NOVEMBER 7 • 2019 | 11

Nazis as “very fine people” as 
he did in the wake of the 2017 
white supremacist rally in 
Charlottesville, Va., that killed 
Heather Heyer and injured 
dozens more. But he has con-
stantly invoked centuries-old 
anti-Semitic tropes before 
Charlottesville and since. 
He told a Jewish audience, 
“You’
re not going to support 
me because I don’
t want your 
money … You want to control 
your politicians, that’
s fine.
” 
He referred to Israeli Prime 
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 
as “your prime minister” 
while speaking to a group of 
Jewish Americans. He claimed 
American Jews who support 
Democrats demonstrate 
“either a total lack of knowl-
edge or great disloyalty.
” This 
list doesn’
t even touch on the 
numerous Jewish Americans 
he has repeatedly vilified and 
blamed for our country’
s ills. 
Why must we sound the 
alarm over remarks like 
these? Why are they danger-
ous? Again, it is instructive 
to recall Kristallnacht. The 
United States Holocaust 
Memorial Museum puts it 
best: “Kristallnacht was a turn-
ing point in the history of the 
Third Reich, marking the shift 
from anti-Semitic rhetoric 
and legislation to the violent, 
aggressive anti-Jewish mea-
sures that would culminate 

with the Holocaust.
”
We cannot afford to wait. 
The anti-Semitism of this 
administration should be of 
unique concern to the Jewish 
community because it aims 
to pit us against other com-
munities and each other — to 
divide us when it’
s most crit-
ical that we stand together 
against white supremacy. 
We must loudly and consis-
tently call out anti-Semitism 
in all its forms — whether it 
comes from our adversaries 
or our friends, and whether it 
is promulgated intentionally 
or unknowingly. We have a 
responsibility to honor the 
memories of the victims of 
Kristallnacht and other atroc-
ities by speaking out, even 
when it’
s not easy. And we 
must strive to do so in a way 
that truly fosters understand-
ing. 
As a member of Congress, 
I have worked to encourage 
these conversations which, 
while sometimes uncomfort-
able, ultimately bond us to 
one another in friendship. On 
this solemn anniversary, let us 
recommit ourselves to these 
responsibilities so that, togeth-
er, we might build a safer, 
more compassionate world. 
 
Andy Levin is the U.S. representative 
for Michigan’
s 9th Congressional 
District.

KRISTALLNACHT continued from page 6

November 21 & 22 2019
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KRISTALLNACHT 
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EDITH 
MANIKER