked together. We talk about the pyramid of hate. When you dont call out bigotry when its spoken it can lead to acts of hate like harassment which can lead to violence. Violence when you dont interrupt it can lead to worse and then genocide. We believe prevention is better than response. That starts in part by something where you were going earlier, using the bully pulpit. Leaders need to lead. They dont just need to interrupt intolerance when it happens. They need to allow it not to happen on their watch in the first place. Using inclusive language, welcoming people of all their differences, and creating environments that are comfortable for everyone, whether or not no matter how you pray or how you where youre from or who you love, we need more of that in this country and need it now. Just adding, the new technology is extremely important as you think about the hate manifests and ideologies. Think about the utilization of social media tools to do everything from Television Shows to radio shows, music and Everything Else to try to further indock cri nate the ideologies of hate in our every day society. Keep doing what youre doing. You have to keep up with hearing from groups like ours about whats going on across the country and develop new strategies, tools and resources to stop it at every place along the way. Dig into every community, but theyre also going broad and extensive in many of the ideological things were seeing being promoted by the hate mongers. My time is up. I must say we must, madam chair, address social media, that has become the new weapon of hatred and racism and i just want you all to know, as weve said, with ef so much work to do. Thank you for being here. Thank you, mr. Shaffir for sharing your story. Thank you, brenda. I recognize the gentlelady from West Virginia for her questions. Thank you, chairwoman. Thank you all for being here today. This is such an important and somber topic and we must continue to draw attention to make sure that things like the holocaust never ever happen again. I dont need to remind you that monday was the 75th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz. The unspeakable horrors that occurred there at the hands of the nazis, 1. 1 million people, the world watched in horror because i dont know if it was naivety or lack of the fact of the instant news like we have today, that they didnt really comprehend that such things would happen. I grew up in the city of bexley in a Jewish Community, i grew up going to bar mitzvahs, i went to my nephews bar mitzvahs, theyre all adults now, and i think back to being the high school and one of the girls i knew her mother had numbers tattooed on her arm. I was born in 1950 i shouldnt probably say that out loud but growing up, just when everyone came home from world war ii, even i didnt really understand until i was an adult the horror, you know, but thats because i read and, you know, i was able to educate myself. Its so very important that we pass this along because history will repeat itself if we dont let people know what has happened in our past. You know, im thankful for the efforts that our president has taken to strengthen our relationship with israel and it to me is so important. I think weve moved the mark by doing what weve done and, you know, having the embassy in jerusalem. I just cant comprehend the antisemitism that we are witnessing today. Ambassador gold, the fight against hate that has occurred during 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 Armored Corps of the israeli army and i remember at one point his Commanding Officer takes him to show him the disaster that the jewish people confronted during the holocaust, and they his officers try to view him and other soldiers with that message. Its very much the holocaust is very much in the conscience of israels citizenry. It doesnt make us less prone to compromise or to understand our neighbors, by no means, but i think it adds to the inner conviction of the importance of our selfdefense, especially when we have, not all neighbors, but 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 be able to go to the museum in israel and when the guide took us in, he said, you have 45 minutes to view something that would take eight or nine hours. Sure. And it its just so overwhelming. I cant say enough about how we need to educate our children to understand. How do you think its impacted the policy thats coming out of israel . The policymakers, the policy . I think people have to separate as much as possible what happened in the holocaust from every day policymaking in the state of israel. Again, you may have a vicious threat emerging in the east and you have to cope with it. For example, you have to understand if somebody is going to say your country has to be wiped off the face of the earth and then hangs a poster saying that on his latest generation weaponry, you better take it seriously. You cant ignore it. You cant just turn the other way. I think therefore the israeli leadership from the highest levels down to the corporal or private in the army understand whats at stake. Its very serious. But i think we approach it with a sense of tremendous responsibility. I think we have to also use our diplomatic arm. I had hoped, frankly, around not long after 9 11, that we would take up the Genocide Convention, which has been signed by the United States, by israel, by many countries in the world, and start using it against countries that are using genocidal language. I will also Say Something that represents my personal view, it does not represent formally the positions of the state of israel, i feel having been an israeli diplomat that one of the responsibilities we have is to use our talents and our skills and our technical ability 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. Yes. Ive studied the battle of bosnia, and i would want the jewish state to be a part of the International Effort to prevent those things from ever reoccurring. Now the holocaust is a unique event, and i dont like to mix the holocaust with other developments around the world. The holocaust teaches us how barbaric man can become and maybe having been victims, we have a special responsibility to get the information and update people. I will tell you one thing can i do it . The gentlemans time has expired. You can say one more thing because i want to hear it too. Tell me. You know, the state of israel has many countries that turn to us and you would be surprised to know who they are and indicate a desire to, under the table, have relations with us. I remember sitting with european senior diplomats and asking them and saying, look, were in a dilemma, we want to expand our diplomatic relations around the world, but sometimes these are rather horrible countries. What would you do . And from the most important countries in western europe, i heard statements like, look, dory, we believe and we would try and expand our diplomatic relations and basically turn away from the crimes that these countries are engaging in. Thats horrible. As the state of israel, we should stand against that and we should advance policies that fight genocide which is the most evil development, the most evil policy which we, part of the core of civilized countries have to face. Thank you. The gentleladys time has expired. I now recognize the gentlewoman from michigan, miss tlaib, for questions. Thank you so much, madam chair. Thank you so much to mr. Shaffir for coming here and your courage. I will make sure that my sons hear your testimony. I think its important for my children to consistently hear exactly what the holocaust means and again so that we dont repeat it. Mr. Gold, youre absolutely right, humankind, what it can lead to if we do nothing. Thank you again for chairwoman and my colleagues for holding this important hearing today. It is imperative we honor the victims of the holocaust, learn from the lessons of history and continue to fight against antisemitism and all forms of hate. I ran a campaign to take on hate in michigan. I would always tell the young people you have to take on hate with action. This week im really honored to be a cosponsor of the never again education act as we make sure that our children and every other generation understand what it means when we talk about the holocaust. When i historied the Holocaust Memorial center in michigan with my young son adam, i remember he spent the day reading everything he could. When i had called beforehand, they said he might be too young for the visuals. I said nope, if he can see that stuff in video games, if he can see a lot of stuff on tv, he can see the reality of what is actually real. I wanted him to see it. He was reading this whole wall, a whole wall of news clippings and even the news clippings documenting unspeakable atrocities of the holocaust and something i will never forget when he looked up at me and asked, mom, he said mama, why did it take so long for people to do something about this . Because even at that young age, you know what he noticed, he noticed the years before we finally set jews free. At such a young age, he recognized how slow the International Community was actually taking action. He could not comprehend how the world stood back as this brutality unfolded before him. So, you know, dr. Freedberg, as a historian, it resonates with me whats happening even across the world, muslims in china, and im fearful were going to find out much too late about whats happening there, but what can you tell me about the environment that enabled adolf hitler and the nazis to rise to power . What can we history teaches us about how the democratic process can deyou will have ivo regime capable of atrocities. Thank you very much. I brought my young son with me here today. What i can tell you is when you study the holocaust and beyond nazi germany, you see hate is only part of the story. It would be a mistake and too comforting to think if we can just inoculate ourselves against racism, that people will no knot do bad things to other people. When we study the holocaust in its specificity, much of what enabled the nazi rise to power had to do with motivations much more relatable, like career aspirations, greed, fear, opportunism. We can see, for example, that the nazi regime and some of our fellows at the museum have received this. Many women were complicit in the killing process as a result. The eastern front, for example, offered a kind of i guess the opposite of a wild west, an environment in which a lot of social norms were broken down. I want to be careful not to think that there was some kind of brainwashing of the german people, but the nuremburg laws of 1935, most of what happened to jews in nazi germany was done legally in a framework of laws. This was not criminal. It was actually the governments action. Adam noticed that and saw the slow but sure enough taking away of peoples properties. He noticed that. Smart kid. As an example in the nuremburg laws, ill give one example, jews doctors were no longer allowed to treat socalled arian patients. If youre a medical resident and your chief resident is jew and hes gone, maybe you dont object so much because this opens a door to you. You may be afraid to make noise and its an opportunity. I want us to think about we study the history in its precision in that way because we see how any one of us could have been part of that process, whether or not we were a racist or antisemite in our hearts. One of the things that spoke to me and why i took my son to the Holocaust Museum is, when he was 9 years old hes 14 now when he was 9 years old he heard me talk to his father about this awful cartoon that was in usa today that depicted muslims in a way that it would invoke violence towards muslims and i was talking to his father, almost whispering to him, he heard and he comes into the bedroom like, mama, dont worry, if anybody asks if im muslim i will lie and tell them im not. At that moment it struck me, i was like oh, honey, no. And we cant allow, you know, this to continue, this kind of form of oppression. All of you are doing incredibly important work and i loved seeing the naacp here, because an africanamerican baptist pastor said it in detroit, were not a country thats divided, were a country thats disconnected. We need to connect and understanding all of us as fellow human beings that never ever deserve to be targeted based on who we are or faith or anything like that. Thank you all so much for your incredible testimony and thank you, chairwoman, for your leadership. Thank you. May i add something to that . Yes, yes. First of all, i would like to thank you very much for taking your son to actually witness Something Like that. Its very important. I wish more mothers or parents would take their children to places like that. Thank you very much. Thank you. I now recognize the gentlelady from california, miss porter, for questions. Thank you. Madam chair, my colleague and i have the same age of sons and my son luke when he came to washington, i tried to interest him in so many things and the only place he wanted to go visit was the Holocaust Museum. Todays topic the ongoing battle against hate is really personal for my community in only county. According to the San Diego County sheriffs department, the synagogue shooter posted a antisemitic message on 8chan before he went on his rampage. Samuel woodward the man accused of killing blaze bernstein in a park in my district in lake forest was reportedly a member of a militant neo nazi group. Investigations found woodward openly described himself as a nazi. I want to focus on the role of social media and online chat rooms and messaging applications and their potential use as a platform for White Supremacists to spread hate. Mr. Or sineny, did social media play a role in the planning or execution of the attack at the tree of life synagogue . Unfortunately. I cant answer that question. That case is still under prosecution and ive made an agreement not to talk about anything about the shooter himself. I appreciate your professionalism. Mr. Greenblatt, a more general level, could you comment on what research might tell us about how White Supremacists are using the internet and social media today sure. Thank you very much for the question. I think social media is really today become almost a breeding ground of bigotry. I say this as someone who worked in Silicon Valley for many years, ran teams of engineers, but facebook is the front line in fighting hate. Antisemitism it used to be if you were a white supremacist you had to go to a compound in idaho to find a rally, now you can find them with a swipe or click, and your young kids can literally with a couple clicks on their phone engage in the horrific content you would never that could never be published in print, never be shown on television, could never find its way into film, its now available to our children. I think there are things that companies can do to start the process. Again, we believe in the First Amendment at the adl, but we literally started a center in Silicon Valley in 2017, our center on technology in society is doing cuttingedge research. I have ph. D. Ness artificial intelligence, machine learning, working in adl doing research and i will share some of the things that Silicon Valley could do today to tackle this problem. Number one, they all have terms of service that prevent hateful speech, whether its antimuslim, antijewish, antiblack. All they need to do is recognize theyre not public places. Theyre private companies. The same way you couldnt go into starbucks and slander jews or sit in the panera and yell at mexicans, haters that get on these platforms should get pushed out like that. Number two, they should adjust their algorithms. You can find salacious content on Cable Television late at night, but its not available in the middle of the night for young chirp to see it. Adjusting the al gor rhythms is the equivalent of having editorial guidelines. Number three, slow it down. The shooter in christchurch who murdered 50 muslims in cold blood in two mosques, the shooter who tried to burst into a sin na gok, the shooter used go pro cameras and live streamed their films. Frankly there is no natural law that says, when i click publish it should be available for billions to see. There should be a delay on this content and use a. I. To prevent this from getting out there. Number four, the companies should stop hate for profit. Youtube shouldnt flight ads and allow neo nazis to make money on this content. Twitter shouldnt allow extremists to profiteer off of prejudice. This should stop right now. And lastly, the companies should submit to regular, independent, thirdparty audits. This is crucial. I should say, facebook, youtube, twitter, we work with all these businesses and they have taken some steps, but they havent done enough. If they would apply a bit of transparency and submit to the same kind of practices that all other businesses submit to, so we had some context, then you would be able to independently verify whether theyre doing enough to take the venom out of their systems. That is very helpful. Thank you so much for your concrete suggestions. I really appreciate it. Im really excited about bringing the u. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum traveling exhibition to the university of california irvine and so dr. Freedberg, i hope at some point you will be able to share with this committee sort of why that exhibit is so important and what you hope it will be able to accomplish. Ill encourage those of you in d. C. See the exhibit here on americans in the holocaust and i will be happy to speak in irvine. Ive seen it twice and thank you. The time has expired. I recognize the gentlewoman from new mexico for questions. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you all so much for being here today and thank you, mr. Shaffir for your strength, courage and sacrifice. I would like to make mention and honor the man who worked tirelessly until his death to fight hate and who advocated feverishly to move the u. N. Genocide convention forward and he also coined the word genocide mr. Raphael lemkin. I think he would be proud of every single one of you for carrying on his legacy. Thank you for that. In its 2018 report, the fbi found that the number of victims of antilatino or hispanic hate crimes increased by 21 over the previous year. In my home state of new mexico, hate crimes have increased over 400 and that includes recently the shooting death and beating deaths of homeless native americans in the city of albuquerque. On august 3rd, 2019, a gunman entered a walmart in el paso, texas, and shot and killed 22 people while also wounding 27. Minutes before the rampage, the shooter posted an antiimmigrant manifesto warning about the, quote, hispanic invasion of texas and vowed to shoot, quote, as many mexicans as possible. Among those was angie englishby, murdered that day. She was 84 years old, a new mexican, the oldest of ten siblings, she had seven children, 21 grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Children have lost their parents, parents have lost their children, and yet, we cant figure out how to stop reliving this nightmare. No one should have to live it. Especially not our immigrant communities. The communities that enrich our country by bringing their cultures here and sharing them with all of us. Hate has been weaponized against so many communities. My own community, the hispanic, muslim, and immigrant communities. So my first question is for you, mr. Greenblatt, in your view what might be driving the increase of antiimmigrant or antila tino sentiments . I am really grateful that you asked me this question. Hate crimes are vastly underreported. Sometimes this comes from the fact that the people in the communities dont know to report their experience as hate crimes, sometimes Law Enforcement isnt trained but i am concerned about the latino and immigrant communities we know are afraid to report these incidents. Ip i know this because i have heard this. The adl developed a partnership with the government of mexico, we provided hate crimes training to over 2,000 mexican consular officials across the United States, over 2,000, because the mexicans nationals living here in the u. S. , they are literally going to their consulates to say, my child is being bullied at school, my business was vandalized because theyre afraid to go to the police because of the rumors of i. C. E. Enforcement. It is unthinkable that People Living here legally are afraid of the authorities. Why is this happening . The antiimmigrant movement in the United States has been empowered in ways we have never seen before. You have the kind of hateful rhetoric coming from positions of authority starting with the white house, dehumanizing latinos and people seeking refuge in this country in ways that are unconscionable. Adl has done reporting on this. I would we need people in positions of authority to use that wisely and recognize this country need to be welcoming of everyone, particularly those Vulnerable People seeking refuge at our shores. Thats why this country was founded and thats what we need to live up to those values today. Thank you so much. Thank you for that. I will go to dr. Freedberg. During the holocaust, many countries, including the United States, erected barriers to make it nearly impossible for jewish people to emigrate, is that correct . Not exactly. Thank you for the question. In fact, they didnt need to erect barriers during the holocaust because the barriers were already in place. Immigration laws that were passed in this body in 19 24 severely restricted immigration based on country of origin and one fact that is important to know is that the United States did not have any refugee policy. Im going to repeat that. There was no refugee policy in the United States during the period of the holocaust. So its not that it wasnt enforced. We simply did not treat people who were fleeing from violence or persecution in any way different than we would treat an economic immigrant or someone calling for family reunification. It was not a priority of the United States government at that time. Thank you so much. Ill just i have one more. I have a i think im out of time. I yield. Madam chair, thank you. The time has expired. I would now recognize the gentleman from missouri for questions. Thank you, madam chair, 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, in which mr. Shelton grew up in, i have a large and very historic Jewish Community, which i have enjoyed a great friendship with over many decades. Three years ago, just a few blocks from my home, a historic jo a Jewish Cemetery was vandized causi causing shock and pain to families. I had an opportunity to work with them to make that cemetery whole and i considered that not only my duty but an obligation of faith. Earlier this weeks the st. Louis Jewish Federation announced an 18 million expansion of this remarkable Holocaust Museum. Holocaust education is essential not just to honor the memory of the victims, but because future generations must know that evil deeds can begin with hateful words. Hate can proceed and grow when good people remain silent. Many of us remember the quote, unite the right rally that took place in charlottesville in 2017. We watched with horror as White Supremacists and neo nazis boldly and proudly marched with their burning torches chanting jews will not replace us and into the ovens. Ultimately one selfdescribed neo nazi rammed his car into a car of counter protesters killing Heather Haier and injuring 30 other people. Dr. Freedberg, into the oven, i believe is a holocaust reference, would you agree . Yes. Do you believe the public at large understood the significance of those words . Some do and some dont and, in fact, in the aftermath of charlottesville we created a whole educators guide and website to make sure that the public could deconstruct and understand the dog whistles and symbols being invoked. Mr. Shaffir, after everything you have experienced how does it make you feel to see scenes like charlottesville and other scenes like that . What does that do for you . Memories like that keep coming back. I remember when i was 6 and 7 and and seeing all the violence against jewish people, against jewish children. Kind of wakes me up more and im trying to do as much as i possibly can while im alive because after were gone, it will be very hard for someone to know what really happened there. Youre right. I appreciate you coming forward today and sharing your story. Thank you. With us here in congress. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Greenblatt, how does the Antidefamation League define neo nazi if . At the adl we track extremists across the board including right wing extremists some who identify as neo nazi, people who openly embrace the ideology, and continue to promote it today. So how would you characterize the threat of neo naziism today and do you believe the charlottesville march reflects or contributes to increasing antisemitism . So i think the issue today is less naziism itself and more extremism of which naziism represents one sort of variance of that. So i worry about the violent right wing extremism, which has been responsible for 73 of the extremistrelated murders in this country over the past tech cade. I worry about the right wing extremism which is responsible for 49 of the 50 extremist related murders in 2018. I worry about the right wing extremism that promotes a toxic ideology in which africanamericans, jews, muslims, lbgt people, latinos, anyone who is different from their vision of this country is demonized, dehumanized and think should be murdered and we have seen that play out in el paso, in pittsburgh, in poway, in too many places in the past few years. How would you characterize the actions of a Top White House official named Stephen Miller and how he has fed into this frenzy . Can you comment on that . Well, were on the record as calling for the res sig nags of Stephen Miller because his utilization of white supremacist ideas and ideology. Weve seen some of the documents that have been released suggesting he was trying to promote this in the media. Ultimately we judge peoples based on what they do, not just what they say, an the set of policies we think dont reflect as we said earlier our values in this country. As the grandson of a refugee, as the husband of a refugee, its a country we dont embrace refugee seeking refuge here. My time is up and i thank you for your response. Thank you so much. I now recognize the patient gentleman from new jersey, mr. Malanowski. It takes patience to fight antisemitism. Thank you. Mr. Greenblatt, i wanted to start with you. You said this morning that adls research has found that the increase in antisemitism, antisemitic attacks in the United States is not caused by a change in attitudes among americans, rather more of the millions of americans holding these views are feeling emboldened to act on their hate. I wanted to explore that with you. Obviously theres a lot of explicit antisemitic rhetoric in the atmosphere today. Charters of dual loyalty, for example. I think a number of questions have focused on less explicit examples, so, for example, miss Debbie Wassermanschultz asked about conspiracy theories and i wanted to be more explicit about that. When people in the public sphere rail against globalists, the deep state, when prominent people or prominent people who happen to be jews are attacked for controlling the state department or the mass media does that make for a safer climate for Jewish Americans. Thank you for the question. Clearly the implication creates an environment which is dangerous for jews and for all people. And when you talk about it being the public sphere, let me give you an example. Right now, chairwoman maloney or any of your staff i invite you to open up youtube and look at the comments on this hearing which i have learned are ripe with the holocaust antisemitic conspiracy that you are asking me about. This is a clear and present danger happening unfolding as we speak. You were asked about antiimmigrant rhetoric. Statements about immigrant invasions or infestation, same category in terms of impact on safety for Jewish Americans . Yes. Short answer is yes. These are the invocation of classic antisemitic tropes and longstanding stereotypes as mentioned by dr. Freedberg, used to restrict immigration laws and used to dehumanize people today. The 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 . Its accurate. And then let me raise the question of israel because obviously demonization of israel, including by movements such as contributes to a less safe climate for Jewish Americans, but is it enough to be proisrael to say you stand against antisemitism in the United States . I am unapologetically, unashamedly zionist. My organization is proud to be proisrael. But at the same time, and i will tell you that bds the architects and the impact it creates, absolutely contributes to the antisemitism and no doubt that delegitimizing the jewish state contributes to deledge might mizing the jewish people. When jews are being assaulted in the streets and so i think we need to be able to say we can be pro israel and antibigotry. And the things arent necessarily the same. Mr. Gold, have you heard of robert jeffis . I have not. You mentioned the Embassy Opening in jerusalem and i was in favor of recognizing jerusalem as the capital of israel. Robert is an evangelical pastor who was invited by the administration to say the opening prayer at that ceremony. He claims to be proisrael. Hes also said, and im just quoting him, you cannot be save being a jew. He said, the judaism, like other nonchristian religions, not only leads lead people away from the true god, they lead people to an eternity of separation from god and hell. And this is somebody who claims to be proisrael and who gave the invocation at that ceremony. Can you see that it may be it m to be superficially proisrael while also, in fact, contributing to the climate that is making life less safe for jews in america . Theres an expression in english called due diligence. Hopefully when you organize ceremonies of such importance for United States government or any western or any power in the world, you have to check whos coming. And obviously these are detestable positions, but i wanted to ask something else. Im getting a sense here, and 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 antisemetism its both right wing and left. You cant lean over and say its one or the other. Hopefully when we decide what are the sources of antis antisemetism, we look at both sources and fight against them. I fully agree and most of us would agree that the extremes of left and right tend to come together and antisemetism is the place they come together. Seme mr. Doyle should be permitted to participate in todays hearing and the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for question questions. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you for being here today to tell these stories so we never, ever forget. Its most important for young generations coming up to make sure they know this, too. I also want to welcome and say thank you for being here today and what you did before and after the tree of life attack in our home city of pittsburgh. For the panelist and people here in the audience, Squirrel Hill, which is a neighborhood in pittsburgh where this horrific attack took place, is a kind of neighborhood you would never expect anything like this to be possible. This is a multiracial, multicultural, vibrant community, where people of all faiths and ethnicities get along with one another and work on Community Projects together. And when i saw my television that morning, i was in my kitchen, that there was an active shooter in Squirrel Hill near the tree of life, it almost didnt register at first. So, i guess we were learning that theres really no place thats safe, even though we have a sense of security in our neighborhood that nothing bad could happen. In areas where you never expect to have these kinds of incidence, how do you look what signs do you look for, for signs of hate and violence and how do you engage with social media for security purposes, too . Do you think that the attack on the tree of life changed the way that the pittsburgh Jewish Communityvi Community Views their security . Sure. I think it was a watershed moment for the entire Jewish Community across the country. Nobody who knows pittsburgh and Squirrel Hill would have ever imagined that. I think anybody who has been involved in a mass casualty attack would say the same thing. It never happens to us. And thats why our work is so important, the work to secure Community Work that we do now across the country to make awarene awareness, teach our community to be First Responders. It can happen to anyone, anywhere. A lot of things we 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 i work with now to talk about an established social media review and to find these signs of hate. I think in pittsburgh most people did know who patriot identity of ropa was. We see those science all over pittsburgh. Its important for us to educate the community. Why not to dismiss any signs of hate, even though its a piece of paper on a telephone pole. We need to let our community, our country know who these people are, and mitigate that next attack. Social media plays a big role in this. We work hand in hand with the fbi. Fbi needs help. They cant openly search social media sites. The Community Needs to be great partners with Law Enforcement so we cannot dismiss any signs of hate. Thank you. Mr. Shaffir, i see in your testimony you said something that i think was really powerful, that the enemy of the holocaust and Holocaust Survivors, like yourself, was time. And what do you think are the best ways to amplify and spread your story and the stories of other survivors, to make sure we get them to young people, so that they understand this, too . As i mentioned excuse me. As i mentioned earlier, im involved in the Holocaust Museum. We travel to various colleges, various high schools. We speak to various groups and the only important thing we do right now is educate. Very important to educate. And i am constantly saying that education is so important and i will continue to do so. Thank you. Madam chair, thank you so much for your gracious time. I will yield back. Thank you for your contribution to this important hearing. Without objection the following documents from organizations and individuals fighting hate shall be made a part of the hearing record. Written testimony from organizations including liz egrat, holocaust survivor and Central Valley holocaust educators network, julie raymond, director of political outreach, jewish advocacy. Deborah lauter, executive director of new York City Office of prevention of hate crimes, director of legislative affairs and director of the International Center for human rights and public policy. A report from the Jewish Federations of north america, an oped from our witness, adl president jonathan greenblatt. I want to thank all of my colleagues and especially an incredible, remarkable, distinguished panel for your wisdom, your insights, your ideas and your time for being with us in sharing this incredible hearing with us. I think we know we have a lot more work to do and that we cant sit back and let these acts of hate go unconfronted and responding to them. And i think weve learned that we must Work Together to combat hate, bigotry and violence of all kinds, and i want to thank all of you for your advocacy and your guidance. The committee will be continuing this series of hearings on hate. I welcome all of you and all of the members of the panel here and of congress to give me your ideas for an additional thoughts, for proposals you believe the committee should review. I just want to thank you again. And i would like to thank our witnesses for testifying today. And without objection, all members will have five legislative days within which to submit additional questions for witnesses to the chair, which will be forwarded to the witnesses for their response. And i ask our witnesses to please respond as promptly as you are able. I do want to say a very, very special thank you to the holocaust moouseum and for workg with congress, dr. Edna friedberg. We will have a centralized database that teachers can access for lesson plans to teach tolerance, acceptance, understanding that is appropriate. 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. I want to thank you again. Its been a remarkable hearing. Im very inspired. Thank you for being here and all of your wisdom, inspiring all of us. This meeting ining adjourned. Cspan 3 is live on capitol hill where acting secretary chad wolf is getting ready to testify on the budget request for his department. Mr. Acting secretary, thank you. Mr. Wolf was named acting secretary of Homeland Security november 13th, 1