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Remaining Vigilant Against Anti-Semitism
I
n his letter to the members
of the Touro Synagogue
in 1790, President George
Washington affirmed to the
American Jewish community
the government of the United
States would give “to bigotry
no sanction, to persecution
no assistance.” For more than
two centuries,
those words
have stood as a
guiding light to
those in public
service who
wish to eradicate
the millen-
nia-old preju-
dice of anti-Semitism from
our shores.
In recent years, the world’
s
oldest hatred has sadly
emerged from the darkest
corners of America. The
Jewish-American commu-
nity has been faced with the
sobering realization that its
synagogues are under threat
and anti-Semitism has once
again been normalized. Anti-
Semitism knows no ideolog-
ical boundaries. It manifests
itself across the political spec-
trum, whether it is targeted
violence, hateful rhetoric and
intolerance, or the indifference
and apathy of those who do
not see anti-Semitism as their
problem to fight.
That is why, as your U.S.
senator, I believe it is my
moral obligation to speak out
against anti-Semitism and to
build consensus around the
actions that must be taken
to strengthen and defend the
Jewish community. Following
the worst attack on the Jewish
community in our nation’
s his-
tory, I had the honor to join
Shabbat services at Temple
Israel in West Bloomfield.
Together we mourned, and
together we sought solace and
solidarity to continue taking
action to defeat this hateful
ideology and the violence it
has inspired in our commu-
nities.
I have always found it
important to add my voice to
those who seek to create unity
in the face of division, which
is why I joined my colleagues
on the Senate Bipartisan Task
Force for Combating Anti-
Semitism — a group united
in our efforts to call out hate,
support legislation to combat
anti-Semitism and educate
Americans about the dangers
of this abhorrent ideology.
In 2017, following a surge in
threats against Jewish commu-
nities in Michigan and across
the country, I partnered with
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) to
lead all 100 senators in a rare
display of unity by authoring
a letter asking the Trump
Administration to investigate
and take action to address
anti-Semitism and secure our
communities against these
pervasive threats.
As ranking member of
the Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs
Committee, I convened the
committee’
s first hearing on
white supremacist violence,
which included powerful
testimony from the Anti-
Defamation League. This past
year — as threats against syn-
agogues and religious institu-
tions continue to rise — I led
a bipartisan effort with Sen.
Portman to help secure hous-
es of worship against these
deadly attacks. Just last month,
President Trump signed our
bill into law, providing $75
million in federal funds to
faith-based organizations
across the country.
If the massacre at Tree of
Life Synagogue shocked us,
the events that followed in
Poway, New Jersey and New
York have served as a stark
reminder that Americans
live in a country where these
attacks cannot be dismissed as
isolated incidents. More work
must be done to help us secure
Jewish community spaces, and
more work must be done to
expel the darkness caused by a
rising cloud of anti-Semitism.
We recently observed the
75th Anniversary of the lib-
eration of Auschwitz and
International Holocaust
Sen. Gary
Peters
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