[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
75 YEARS AFTER THE HOLOCAUST:
THE ONGOING BATTLE AGAINST HATE
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON
OVERSIGHT AND REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JANUARY 29, 2020
__________
Serial No. 116-86
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Reform
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available on: govinfo.gov,
oversight.house.gov or
docs.house.gov
_________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
39-577 PDF WASHINGTON : 2021
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM
CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York, Chairwoman
Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Jim Jordan, Ohio, Ranking Minority
Columbia Member
Wm. Lacy Clay, Missouri Paul A. Gosar, Arizona
Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Jim Cooper, Tennessee Thomas Massie, Kentucky
Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia Mark Meadows, North Carolina
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois Jody B. Hice, Georgia
Jamie Raskin, Maryland Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin
Harley Rouda, California James Comer, Kentucky
Ro Khanna, California Michael Cloud, Texas
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida Bob Gibbs, Ohio
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Peter Welch, Vermont Ralph Norman, South Carolina
Jackie Speier, California Chip Roy, Texas
Robin L. Kelly, Illinois Carol D. Miller, West Virginia
Mark DeSaulnier, California Mark E. Green, Tennessee
Brenda L. Lawrence, Michigan Kelly Armstrong, North Dakota
Stacey E. Plaskett, Virgin Islands W. Gregory Steube, Florida
Jimmy Gomez, California Fred Keller, Pennsylvania
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York
Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts
Rashida Tlaib, Michigan
Katie Porter, California
Deb Haaland,, New Mexico
David Rapallo, Staff Director
Russ Anello, Chief Counsel
Amy Stratton, Clerk
Contact Number: 202-225-5051
Christopher Hixon, Minority Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on January 29, 2020................................. 1
Witnesses
* Opening statements and the prepared statements for witnesses
are available at: https://docs.house.gov.
Nat Shaffir, Holocaust Survivor
Oral Statement............................................... 7
Brad Orsini, Senior National Security Advisor, Secure Community
Network
Oral Statement............................................... 10
Jonathan Greenblatt, Chief Executive Officer, Anti-Defamation
League
Oral Statement............................................... 12
Hilary O. Shelton, Director, Washington Bureau and Senior Vice
President for Advocacy and Policy,National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
Oral Statement............................................... 13
Dore Gold (Minority Witness), President, Jerusalem Center for
Public Affairs
Oral Statement............................................... 15
Dr. Edna Friedberg, Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum
Oral Statement............................................... 17
INDEX OF DOCUMENTS
----------
The documents listed below are available at: https://
docs.house.gov.
* Letter and article of explanation; submitted by Rep. Hice.
* ``Bail Reform Is Setting Suspects Free After String of Anti
Semitic Attacks'', article, submitted by Rep. Roy.
* ``Barr Says Justice Department Will Get More Involved in
Fighting Anti Semitic Attacks'', article; submitted by Rep.
Roy.
75 YEARS AFTER THE HOLOCAUST:
THE ONGOING BATTLE AGAINST HATE
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Wednesday, January 29, 2020
House of Representatives,
Committee on Oversight and Reform,
Washington, D.C.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in
room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Carolyn B.
Maloney [chairwoman of the committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Maloney, Norton, Clay, Lynch,
Connolly, Krishnamoorthi, Raskin, Rouda, Wasserman Schultz,
Sarbanes, Welch, Speier, Kelly, DeSaulnier, Lawrence, Plaskett,
Khanna, Gomez, Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, Tlaib, Porter, Haaland,
Jordan, Foxx, Massie, Meadows, Hice, Grothman, Comer, Gibbs,
Roy, Miller, Green, Armstrong, Steube, and Keller.
Also present: Representatives Malinowski, and Doyle.
Chairwoman Maloney. Good morning. The committee will come
to order. And without objection, the chair is authorized to
declare a recess of the committee at any time. With that, I
will now recognize myself to give an opening statement.
Two days ago, the entire world came together to mark
International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In addition, 75 years
ago this week, in January 1945, the Auschwitz-Birkenau
concentration camp was liberated from the Nazis. It was one of
the most infamous sites of the Nazi genocide. More than 1
million people were murdered there.
The purpose of today's hearing is to commemorate these
grave anniversaries, to remember those we lost, and to honor
those who are still with us. But it is not enough to simply
recognize these dates. We must also contemplate what led to
these atrocities. We must remember the Holocaust in order to
help combat bigotry, hate, and violence of all kinds today.
I am so pleased to have our distinguished panel here today.
I have asked them to help us come together on today's solemn
occasion, help us rise above issues that may divide us, and
help us unify our efforts around a common purpose of hope and
inclusion. On this day of all days, I hope we can all do that.
One issue we will discuss today is what we can do to ensure
that future generations never forget the lessons of the
Holocaust. This may sound hard to believe, but the Pew Research
Center recently issued a report finding that fewer than half of
Americans surveyed knew how many Jews were killed in the
Holocaust. Another report found that only 38 percent of
American teens surveyed knew the Nazis killed 6 million Jews,
and only a third knew that Hitler was democratically elected.
The best way I know to help people remember the Holocaust
is to hear firsthand from the people who went through it. We
are very fortunate to have that opportunity today. In addition,
the Holocaust Memorial Museum, just a few blocks from here, is
an outstanding and gripping institution, dedicated to
remembering the Holocaust in order to fight hate today.
I am also pleased to announce that on Monday, the House of
Representatives passed bipartisan legislation with 393 votes
that I introduced and authored called the ``Never Again
Education Act,'' to give teachers additional resources to teach
about the Holocaust. I hope the Senate will pass this bill and
send it to the President as soon as possible, because the
lessons of the past must inform our approach to fighting hate
today.
For example, this morning, we will hear testimony about the
horrific shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh,
the most deadly assault against the Jewish community in
American history. After that massacre, a group of Holocaust
survivors who volunteered in the Holocaust Museum wrote to the
Pittsburgh Jewish community in solidarity explaining why they
dedicated their lives to sharing the horrors they experience.
They wrote, and I quote, ``We seek to remind people,
especially young people, our country's future leaders, that
hate can never be ignored. Complacency is dangerous. Standing
up and pushing back is the only way we can make a better
future,'' end quote. Unfortunately, there has been a sinister
increase in hate crimes recently, not only against Jewish
communities, but against African Americans, Muslims,
immigrants, and others.
In November, the FBI released data showing the highest
number of reported violent hate crimes in the United States in
16 years. The number of hate groups exploded to more than 1,000
in 2018. This was a record high and a 30 percent increase over
the past four years.
To take just one example, when we watched the gruesome
video footage of the Neo-Nazi attacks in Charlottesville, we
see in excruciating detail the evil that still poisons our
society to this day. I want all of our members to know that our
committee is dedicated to fighting bigotry, hate, and violence
of all kinds.
Today's hearing, which commemorates the 75th anniversary of
the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, is one in a series we are
holding on these issues in the 116th Congress. Chairman Raskin
has held four hearings in the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Subcommittee to confront white supremacy, religious
persecution, and our government's response.
Chairman Lynch, from the National Security Subcommittee,
has worked with Chairman Raskin to investigate the national
security implications of these threats. Going forward, we are
planning additional hearings, including one on voter
suppression in minority communities, anti-Muslim
discrimination, anti-immigrant actions, and issues facing the
LGBTQ communities.
I have been in touch with many of you over the past weeks,
and I hope you'll come to me with any additional thoughts,
ideas, or proposals that you think our committee should take up
as part of this series.
We mark this day of remembrance just weeks after a recent
spate of anti-Semitic attacks in New York City, including an
attack at a rabbi's home during the festival of Hanukkah. It
was heartening to participate in the solidarity march in New
York following these attacks, and I hope we can work together
with that same spirit of solidarity today.
I now want to recognize Ranking Member Jordan, but before I
do, I'd like to thank him personally for his support of the
Holocaust Never Again Education Act. Thank you, Mr. Jordan, and
you're recognized.
Mr. Jordan. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Thank
you for calling this hearing today, and thank you to all our
witnesses for being with us today and your testimony.
I want to apologize on the front end, I have to head across
to the other side of the Capitol here in a few minutes. There's
a proceeding in the U.S. Senate that's been going on for a
couple weeks. I need to get over there for a meeting.
On Monday, we recognized the International Holocaust
Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz. We pause to remember the 6 million innocent lives
taken by this evil. As Vice President Pence said last week, we
have, quote, ``an obligation of remembrance to never let the
memory of those who died in the Holocaust be forgotten by
anyone anywhere in the world. We must never forget the horrors
of the Holocaust, and we must always condemn anti-Semitism in
all its forms.''
I would like to take a moment to recognize Mr. Nat Shaffir,
a witness who I just met, here today with us, who is also
himself a Holocaust survivor. It's an incredible honor to have
you with us today, sir. Thank you. Thank you, again, for your
testimony.
One of the most important ways in which the United States
continues to support the Jewish people is through our
unwavering support for the state of Israel. Since the formation
of Israel in 1948, the United States has had a special bond
with the Israeli people. Since President Trump took office
three years ago, he has made it his mission to strengthen this
important bond.
President Trump has worked to ensure the whole world knows
that the United States stands firmly with the state of Israel.
President Trump, in just three years, in just three years,
here's what has happened: He's recognized the Golan Heights as
a part of Israel; he has withdrawn from the failed Iranian
nuclear deal; he has taken decisive action to eliminate
Soleimani, one of the greatest terror threats to Israel and in
the Middle East; he has opposed the boycott, divestment, and
sanction movement championed by those who want to diminish
Israel; he's issued an executive order to curtail anti-Semitism
on college campuses around the United States; and just
yesterday, President Trump released a groundbreaking peace
plan.
But maybe most importantly, President Trump fulfilled a
decades'-old promise to the people of Israel in recognizing
Jerusalem as the capital of that state. Past Presidents have
routinely made this promise and failed to deliver. 1976, former
President Carter ran on a platform that said, quote, ``We
recognize the report for the established status of Jerusalem as
the capital of Israel. The U.S. Embassy should be moved from
Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.''
In 1993, former President Clinton said, Jerusalem is still
the capital of Israel. In 2000, former President Bush said,
``As soon as I take office, I will begin the process of moving
the U.S. Ambassador to the city of Israel as its chosen
capital.'' And in 2008, Democratic nominee for President,
Barack Obama, said, Jerusalem will be the capital of Israel.
I've said that before and I will say it again: President Trump
fulfilled that promise last year.
Recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and
officially moving our embassy there shows the Israeli people
that they have the support of the United States of America. We
should all be proud of this close friendship with Israel and
the Israeli people, and the work the President has done to
solidify the relationship.
As the committee continues to address hate crimes and
violent extremism, we would be wise to listen to and learn from
the testimony today. Thank you, again, Madam Chairwoman, and I
yield back.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you very much.
I would now like to recognize two of my colleagues,
Representative Lawrence and Representative Wasserman Schultz.
They are both founding Members of the congressional Caucus on
Black-Jewish Relations. Mrs. Lawrence.
Mrs. Lawrence. Thank you, Chairwoman Maloney, for holding
this hearing and drawing the attention to the alarming rise of
anti-Semitic acts and hate crimes in the United States. I'm
glad to see our community--our committee will be using our
oversight authority to find innovative ways for the government
to combat anti-Semitic and the rise in white supremacy
ideology.
Last year, I formed the congressional Caucus on Black-
Jewish Relations to discuss the relationships between African
American and Jewish communities; also to highlight our shared
history of combating racism, and how the two groups in this
country can work together to combat hate crimes moving forward.
Our shared history of slavery and the Holocaust has given us a
heightened sensitivity to hatred and to racism in our country.
The two cochairs, or the cochairs of the caucus--it is
bipartisan--are Representatives John Lewis, Lee Zeldin, Will
Hurd, and my colleague on this committee, Debbie Wasserman
Schultz. We are all committed to advancing the needs of these
two communities. Unfortunately, anti-Semitic acts have become
far too prevalent in our society.
Since the beginning of 2020, already--we are still in
January--there has been at least three reported anti-Semitic
incidents in my home state of Michigan, and more than 25 across
the United States. The last few years have seen a disturbing
spike in anti-Semitic attacks, with more than 1,800 reported in
2018 alone, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The most
recent audit of anti-Semitic incidents, a 57 percent increase
over 2017.
As local communities experience this 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 identity-based hate crimes. This pattern of
hate illustrates a disturbing trend in our country that must be
reversed. Hate-filled, anti-Semitic acts will not be tolerated,
and I will not stand by idly as predators of these senseless
attacks seek to sow fear across our country.
The First Amendment gives all Americans the right to
freedom of religion and will not allow--and we will not allow
that right to be hindered by a small fraction who use their
awful agenda to spread hate and crime.
I look forward to working with the leadership of this
amazing Chairwoman Maloney of this committee, members of the
Caucus on Black and Jewish Relations, and all the Members of
Congress. In the words of Martin Luther King, ``Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'' And I want to
thank you, again, Madam Chair, for holding this hearing.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz. Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the
gentlewoman for convening this important hearing.
I serve proudly as the first Jewish woman to represent
Florida in the U.S. Congress, and I just returned from Israel
and Auschwitz-Birkenau with a bipartisan delegation led by
Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the 75th anniversary of its
liberation.
Over 1 million men, women, and children lost their lives at
Auschwitz-Birkenau alone. We walked train tracks that
transported innocent people to captivity in the gas chambers,
and visiting this historic monument to genocide only reaffirmed
for me that we cannot ignore the resurgence in hate that we see
now.
To live the moral imperative of ``never again,'' we must
hold hearings like this and shine a light on bigotry and white
supremacist ideology. It is important to underscore for this
hearing that the fight against anti-Semitism and bigotry is
about more than support for the state of Israel.
The story of the Shoah must also be clear: This systematic
mass extermination 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. Today, we
will do that.
We must also educate the American people by highlighting
the amazing accomplishments of persecuted communities in the
United States during important events, like the upcoming Black
History Month in February, and the Jewish American Heritage
Month, which we celebrate in May.
Educating one another about our unique cultures,
traditions, and accomplishments, when so many people across the
country are unfamiliar with minority communities' achievements
and traditions is essential.
I bet if each of us thinks about it, there are many of us
who have populations of communities in our own districts that
are either tiny or minuscule, and the first time that many
Members of Congress interact with a minority community is when
they join the U.S. Congress. That is why it's important to hold
hearings like this one today, Madam Chair, and I appreciate our
ability to make sure that we can rid our Nation of every denial
of one another's humanity.
I want to thank the panelists, especially, for being here,
for being in the fight every day to make sure that we continue
to shine a spotlight and root out bigotry and hate in all its
forms.
I particularly want to thank my colleague and dear friend,
Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence, for her leadership and vision to
establish the congressional Caucus on Black-Jewish Relations,
and I am proud to join her as a cochair of that organization
and look forward to our work.
Thank you. I yield back the balance of my time.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you.
I would now like to welcome our witnesses. And I recognize
Representative Raskin to introduce our first distinguished
witness.
Mr. Raskin. Thank you, Madam Chair, for calling this
hearing, and for giving me an opportunity to introduce to
everyone a remarkable constituent from my district. Nat Shaffir
was a little boy in Romania when a policeman arrived to arrest
him, his two sisters, and his parents, and to take them to a
ghetto for the crime of being Jewish. Astonishingly,
remarkably, they survived the Holocaust, but Mr. Shaffir 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. Yet, we live in a time
of resurgent authoritarianism, propaganda, conspiracy theory,
mass psychological manipulation, human rights violations, anti-
Semitism, racism, and religious persecution, fanaticism, and
violence.
Just yesterday, the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Subcommittee, Madam Chair, held a hearing on accelerating
global religious persecution taking place under the guise of
the blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws and ideological
reeducation, including the internment of millions of Muslim
Uyghurs and the genocide against the Rohingya in Burma.
Here at home, the last decade of dirty work by Cambridge
Analytica and Vladimir Putin injecting racial and religious
poison into the social media has helped to propagandize and
activate the most dangerous and unstable elements of our
society, creating a wave of white supremacist violence and
terror against synagogues, black churches, Jews in their homes,
Hispanics shopping at Wal-Mart, and anyone deemed to be an
outsider.
We have got to get ahold on the convergence of rising white
supremacist violence, and off-the-charts gun violence. We must
continue to pressure the Federal Government, as we've been
doing in this committee, to devise a strategic plan to combat
the rise of violent white supremacy and domestic terror here in
the United States.
Today, we can focus on Mr. Shaffir, whose indomitable and
soaring resilience is a lesson to all Americans in these dark
times. Last year, at 82 years old, remarkably he became the
only Holocaust survivor known ever to scale Mount Kilimanjaro,
a feat that he accomplished by keeping in mind the words that
his father repeatedly spoke to him during the Holocaust:
``Never give up.'' We are honored by Mr. Shaffir's presence,
and I yield back to you, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you so much for that
introduction, and we are honored to have you, Mr. Shaffir. And
congratulations on your recent achievement. We look forward to
your testimony.
We are also fortunate to have Brad Orsini. He is the senior
National Security Advisor for the Secure Community Network and
the former director of community security for the Jewish
Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. I want to thank
Representative Doyle for his assistance in putting us in touch
with him, and we look forward to his testimony. Mr. Doyle may
be able to join us later. He has a conflict right now.
We also welcome Dr. Edna Friedberg. She is a historian for
the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Jonathan Greenblatt is the chief executive officer for the
Anti-Defamation League.
And Hilary Shelton is the director of the Washington Bureau
and the senior vice president for advocacy and policy for the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
We also welcome Ambassador Dore Gold. He is the president
of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and the former
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, and the 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 you in. Do you swear to affirm that the
testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth, so help you God? I do. Let the
record show that the witnesses answered in the affirmative.
Thank you and be seated. The microphones are very sensitive so
please speak directly into them. And without objection, your
statement will be made part of the record.
With that, Mr. Shaffir, you are now recognized for five
minutes for your opening statement. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF NAT SHAFFIR, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR
Mr. Shaffir. Thank you, Chairman Maloney, Ranking Member,
guests, and Congresspeople. I'm honored to be here today and
share with you a little bit about my personal experience----
Chairwoman Maloney. Pull the microphone a little closer to
you so we can hear better. Thank you.
Mr. Shaffir. I'm honored to be here and share with you a
little bit of my personal experience as to what happened to me
and my family during the Holocaust years. In 1924, my father
established a farm on the northeastern part of Romania. For 18
years, he and my mother worked the farm. My two sisters and
myself were born there. I went to kindergarten. I started first
grade. Everything was okay in the farm for a child, in
particular.
One of our neighbors was a priest who used to come by once
a week to ask my father for a donation to the church and also
some dairy products for some of his constituents, or some of
his congregates who could not otherwise afford it. In 18 years,
my father never once refused such a weekly request.
One day, in November 1942, the same priest showed up;
however, this time he showed up with an armed police officer
and two armed guard soldiers, also armed. We did not know why
that happened this time, so we all went to find out what was
going on. Whether we came close to the priest, he's looking at
the police officer, pointing at us and saying, ``estee
Jidans,'' ``these are Jews.'' So, we were turned into the
authorities by a priest.
The police officer stepped forward, and he said to us we
have four hours to vacate the farm because he has orders to
relocate us in a different part of the city. Now, at this
point, my father and my mother both tried to convince him,
perhaps he can forget the order for relocating us, but it
didn't help. At this point, we also knew that--where we were
going, because in 1941, the ghetto of Iasi was established. It
was a year earlier.
After four hours were over, we came into the house, we
packed whatever valuables we had. When the four hours were
over, the policeman told us it was time for us to leave, and we
were escorted to the ghetto. Once we arrived there, we were
turned over to the ghetto police where we received our
orientation, what we can and cannot do, mostly things that we
were not able to do, no longer able to go to school. Jewish
people could no longer participate in public prayers.
While we were there, we were given ration cards and also in
the same time, we were given five yellow stars with the word
``Jidan'' on it, which means Jew, that we had to wear
constantly on our left lapel. Every man between the ages of 18
and 50 would be going to work on a daily basis. My father's job
was to sweep the streets in the summertime, and shovel the snow
in the wintertime and clean the market area. My mother was an
orderly in the hospital.
At this point, we didn't know what we can do to survive
primarily, because there was a certain mode of survival that we
tried to constantly focus on. My father used to go to work on a
daily basis. Then one day in 1943, in June 1943, a big sign was
posted in the ghetto area that said any individual male in
particular, between the ages of 18 and 50, must assemble at the
yard--or the main ghetto square and bring extra clothing if
they had any.
The night before my father was supposed to be assembled, we
all cried. We didn't sleep that day, that night. The next
morning we all cried. We didn't know when or if we were ever
going to see our father again. The last minute before he left,
I asked my father, I asked him if it's okay for me to walk with
him to the assembled area. He agreed.
We walked hand in hand until we got to the area that he was
supposed to be assembling, and at that point, we did not say
anything to each other. We just held on tight. We arrived to
the assembled area. My father said, Nat, it's time for you to
go back.
At that time he turned to me, put both his hands on my
shoulders, and he said, five words to me. These five words will
remain with me for the rest of my life. He said, ``Nat, take
care of the girls.'' I'm--at this point I'm seven years old.
You cannot imagine the pressure that puts on a seven-year-old
boy. I could've told him, I'll try, I'll do my best, but I
didn't. What I said, ``I'll take care of the girls, Papa. I
will.''
From that point on, no matter how hard it was for me
personally and how easily it was for me to give up, I couldn't
because I promised my father that I will take care of the
girls. The same day, that day, my father was shipped to a
forced labor camp. We didn't hear from him for many, many
months.
While he was away, I tried to do my best to get our family
to survive. So, one of the things that we received in the
ghetto was ration cards. The ration cards were apparently for
bread, which allowed us to receive a quarter of a loaf of bread
per person every two days, and five liters of kerosene.
To receive these rations, we had to walk out of the ghetto.
Since I was--my sister was two years older than me, my father
would send out my sister to get these ration cards, these
rations, until one day he found out that some of the hooligans
are picking on Jewish girls.
From that point on, he started sending me out to get these
rations. The same hooligans also picked on Jewish boys. Many
times I would come home beat up, bloody face, but that never
hurt so much as it did when they took away my bread, which
meant for the next two days we had nothing to eat.
When my mother realized what happened for the first time,
she also realized this would happen again, and from that point
on, she started rationing us from our own rations and tried to
save a little bit on every time we received some of these
rations. This went on for a while.
All our family who was left back in Hungary, who remained
in Hungary, and we know from historical that the Nazis invaded
Hungary in the March 1944. Between April 1944 and July 1944,
440,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz. Among these 440,000
were 33 members of my family.
Immediately, the old ones and the young ones were
immediately put to death in the gas chambers. Those who were
able to work were sent to different camps. Most of them died of
starvation. We don't know when or where. We only know the fate
of three, and that's one of my grandfathers and two of my
uncles who were in Auschwitz at the end.
My grandfather died of starvation a month before he was
liberated. Two of my uncles survived liberation, one was 21
years old and one was 22 years old. Each one weighed 65 pounds.
You can imagine what they looked like. When you say to
somebody, this individual looked like a walking skeleton or a
skin and bones, that's pretty much what they looked like.
When the Red Cross came into this camp and saw the
conditions these people were in, they immediately put them on
ships and taken them to Sweden to a sanatorium to recuperate.
One of the two brothers, one of these two uncles unfortunately
did not make it to Sweden. He died on the way and he was buried
at sea. One did survive. He was in a sanatorium, in a hospital
for four years to gain his weight and his health back.
Eventually he immigrated to the United States.
We were liberated by the Russians in the early summer of
1945. We still never heard from my father what happened. We
didn't know if he was alive or dead. Once we were liberated, we
were able to go back to school; however, the anti-Semitism was
still very strong under the Communist regime.
In 1947 after--in 1945, after the war was over, finally my
father was able to come back to us. And in 1947, he realized
there's no longer a future for Jewish people in Romania, and we
decided to leave. The only country that would accept refugees
at that time was Palestine. We applied for an exit visa from
the authorities, and every time we applied to leave the
country, we received a return reply, ``Denied.''
So, constantly we tried for two years. Eventually, my
mother was able to bribe one of the officials that was in
charge of giving out the visas, and in 1950, we received a visa
to leave for Israel. In the meantime, I lived in Israel for 10
years. I served in an elite unit of the army. I married. I had
five children, 12 grandchildren. All of my children and
grandchildren are named for one of these people who were
murdered by the Nazis.
And I thank you for listening. Appreciate it.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you so much for sharing your
story.
We'll now hear from Mr. Orsini.
STATEMENT OF BRAD ORSINI, SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR,
SECURE COMMUNITY NETWORK
Mr. Orsini. Chairwoman Maloney, Ranking Member Jordan,
distinguished members of the committee, thank you for giving me
the opportunity to address you on this very important issue.
January 2017, I retired after 32 years of Federal
Government service, four years in the United States Marine
Corps, and 28 years as a special agent in the FBI. I joined the
Jewish Federation in Pittsburgh, and I developed a security
program as their first communal security director.
In the first synagogue I ever visited, I asked if they
received hate mail. The answer was instantly yes. I then asked
them, what do you do with that hate mail? They said they throw
it away. That would not be the first time I heard that.
Our goal from that point on was to conduct an awareness
campaign stressing the importance of reporting every sign of
hate, and provide the tools necessary for our community to
build a conscious cultural security. We followed the ``see
something, say something'' model, and we requested our
community to commit to action.
Over the next 18 months, until October 27, 2018, the
Pittsburgh community continued to experience anti-Semitism on a
routine basis. However, this time, our community started to
report incidents. We would no longer ignore any sign of hate
and encouraged our community not only in Pittsburgh, but all
over the country, to report every incident.
In Pittsburgh, we developed a program that was based on
three prongs to keep our people safe: The first prong was
assessment of our organizations and buildings which lead to
target hardening and the development of emergency operation
plans; No. 2, constant training and drills for our people; and
three, threat mitigation and a way to facilitate action from
law enforcement.
To fully understand what happened on October 27, you need
to understand the measures our community took regarding our new
communal security program, the 18 months leading up to the
shooting. Several measures that are outlined more fully in my
written statement did make a difference on October 27 to help
numerous people survive, to get out and to help others protect
themselves and get to safety. Unfortunately, we still lost 11
lives that day.
Our communal security program prior to October 27 trained
over 6,000 people in Pittsburgh and various security protocols,
to include active shooter and stop the bleed training. We have
now taken and use daily Tree of Life survivor testimonials to
train all over the country to demonstrate why people lived that
day, and the importance of training. Simply stated, training
help minimize loss of life, and it sure did that day.
It's unfortunate that we have to teach our Jewish community
and prepare our community to live three to five minutes prior
to law enforcement responding through various training
protocols.
Two other very important training initiatives that took
place involved the Pittsburgh Police Department. First is our
Holocaust police initiative, where every Pittsburgh police
officer spends four hours at our Holocaust center in Pittsburgh
prior to graduating the police academy.
Second, the Pittsburgh Police Department started and
initiated a rescue task force. On 10/27, it was the first time
the task force was deployed, and we had a trauma surgeon
rendering lifesaving first aid in the building while shooting
was going on.
When it comes to tracking anti-Semitism and threat
mitigation, we have partnered with the FBI. This has been
instrumental, and we forged an important relationship between
the community and law enforcement. As soon as we receive any
anti-Semitic threat through any platform from our community we
report it 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.
On October 27, 2018, our community witnessed the deadliest
anti-Semitic attack in our Nation's history. The shooting has
had a profound impact on Jews across the country. In
Pittsburgh, our communal security efforts prior to the shooting
were focused on preparedness through awareness and education.
Not everybody in the community thought it was necessary to
prepare or take an active role in their own security. Some left
that solely up to law enforcement, or ignored the issues and
the rise in anti-Semitic activity. After the shooting, that all
changed. It not only changed in Pittsburgh, but in Jewish
communities across the country.
I will never forget walking through that horrific crime
scene on October 27, and witnessing destruction that one man
caused because of hateful anti-Semitism. I am certain that
those who were in that building that day, to include our
community members as well as first responders, will never
forget those images as well.
People were murdered simply because they were Jews gathered
to pray. For a countless number of people, that image will
never be erased. It cannot, nor will it ever, be forgotten. We
need to build a strong, resilient Jewish community.
I have now spent over 35 years of my professional career in
protecting the country and now the Jewish community. It is an
absolute honor to serve the Jewish people, and I will continue
to spend the rest of my professional career working to protect
the Jewish and other faith-based communities.
Thank you for your attention, and I look forward to
answering any questions you may have.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you so much.
Mr. Jonathan Greenblatt.
STATEMENT OF JONATHAN GREENBLATT, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,
ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE
Mr. Greenblatt. Good morning, Chairwoman Maloney. I want to
thank you and all the distinguished members--am I on here?--all
the distinguished members of the committee.
Thank you. Good morning, Chairwoman Maloney and all the
distinguished members of the committee. On behalf of ADL, thank
you for the opportunity to testify here today and to share our
perspective. It's a privilege for me to be here alongside this
distinguished panel, but I want to particularly recognize Mr.
Shaffir, and just acknowledge your strength and your courage,
which is an inspiration to all of us.
Mr. Shaffir. Thank you.
Mr. Greenblatt. I'm feeling particularly moved because I
just returned from the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem,
where more than 45 world leaders recommitted themselves to
addressing hate. It was a pleasure to see a bipartisan
delegation from Congress there, including Congresswoman
Wasserman Schultz.
I also want to give a special thank you to you, Chairwoman
Maloney, for leading passage of the Never Again Education Act
in the House this week. ADL already is working to buildupon the
11 states that mandate Holocaust education and genocide
education in their public school curriculum. We will support
you as the bill moves to the Senate.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you.
Mr. Greenblatt. You know, when I was a boy, I could ask my
grandfather, who was a refugee from Nazi Germany, what it was
like. I could speak to people in my synagogue in Bridgeport,
Connecticut, in my community who had survived, but that's no
longer the case. As time passes, memory fades.
A Pew study released last week indicates that millennials
know less about the Holocaust than prior generations. ADL's
Global 100 poll determined that only an estimated 54 percent of
the entire world population has even heard about the Holocaust,
and others think that it's just not important.
A survey that ADL released this morning reported that 19
percent of American adults say that, quote, ``Jews still talk
too much about the Holocaust,'' this at a time when hate crimes
are up, when violence is up against Jews and other religious
minorities and other marginalized communities.
From a college football coach in Michigan defending Hitler
to state trooper cadets in Wisconsin snapping Nazi salutes to
queer activists in Chicago getting booted out of a pride march
because they carried a flag bearing a Jewish symbol, to visibly
identifiable Jews harassed on a subway in Manhattan or
assaulted in broad daylight in Brooklyn, instants of anti-
Semitism are up.
ADL's most recent audit of anti-Semitic incidents recorded,
as was noted earlier, more than 1,800 anti-Jewish acts in 2018.
That's the third highest total we have ever tracked in 40
years. And the hate is getting more violent, not just against
Jews, but against all minority groups. From Charlottesville to
Pittsburgh, from Poway to El Paso, from Jersey City to Monsey,
extremists feel emboldened in this environment to act out their
hate.
What might surprise you as it relates to anti-Semitism is
this increase of incidents that is happening against a backdrop
of steady, low levels of anti-Semitic attitudes among the
general population. So, why is that?
First, we have leading voices in our Nation who are
normalizing anti-Semitism, who are making hate routine. They
are using anti-Semitic tropes about globalists controlling
government, about bankers trying to destroy our borders,
accusing Jews of having dual loyalty or disloyalty, attacking
the Jewish state with the same myths they use to demonize the
Jewish people, and all of this destigmatizes anti-Semitism. All
of this renders intolerance routine.
Second, the Internet and social media and online game
environments are spawning and spreading hate, particularly
Holocaust denialism, the original fake news. With nearly 2.5
billion members, Facebook is the largest and most established
of these offenders. Its policies still don't classify Holocaust
denial as hate speech. YouTube has made some progress, but not
nearly enough.
But just as these market leaders have used ingenuity and
innovation to reinvent media and build billion-dollar brands,
they now need to apply those same capabilities to remove hate
from their platforms and build stronger, better societies.
Let me conclude with some key recommendations: No. 1,
leaders must speak out against hate at every opportunity; No.
2, social media platforms must act more responsibly and ban
Holocaust denial for what it is: unacceptable; No. 3, the Never
Again Education Act must become law; No. 4, Congress should
pass the No Hate Act of 2019 to spark improved local and state
hate crime training and prevention; No. 5, Congress should
fully fund the Nonprofit Security and Grant program to protect
all at-risk nonprofits and specifically faith-based
institutions; and finally, we would implore Congress to pass
the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act to ensure that the
Federal Government is appropriately allocating resources to the
threat of white supremacy and radical extremism today.
I applaud the leadership of this committee, Ms. Chairwoman,
and thank you for the opportunity to be here, and I look
forward to your questions.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you so much.
Mr. Hilary O. Shelton, thank you for coming.
STATEMENT OF HILARY O. SHELTON, WASHINGTON BUREAU & SENIOR VICE
PRESIDENT FOR ADVOCACY AND POLICY, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE
Mr. Shelton. Good morning, Chairwoman Maloney, Ranking
Member Jordan, esteemed members of this committee. I'd like to
thank you for asking me here today to discuss the topic that is
crucial to the NAACP, and all of the individuals, families,
neighborhoods, and communities we serve and represent, as well
as our Nation as a whole: The continued presence and, indeed,
the growth of white nationalism and white supremacy in America.
We are to be--you are to be commended as leaders in your
communities for promoting tolerance as was reflected in the
nearly unanimous passage of one of the first acts of the 116th
Congress, that is, of H. Res. 41, the resolution rejecting
white nationalism and white supremacy in America.
In the preamble to our association's constitution, the
NAACP is sworn to continue to fight for justice until all,
without regard of race, gender, creed, or religion, enjoy equal
status. In short, we were founded as an antithesis of the white
nationalism and white supremacy, and members or followers of
the NAACP have continued, to this day, to uphold this ideal of
equal opportunity and equal protection under law.
It is not an easy path, however, and we continue to face
challenges. Throughout history, white supremacy has been
espoused to the detriment of many others due to their race,
ethnicity, religion, point of national origin, or family
background.
As we all know, white supremacy can lead to atrocities such
as genocide of Native Americans, the Holocaust, slavery,
lynching, segregation, and a whole host of other horrors. We
have, however, successfully fought back against some of these
terrorists through laws like the Hate Crime Statistics Act and
the Matthew Shepard, James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
Yet, we can and should do more. We must be ever vigilant.
To begin, the NAACP strongly supports the bipartisan and
bicameral Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer National Opposition
to Hate, Assault, and Threats to Equality Act, or the No Hate
Act. This important legislation addresses the problems of
underreporting to the FBI under the Hate Crime Statistics Act
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 the
online hate. Yet, I am quick to note a word of caution: The
line between impermissible hate speech and one's First
Amendment right of free speech is extremely narrow. The NAACP
strongly supports and endorses the Domestic Terrorism Act.
This similar legislation would enhance the Federal
Government's efforts to prevent domestic terrorism by requiring
Federal law enforcement agencies to regularly assess the threat
posed by white supremacists and other violent domestic
extremists, and take concrete steps to address this threat.
We also strongly support enactment of the Emmett Till
Antilynching Act legislation, which would make lynching a
Federal hate crime, therefore eligible for additional tools
needed in local communities and resources used to investigate
and prosecute these heinous crimes.
The NAACP endorses and supports legislation which was just
introduced yesterday in the other body, that is, the Senate,
the Justice for Victims of Hate Crimes Act, which will make it
easier to prosecute hate crimes.
Finally, and I cannot emphasize this strongly enough, we
need to boost the education of our youth on the horrors of the
genocide of Native Americans, the Holocaust, slavery, lynching,
and all other acts of terror that white nationalists and white
supremacy have brought upon us as a Nation and as a world.
To fail to do so would be a crime, in and of itself, and an
insult to the millions of our ancestors who have struggled and
died to address these concerns. We need to remember and learn
from the past so it is never, ever repeated.
I said at the beginning of my testimony that the leaders of
these communities, we commend you for the great work you did in
rejecting white nationalism and white supremacy. Yet, we do
still have political leaders who talk racially thoughtless
questions like, ``White nationalists, white supremacists,
Western civilization, how did that language become offensive?''
Or they make odious statements such as, ``You also had
people that were very fine people on both sides'' of the August
2017 Charlottesville, Virginia demonstration that resulted in a
violent confrontation between a group of Neo-Nazis against
social justice advocates supporting diversity throughout our
Nation and equal opportunity and equal protection for all
Americans. This was the confrontation which led to the death of
Heather Heyer.
There is an obvious need for more research, understanding,
reflection, and education. So, we thank you, again, for
inviting me here today and for your interest in the views of
the NAACP. I look forward and ready to answer any questions as
we move to that part of this presentation. Thank you.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you.
Ambassador Dore Gold.
STATEMENT OF DORE GOLD, PRESIDENT, JERUSALEM CENTER FOR PUBLIC
AFFAIRS
Mr. Gold. Madam Chairwoman, Ranking Member Jordan, thank
you for your invitation. I have been--I'm an Israeli citizen
and an Israeli diplomat, and I happen to have been in
Washington yesterday because of the ceremonies that occurred in
the White House, where 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 hearing was conceived to deal with three interrelated
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 anti-Semitism in
recent years, especially in states that fought the evil of
Nazism, which is why it is so particularly disturbing. These
are states that are the center of our current civilization. So,
when anti-Semitism is rising in France, in Germany, in Britain,
and in the United States, we have to pay attention, and perhaps
in ways that we wouldn't otherwise.
Finally, we consider what the legacy of Auschwitz requires
from us today. I have served in multiple diplomatic positions
for the state of Israel, including as its Ambassador to the
United Nations, 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, when coming for a
dialog with the German Government, we took time off to visit
Wannsee, on the outskirts of Berlin, and the villa where senior
SS officers, like the infamous Reinhard Heydrich, convened a
meeting in January 1942 to plan the final solution of the Jews
of Europe. It was here that a plan was conceived for the Jews
of German-occupied Europe that included the building of
Auschwitz.
As in many historical sites that were preserved, Wannsee
had a guest book, which I was asked to sign. Well, what do you
write in such a book at such a location? Have a nice day? With
the burden of our history on my shoulders, I wrote a very terse
comment. I wrote, quote, ``We will never allow anyone to do
this to us again,'' unquote.
I remember that in the course of World War II, 6 million
Jews were exterminated by the Germans, and at Auschwitz alone
960,000 Jews were killed. Auschwitz was located in the eastern
part of the Nazi empire. That meant it was vulnerable, first
and foremost, to the Red Army along the eastern front.
The German determination to complete their mission of
extermination despite the advances of the Russians caused the
Germans to transfer the inmates from Auschwitz to other
concentration camps further west and within the borders of the
German state. That is what led Jews from Auschwitz to Bergen-
Belsen on forced marches during the frigid winters of northern
Europe.
Anne Frank and her sister Margo were moved in this way from
Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen where they both died. On a personal
note, my mother-in-law, Dina Sherman, and her sister Esther,
were relocated from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen with thousands
of others.
Five days after the British Army liberated Bergen-Belsen, a
BBC reporter named Richard Dimbleby entered the camp and
recorded the Jewish prisoners rising up with their frail bodies
on a Friday night and breaking into the Hebrew song
``Hatikvah,'' which means ``the hope.''
They were reminding the world that their hope was 2,000
years old and dated back to when the Jews lived as a free
people in their own land. It was time for them to go home.
That's what they were saying. Hatikvah became the national
anthem of the state of Israel.
Modern Israel is committed to fighting anti-Semitism, and
defending Jews worldwide. Only today, anti-Semitism is not just
active in Venezuela or in remote areas of Yemen. It is being
revived in the heart of Western civilization, in France, the
United Kingdom, and in Germany, as well as in the U.S. and
Canada.
This new wave of anti-Semitism can be fought with legal
tools and with education. Anti-Semitic incitement can have
lethal consequences. So, we ask our allies in the West to stand
firm and help us vanquish hate speech, and vanquish this
phenomenon before it gains further strength.
And I want to close with an observation 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 clause outlawing
incitement to genocide.
When the Iranian leadership spoke about wiping Israel off
the map, we convened a group of international legal scholars to
look into whether they had crossed the line of incitement to
genocide.
When I was in Rwanda with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
and met with their minister of foreign affairs, anyone who
reads about the Rwandan 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 if we actually use them
and not just leave them in textbooks at law schools, I believe
we can take active measures to narrow, to constrain the use of
hate speech, and we can also combat directly the phenomenon,
the spreading of anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred that
are occurring today. Thank you.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you very much.
Dr. Edna Friedberg.
STATEMENT OF DR. EDNA FRIEDBERG, HISTORIAN, UNITED STATES
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
Ms. Friedberg. Good morning. Thank you, Madam Chair, for
your consistent leadership in service of Holocaust memory and
education and for having me here today.
When I became a Holocaust historian more than 20 years ago,
I thought I was dealing only with the past. I was so naive.
Over the course of my career, I have seen the voracity of the
Holocaust questioned. I have seen the very language and symbols
of the Nazis resurrected as weapons in new racist attacks. And
as other witnesses have testified today, we are experiencing a
resurgence in anti-Semitic violence and speech, and racists of
all types feel emboldened.
You don't need to be Jewish to be seriously alarmed by this
dangerous trend. As a historian, I can testify unequivocally
that whenever anti-Semitism is expressed publicly and without
shame, an entire society is at risk. It's an indicator of poor
health of a society.
The Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers. It started
with words, with racist cartoons, with children's books that
taught girls and boys to be afraid of their Jewish neighbors,
with posters that portrayed Jewish men as leering rapists,
threatening pure blonde women and girls.
Hitler was obsessed with race long before becoming
chancellor of Germany. His speeches and writing spread his
belief that the world was engaged in an endless racial
struggle. When the Nazis 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 exclusion
of Jews from public life, then as well for the systematic
murder of Germans with mental and physical disabilities.
And let's remember that the Nazis did not seize power
through a military coup or revolution. They rose as part of a
power-sharing agreement in a fledgling democracy. In order to
make Jewish persecution palatable, Nazi propagandists branded
Jews as a biological threat. Government-sponsored racist
propaganda denounced Jews as aliens, as parasites, and said
that they were responsible for Germany's cultural, political,
and economic degeneration.
These words had an enormous effect, creating an environment
in which persecution and violence were not only acceptable, but
an imperative. Nazi propagandists built on existing stereotypes
to directly link Jews to the spread of disease like vermin. As
part of their racial campaign to, quote, cleanse society, Nazi
leaders implemented so-called racial hygiene policies to
protect non-Jews.
For example, in occupied Poland, Nazi Germany reinforced
its policy of confining Jews to urban prison zones known as
ghettos, by portraying Jews as a health threat requiring
quarantine. This approach was a self-fulfilling prophesy. By
depriving the hundreds of thousands of human beings imprisoned
there in these ghettos of food, water, sanitation, and medical
care, the Nazis actually created a diseased population. German
propaganda films that were shown to schoolchildren
characterized the sinister Jew as a carrier of lice and typhus,
like rats.
Ms. Friedberg. On a side note, even seemingly admiring or
positive stereotypes about Jews, that they are smarter than
other people, good with money, well connected or powerful,
these too draw on much older anti-Semitic conspiracy theories
about global Jewish domination. The Nazis invoked links between
Jews and communism to allege that Jews were warmongers. Similar
accusations are currently leveled regularly against prominent
Jews around the world. In our own country during the Nazi era,
celebrated Americans, like Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh,
spread anti-Jewish propaganda and characterized American Jews
as an enemy element that threatened the United States'
interests.
In August 2017, self-proclaimed white nationalists carried
torches through Charlottesville, Virginia, to invoke the racist
legacy of Nazi Germany. Fire is more than a dramatic flare. In
a charged context, it signals violence and destruction. The
Nazi regime began by carrying torches at parades and rallies
and, by 1938, burning buildings and Torah scrolls. It
eventually burnt the bodies of millions of human beings. The
very word ``holocaust'' derives from the Greek, meaning
sacrifice by fire.
Marching with torches in the American South has an
additional, more specific resonance: nights of firebombs and
lynchings. Unlike in Nazi Germany, our country today has checks
and balances to prevent racist violence from dominating our
streets or laws. The torches carried during a nighttime march
in an American university town two years ago deliberately
echoed the smoke of an earlier racist and murderous era.
In closing, hate speech and violence against Jews are
canaries in the coal mine for the health of democracy and civil
society. A government that does not confront them does so at
its own peril.
My teenage nephew, bored and exasperated, once asked me:
Why can't 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. But his question was really: Why
do we study the Holocaust? Why? Because it is the best
documented crime in human history, one driven by genocidal
racism. Let's heed its warning signs.
Thank you.
Chairwoman Maloney. I want to thank all of the witnesses
today for their very moving and important testimony, and I want
to thank all of you for appearing here today.
I would like to begin my questions with Mr. Shaffir. We are
very honored to have you here today, and I was deeply moved by
your testimony. You and your family have suffered an incredible
loss and showed incredible courage, and I know that testifying
today must be very difficult for you.
So, I want to ask you: Given how difficult it is for you to
relive this pain, why did you agree to come here and to tell
your story? Why is it so important to you that other people
hear this story?
Mr. Shaffir. We need to share this historical tragedy. It's
impossible for people to remember, and some of them probably
will forget, what happened, how many millions of people,
innocent people were killed because they were Jews or any other
faith.
If I don't speak out, if I don't share my information, I
will only have myself to be blamed at because I did not share
my information. So, that's one of the reasons why I'm here and
trying to share my information as best as I can.
Chairwoman Maloney. Is there a single message that you
would hope to convey to the American public, many of whom are
watching on television, many of whom are members of the younger
generation? What would that key message be you would like to
convey to them?
Mr. Shaffir. The message I would like to convey is, really,
I can summarize that in two words, two powerful words: Speak
out. It's very important that we do not remain silent.
Chairwoman Maloney. Monday of this week, we passed
overwhelmingly bipartisan legislation to provide additional
funding to give students the opportunity to learn from people
like you and to hear from survivors. This bill would also
expand the educational program of The Holocaust Museum. I
understand that you work at The Holocaust Museum. Is that
correct?
Mr. Shaffir. Yes, I do. I'm a docent. I've been a docent
for 10 years.
Chairwoman Maloney. OK. Great.
Mr. Shaffir. I do take tours--or give tours to law
enforcement agencies, trying to teach what happened and to make
sure things like this never happen again.
Chairwoman Maloney. And could you tell us why these
education programs at the museum are so important to help
educate future generations?
Mr. Shaffir. In the 1930's and 1940's, we had one common
enemy: It was Hitler. Today, we have a new enemy. It's time.
Unfortunately, all of us are getting older. Many of us are
dying out. I'm one of the younger ones, and I'm 83 years old. I
don't know how long I can live. So, if we don't tell this story
and we don't do something about that, obviously we need to
educate young people right now while I still have my voice.
Once I'm gone, I need the young generation to be our voices.
Chairwoman Maloney. Why do you think it's so important that
our Nation remember the lessons of the Holocaust? Why do you
think it's so important that we don't forget about it----
Mr. Shaffir. Yes.
Chairwoman Maloney.--that it's not manufactured or ignored
or altered?
Mr. Shaffir. If you don't remember the past, our future
will look very blight. Unfortunately, I wear a pin. It's four
letters on it, four Hebrew letters, which means--it's Zachor.
Zachor has two meanings: One, remember; and, one, don't forget.
The first Zachor, remember: Remember the atrocities that
the Nazis have committed against innocent people. And Zachor,
don't forget: Don't forget all these who perished. So, we need
to remember all these things and pass on to our children, our
grandchildren so they would not forget.
Chairwoman Maloney. Well, I want to thank you for your very
moving testimony. You know better than any of us what can
happen when hate is allowed to flourish. As our committee
continues to examine the threat of white supremacy in the weeks
and months ahead with the other hearings that we have
scheduled, we're fortunate to have your perspective, and we are
very grateful for your time and for your testimony.
Mr. Shaffir. Thank you.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you.
I will now recognize Mr. Hice, Jody Hice, for his
questions.
Mr. Hice. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you to each of
our witnesses for being here today.
Ambassador Gold, let me begin with you. During this past
October's democratic debate, Presidential candidate Bernie
Sanders stated that, in his opinion, the U.S. should, quote,
leverage military aid to Israel in order to manufacture changes
to Israeli domestic policy, specifically as it relates to the--
to Gaza. He was saying we need to withhold funds for that.
Do you believe that kind of action would be helpful?
Mr. Gold. It's not my interest to----
Chairwoman Maloney. Turn on your mic, please.
Mr. Gold. It's not my interest to jump into American
domestic politics, but at the same time, one has to understand
what is in Gaza. What's in Gaza today are people who are
miserable, who have been taken over by one of the most hateful
organizations on Earth; it's called Hamas. It has allies like
Islamic jihad and other Salafist groups. And putting leverage
on Israel is mixing up the firemen with the fire and will not
produce a more stable outcome.
I want to say that I am very optimistic about the Middle
East as a whole, and there are Arab states that see eye to eye
with Israel about the need to extinguish hatred, the need to
work together to build a better region. We are seeing evidence
for the first time of senior Arab diplomats who will go to
Poland and visit Auschwitz. That's something that didn't happen
before.
Mr. Hice. I totally agree.
Mr. Gold. Let's encourage that and not sort of hair-brained
schemes to put pressure on Israel by denying it military
assistance because of a situation that it didn't create in the
Gaza Strip.
Mr. Hice. I agree with you, and I think the bottom line of
your answer is no, that it would not be helpful to withhold
military aid to Israel.
Mr. Gold. Thank you for putting it succinctly, yes.
Mr. Hice. Madam Chair, I would ask unanimous request that
the article about those comments be submitted to the record,
please.
Chairwoman Maloney. So, granted.
Mr. Hice. Thank you very much.
By the way, really, I believe this is--it's a quid pro quo:
We'll provide this money provided Israel makes some changes.
And it's interesting to me who that came from is really what
the Democrat--many of my colleagues have been claiming is an
impeachable offense in itself.
Mr. Greenblatt, let me go to you. This past week--this past
weekend, a member of this very committee tweeted an
unsubstantiated claim that Israelis actually kidnapped and
killed a seven-year-old Palestinian boy. You confronted this
claim on Twitter as, quote, a vicious lie. You also called it
blood libel. And, of course, the incident was proven false. The
words themselves, I suppose, are not necessarily anti-Semitic
but, indirectly, they certainly are. They were unsubstantiated.
They were reckless. They were troubling. They were proven
false.
Do you believe these comments are at all helpful?
Mr. Greenblatt. Well, Mr. Congressman, thank you for the
question. So, the blood libel, the accusation that Jews are
responsible for the murder of children, gentile children, non-
Jewish children, Christian or Muslim, has followed Jews for
centuries across Europe and the Middle East. It's been used to
demonize them. It's been used as the basis for persecution, for
pogroms, for slaughter. Really going back almost a thousand
years to England and the medieval times.
So, as the head of the ADL, an organization that's been
fighting anti-Semitism and all forms of hate for over a hundred
years, I will call out accusations like the blood libel
whenever and wherever they happen. I think it's important to
note that the use of the blood libel in these anti-Semitic
slurs, we shouldn't use them as political or partisan weapons.
I will call it out, whoever says it, whenever it happens,
on the basis of the fact that hate is unacceptable, period. At
a time when anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise, when I
spent a fair amount of energy paying respects to the victims of
hate crimes in Pittsburgh, in San Diego, in New Jersey, in New
York, we shouldn't tolerate when anyone from either side
engages in that kind of behavior.
Mr. Hice. Thank you.
And, Madam Chair, again, I would ask to be added to the
record, unanimous consent, Mr. Greenblatt's reply to this
accusation and an article that explains it. I thank you.
Chairwoman Maloney. So, granted.
Mr. Hice. I yield.
Chairwoman Maloney. Tom Malinowski, as a member of our
delegation, without objection, the gentleman from New Jersey,
will be added to the panel. Thank you.
Now I recognize the gentlewoman from the District of
Columbia, Ms. Eleanor Holmes Norton, for questions.
Ms. Norton. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank you
especially for holding this hearing today on the 75th
anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I particularly
thank the witnesses who have agreed to appear today.
I want to say to Mr. Shelton that I think it was perfectly
appropriate to have a high representative of the NAACP at--on
this panel, first, to indicate that hate appears to be of a
piece. I would hypothesize that if you find someone who hates
Jews, he will also find that he hates African Americans.
If we keep that web together, we perhaps can understand the
latest FBI statistics: The most frequently targeted group for
hate offenses is African Americans. Forty-seven percent of hate
offenses are motivated by race or ethnicity or ancestry. That
may be because they're looking at people they can identify by
those characteristics.
Perhaps in recent times, the most notorious of the hate
crimes was the Dylann Roof invasion of a church, no less, at a
storied African American church in South Carolina, the oldest
church in the South, during Bible study. I don't know if he
chose the church and the time, but the symbolism cannot be lost
on any of us.
I am concerned with the increase in anti-Semitism and want
to know: Where in the world does this come from? Why wasn't
there an increase 10 years ago?
Mr. Shelton, do you see a relationship between an increase
in anti-Semitic and anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic attacks and the
increase I just spoke of, the increase in hate offenses
motivated by race or ethnicity?
Mr. Shelton. Absolutely. The ideology shared, as we look at
those who committed these horrific crimes, is so very similar.
As a matter of fact, as we listened to those who made
presentations about various experiences of the Jewish
community, I sat there checking off boxes of the same
strategies so often being utilized against African Americans.
Whether they're vilifying African American men, somehow
deciding that they're all going to be racists and violent
rapists as well, we've heard the same stories told about what
happened very well as we think about having the Jewish men too
in the ghettos and certain of the language that's used very
similarly.
So, what we're seeing is an increase in the same
organizations that very well hate African Americans and hate
Jewish Americans and anyone that's not White Anglo Saxon, as a
matter of fact, in our society, carrying forward the ideologies
of the Third Reich.
So, the similarities are very clearly there as we look at
the--even the hate crimes data that's shared with us by the
Justice Department, making sure we have categories to cover all
these areas, and seeing very well that the increases are
consistent, regardless of the group you're talking about. And
certainly the experiences of the African American community are
extremely similar to those of the Jewish community.
Ms. Norton. Mr. Greenblatt, there has been a long, special
relationship between American Jews and African Americans. In
fact, the only Whites who have consistently been vocal and
active are in the civil rights movement, and with respect to
matters having nothing to do with themselves but on race alone,
have been American Jews. That special relationship is long,
even to the founding, I think, Mr. Shelton, of the NAACP
itself, where among the founders were American Jews.
Could I ask you, in light of your own work, what has the
Anti-Defamation League found about threats and increases--
threats and violence against African Americans, the figure I
just spoke of, and of the relationship, and what do you think
can be done about the rise of anti-Semitism and racist attacks
going on at the same time?
Mr. Greenblatt. Congresswoman, thank you for the question.
I think, first and foremost, 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. There
is a shared history of Diaspora, if you will. And as the
Holocaust was a pivotal moment in the modern Jewish experience,
so as enslavement was a pivotal moment for African Americans.
And I think understanding our shared suffering has been
critical to the success we've had together.
I am proud of the fact that Ben Epstein, who is the head of
the ADL in the fifties and sixties, stood and marched with Dr.
King in Selma. And I'm proud of the fact that we filed an
amicus brief in Brown v. Board of Education and joined the
NAACP in doing that. And I'm proud of the fact that we work
today on so many issues together, because make no mistake, from
Charleston, to Charlottesville, to Pittsburgh, to Poway, there
is a throughline: White supremacy is a violent threat against
all marginalized groups. And the people, as my colleague Hilary
said, who hate Jews also hate African Americans, simply because
they and we are different from their majoritarian view.
Now, there's a lot more work to be done. I would commend
Congresswoman Lawrence and Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz for
helping to start the bipartisan caucus on Black-Jewish
relations.
I had the privilege of addressing a group of Black and
Jewish legislators two years ago with my friend, Derrick
Johnson, of the NAACP. There is so much more work to do.
I mean, at ADL, we were founded after a Jewish man was
lynched in 1913. He was lynched after having been falsely
accused of a crime, essentially a blood libel, of murdering a
Christian girl. But what I would note is that when that man was
lynched, Leo Frank, the founders of ADL, they wrote a--they
wrote a charter for this new organization, and in it are the
words we still use today as our mission statement. What they
wrote was that this organization would, quote, stop the
defamation of the Jewish people and secure justice and fair
treatment to all.
Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman's time has expired. Can
you wrap up?
Mr. Greenblatt. I'll just say what they realized was that
you can't defend American Jews unless you defend all Americans,
and we're deeply committed to that mission a hundred years
later today.
Chairwoman Maloney. I recognize the gentlewoman from North
Carolina, Dr. Virginia Foxx, for her questions, and she has
additional time as additional time was taken on our side. I
yield to Virginia.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. And I want
to thank our witnesses for being here today.
I don't think it's possible that we could overstate the
tragedy of the Holocaust. I just don't think it's possible that
we can do that. Any kind of hate is unacceptable. Any kind of
discrimination is unacceptable. And I believe that that's how
the people on my side of the aisle feel, and we feel it every
day and express it every day. So, I want to say having hearings
and reminding people of what has happened is appropriate for us
to do.
Mr. Greenblatt, on December 11, 2019, President Trump
signed an executive order to combat anti-Semitism on college
campus. Does the ADL support this order?
Mr. Greenblatt. Congresswoman, thank you for the question.
So, the executive order that the President signed into law was
based on a bipartisan piece of legislation, the Anti-Semitism
Awareness Act, that we indeed did support. That, I should note,
the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, was based on rulings that came
out of the Education Department under Presidents Bush and
President Obama. And, indeed, I think this executive order, it
affirms the definition of the Holocaust--the definition of
anti-Semitism, excuse me, specifically developed by academics
from a number of different countries, so we do support it.
Ms. Foxx. I just need a simple yes or no.
Mr. Greenblatt. Yes, we support it.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you. And thank you very much for that.
Ambassador Gold, the Simon Wiesenthal Center produced a top
ten list of worst instances of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel
incidents. Unfortunately, it seems anti-Semitism is still alive
and well.
In December, we've all spoken about or mentioned the
numerous attacks against Jews during the Hanukkah season. Do
you believe and know that the number of anti-Semitic attacks is
on the rise, and do you believe that social media platforms
have provided greater access for people to spread anti-
Semitism?
Mr. Gold. I am completely aware that the number of anti-
Semitic incidents around the world is on the rise. I am also
aware that as much as 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 speech and
incitement to killing 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.
At my center that I now run since I left government, we
have been examining how the Internet is used by radical Islamic
organizations, particularly in Canada, and they're spreading
anti-Semitism. We have found a way in the--our representative
in Canada has found a way of presenting this information to the
Canadian authorities.
So, you have to use--you have to use your legal system to
combat this, and you have to, you know, shine your flashlight
on where this is coming from.
Ms. Foxx. I have another question for you. Are White neo-
Nazis the only ones perpetrating anti-Semitic attacks? Where
else do you see hotbeds of anti-Semitism? You've just mentioned
Canada. And is it fair to say that anti-Semitism is prevalent
across all races and genders?
Mr. Gold. I believe it's evident among all races and all
genders and has to be fought and combatted, regardless of its
point of origin.
Ms. Foxx. I'd asked about do you see hotbeds? You mentioned
Canada. Are there other hotbeds of anti-Semitism that your
group has recognized and that we should be aware of?
Mr. Gold. We've done a lot of work on the United Kingdom,
on Britain, and there are real serious problems of anti-
Semitism, and we've seen it enter into parliamentary life in
U.K., much to the horror of all of us who always look to
Britain as a beacon of democracy. So, there's a lot of work to
be done worldwide.
Ms. Foxx. Well, let me assure you that I come from an area
of North Carolina in this country where we have great reverence
for the people of Israel and for all Jews. As you know, most
Christians feel that the Jews are God's chosen people and that
it is our place to support Israel.
So, do you have ideas, to followup on what you just said,
on why anti-Semitism knows no racial, ethnic, gender,
geographic boundaries when we have historically--again, 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 could
answer on one leg, but it does indicate that we've got work to
do. We've got work to research. We've got to find where it's
coming from, and then we have to make recommendations of how it
can be dealt with. But we can't just sit back and let it
happen. It's getting much worse. It's not good for the Jewish
people worldwide, and it's also terrible for the countries
where it's occurring.
You know, I'll just tell you this: I was heavily involved
in Israel's efforts in 2016 to restore diplomatic ties and
political activity across the continent of Africa. I remember
sitting with the foreign minister of Rwanda, and she told me:
Dore, you've got one hard-to crack. I thought she was going to
talk about, I don't know, Libya. She was talking about South
Africa, which is led by a political party which has been
fathering the whole BDS movement, which has now spread
worldwide.
I nonetheless persisted in trying to reach out to South
Africa, and will continue to do so.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you, Madam Chairman. You've been very
tolerant, and I appreciate it. I yield back.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you.
I now recognize Raja Krishnamoorthi.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you.
I want to thank all of our witnesses for appearing here
today, and especially Mr. Shaffir. Thank you for your very
moving personal story.
I would like to start with Mr. Orsini and ask a few
questions about what happened on October 27, 2018, at the Tree
of Life synagogue. That day, as you mentioned, a man armed with
an assault rifle and three handguns stormed the Tree of Life
congregation, shouting anti-Semitic slurs as he slaughtered 11
worshippers. As you know, that was the deadliest assault
against the Jewish community in American history.
Mr. Orsini, at the time of the attack, you were working as
the director of community security for the Jewish Federation of
Pittsburgh. Isn't that right?
Mr. Orsini. Yes, sir.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. And could you just spend a minute
talking about the impact of this tragedy on the community and
the congregation since the attack?
Mr. Orsini. That attack not only affected the Squirrel Hill
section of Pittsburgh or Jews in Pittsburgh, but the entire
city. Imagine, we live in a day and age now where we have to
think about protection in a house of worship, when you go
there, as the most vulnerable as you can be and you get gunned
down.
Since that shooting, the Tree of Life, Dor Hadash, and New
Life, 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're not going to go away anytime soon.
It's important in our community in Pittsburgh to make our
folks feel safe so they can get back in to worship, no matter
what denomination it is.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Children witnessed that attack, right?
Mr. Orsini. Pardon me?
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Children were present on that day and
witnessed the attack?
Mr. Orsini. To my knowledge, there were no children in
there.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. OK.
Mr. Orsini. But there were enough people in there to
witness that horrific attack, yes.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. What has been the impact on children
generally since that attack?
Mr. Orsini. What was very important to us in Pittsburgh at
the time after that attack was to work a very quick resolution.
What I mean by that is it was 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 in
there.
It is a long-lasting effect. I went from school to school,
preschool to preschool, to talk to parents about how terrified
their children were, how terrified children, students, and,
quite honestly, adults were just to walk to synagogue. We had
to work hard, as we do every day, to make them resilient and
strong. We continue to do that, but the Jewish community
unfortunately is a targeted community, and----
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Let me----
Mr. Orsini. Go ahead.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Let me jump in. I think one of the
things that probably folks everywhere understand is that,
regardless of whether you are in Pittsburgh or not, I think
folks who worship at synagogues feared, you know, going to
their synagogues for a long time after this particular
incident.
I want to switch gears a little bit, and I'd like to hear
your views on, what do you think the role of Holocaust
education plays in hate crime prevention generally?
Mr. Orsini. I think it's paramount. The city of Pittsburgh
is one of the few cities, and it may be the only city in the
country right now that requires its police department an all
cadets training to go to The Holocaust Center and spend time
there prior to going out on the street. It's a model based
after the national Holocaust Museum. The only other group that
I know is FBI agents that go through there. It's so important
for Holocaust education to continue, and it needs to start in
middle school up.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. How can the Federal Government best
support either this type of educational awareness or hate crime
prevention generally at the local level?
Mr. Orsini. I think at the local level, there is several
things. Quite honestly, it takes money, it takes human capital,
and it takes time. Holocaust education, in my view, is
important to be mandated in public schools, in education
platforms. We have to never forget. Teach our community what
happened there and what rises out of hate. I think for our
community and the Jewish community, it's ever so important.
I have worked civil rights in the FBI for many years. I was
a civil rights coordinator. I've 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.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. I think I just want to finish. I'm out
of time, but I want to underscore that last point, which is
that I think that to end hate, because it is generational, you
have to start with the kids, and you have to teach them that
anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, hatred of all kinds is not right,
and I think that we at the Federal level have to support that.
Thank you so much.
Mr. Orsini. Thank you, sir.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you so much.
I now recognize the gentleman from Kentucky, Mr. James
Comer, for questions.
Mr. Comer. Thank you, Madam Chairman. And I thank all the
witnesses for being here today.
Mr. Shaffir, I really appreciate your testimony. And every
time we have a tour group from Kentucky come, we always
recommend Holocaust Museum. I think of all the great museums in
Washington, that's the most special museum, most moving, most
educational museum that makes such a difference, and we've not
had anyone say anything but how much they were touched by that
museum.
Ambassador Gold, I'd 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 Israel's defense?
Mr. Gold. Iran is a country----
Mr. Comer. Hit the microphone.
Mr. Gold. Iran is a country which is under a theocratic
regime which has stated its determination to destroy the state
of Israel. In my institute--but I'm--the government has done
this as well--we have collected statements made by the Iranian
leadership, right across the board--military leadership,
civilian leadership--which calls for wiping Israel off the map.
Now, the question is: Is this just rhetoric to show off or
is there something behind it? So, I'll give you a very specific
example. In the Iranian Armed Forces, there is a missile called
the Shahab-3, which can strike Israel from Iranian territory.
Up until recently--it's an 800-mile-range missile.
Up until recently, the Iranians have only put conventional
warheads in this missile, but now they are aiming to replace
the conventional warheads, according to documents that Israel
has, with a future nuclear warhead. Now, those missiles are
paraded once a year in Tehran. And on the missile, as well as
sometimes on the missile carrier, they write: Israel must be
wiped off the map.
So, what they do is they juxtapose their intentions with
the military capability that they are building. And, by the
way, it's not going to just stop with Israel. They'll go much
further.
So, our concern about Iran is, first and foremost, its
nuclear weapons program, which we don't see having been altered
by the JCPOA, but as a program that has probably gotten much
worse.
Mr. Comer. Well, that leads me to my next question. Let's
focus on the President's American-Israeli policy. Have
President Trump's actions such as withdrawing from the nuclear
deal and eliminating international terrorist Soleimani made
Israel safer, in your opinion?
Mr. Gold. You're talking about the elimination of Qasem
Soleimani?
Mr. Comer. Uh-huh.
Mr. Gold. The commander of the Quds Force?
Mr. Comer. Right.
Mr. Gold. One of the most gratifying international acts
that I undertook before I returned to working for the
Government of Israel, I had set up a dialog--I'm going to
answer your question.
Mr. Comer. OK.
Mr. Gold. I set up a dialog with a Saudi general, and we
have this dialog going on between his think tank in Jeddah and
my think tank in Jerusalem. We used to meet in Rome. At one
point, he said to me: Dore, how would you like to go to the
U.S. Congress with me and lobby against the JCPOA? I said: You
know, I agree with your intentions. I think it's a bad idea to
lobby here on Capitol Hill out of the interests of Saudi Arabia
and the interests of Israel. But we are think tanks, and
there's nothing that prohibits us from going to a think tank in
the United States and voicing our views.
That's exactly what we did. We were invited by the Council
on Foreign Relations here in Washington. He appeared and spoke
in Arabic, I spoke in English, and the whole place was filled
with American press.
I'm 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 now growing as a result of
that perception of a shared security threat. And I think we
have to build on that, but 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. Thank you. The gentleman's time has
expired.
I now recognize the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Jamie
Raskin, for questions.
Mr. Raskin. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Greenblatt, you have spoken out against tweets or
retweets by Democratic Members of Congress that circulate,
intentionally or not, anti-Semitic tropes. And you have spoken
out strongly against the TV commercial run by Donald Trump in
the 2016 Presidential election that attacked Janet Yellen,
George Soros, and Lloyd Blankfein as globalists and essentially
enemies of the American people. And I think you've spoken out
also against the outrageous moral equivalents manifested by
President Trump stating that there were very fine people on
both sides in the events that took place in Charlottesville.
What is the importance of speaking out against anti-
Semitism wherever you're seeing it--wherever you see it and not
permitting it to be a partisan weapon?
Mr. Greenblatt. Thank you for the question, Congressman.
Indeed, you're correct. So, ADL has spoken out consistently,
and I would say clearly and cogently, in response to anti-
Semitism from both sides of the political aisle.
We're living in a moment in time when extremists feel
emboldened because, literally, the talking points of white
supremacists or the talking points of other radicals are
jumping off of their pages of their propaganda and into the
talking points of elected officials. There's absolutely no
excuse for it.
So, we call it out whenever it happens and wherever it
happens, in large part, because we want to make sure that
elected officials and political candidates understand that they
shouldn't use anti-Semitism or any form of hate for partisan
gain.
I wrote a letter to Congress last year specifically asking
this body to prevent the tendency from using these kinds of
tropes, again, to gain or to make political--score political
points. I mean, I'll say, in closing and referencing a comment
that Dr. Friedberg from the Holocaust Museum made, anti-
Semitism is not just a Jewish problem; it's everyone's problem,
because it is typically historically a sign of the decay of
democracy. It is a tool that populists use to press their own
authoritarian agendas. And so we have got to have the moral
courage and the intellectual honesty to call it out whenever it
happens, no matter who says it.
Mr. Raskin. And I thank you for that. I think that, in our
country, anti-Semitism and racism both are the gateway to
destruction of liberal democracy and equal rights for all of
our people. So, I want to thank all of the members of the panel
for underscoring the importance of historical memory as to all
of 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 our experience with slavery, as
well as all of the horrific events that took place in the last
century with respect to anti-Semitism, I wanted to say this:
I've been reading a book by Christopher Wylie called
``Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America,'' about
Vladimir Putin's plan to inject racial, ethnic, religious, and
partisan poison into our body politic in the 2016 election and
beyond.
I think it's a very scary book in some ways, but,
ultimately, I 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 anti-Semitic country. But there was a
very deliberate effort to propagandize and to activate the most
unstable and extremist elements of the country, and even if
that's one percent of the American people, that's still a few
million people.
It bore fruit for Vladimir Putin in a lot of different
ways, but certainly in what took place in Charlottesville,
where you had Americans marching right out in the open as
Nazis, Klansmen, fascists in our country.
So, I want to ask a question about online hatred and these
efforts to go out and find people using what ``Cambridge
Analytica'' called the dark triad of narcissism,
Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, people who are
psychologically predisposed to go out and to demonstrate hate
in a violent way.
What are we going to do about that? Even if the vast
majority of the country doesn't stand for that, what's the
proper response to it?
I don't know whether Mr. Orsini and Mr. Shaffir have any
thoughts about that, and maybe Mr. Shelton also, if you've
worked on it.
Mr. Shelton. Let me just begin by saying that as we look at
these challenges and these problems, it is important that we
point out how similar they are, how the strategies, the
ideologies that are used to lace these together are so clear
and clean. If you separate them out, you see that as we think
about the attacks on African Americans, as we look at the whole
slavery experience, we note it was done as a tool to be able to
marginalize African Americans or be able to continue to take
advantage and, again, seek whatever the spoils is they wanted
along those lines and what will be perceived as an acceptable
way.
When we think about the attacks on our Jewish friends,
going after them because of their beliefs and their
commitments, the same thing applies.
When I think about Native Americans, of course, we don't
talk enough about it, in my opinion, about the genocide that
took place and the land that was being taken and, of course,
the natural resources that were being sought in those cases as
well, and to make it acceptable to be able to show them as less
than human beings as well.
One of the things that go throughout all of this, of
course, is the marginalization that goes with the
characterization of each of these groups as being less than
human beings, making it acceptable for the kind of horrific
things done to them to be done to them and nothing should be
done about it.
So, indeed, this is important that we look at all these
issues and think about them in that context, and think about
even those that promote the ideologies of the Third Reich, the
white supremacist, and others along those lines, and what they
seek to gain and what those who actually fund them seek to gain
as they continue along these lines. So, it needs to be worked
together.
Mr. Orsini. If I may. Thank you. I think it's a very
important question. I'm an individual that's on the ground
looking at anti-Semitism, trying to keep a community safe, and
I think it's very important for our community to report
everything. However, I've spent a lifetime raising my right
hand to protect the Constitution of the United States, firmly
believing the First Amendment right, speech, is important.
However, what we see on the ground is hate speech; not a
crime, but it leads into a hate crime. And we have to have a
mechanism or a tool for our law enforcement officials when they
see a swastika out there and it gets reported, not to say, it's
protected First Amendment right speech. There's nothing we
could do about it.
We need to work together with our law enforcement partners
to come up with a way to assess what the true threat is out
there from these groups, because it's out there. A large amount
of the community does not even know who Patriot Front, Identity
Evropa are. We see those signs of hate everywhere across the
country. They're reported. However, most of the things that are
out there are protected First Amendment speech.
Unfortunately, in our community, the African American
community, the Muslim communities, affected communities, those
signs of hate are important to understand, recognize, and
report. I think it's very important for us to work with the
government to come up with a method where we just don't dismiss
it as protected First Amendment speech, because we truly do
need to assess and mitigate those threats out there.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you for that important point.
Your time has expired, but thank you.
I now recognize the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Bob Gibbs, for
questions.
Mr. Gibbs. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you all for
coming in today, and thank you for your work to ensure that the
horrific events that happened in the Holocaust never happen
again.
And thank you to Mr.--say your name right--Shaffir for
coming in and giving us your testimony. Hopefully nothing like
that--human beings ever do that to another human being ever
again. So, my heart goes off for your heart. God bless you.
I was also stunned in Dr. Friedberg's testimony when she
mentioned Henry Ford being anti-Semitic. I had no idea, and I
googled it, and in the early 20th century, things occurred that
just--I just--it was stunning to me. I just had no idea. So, I
guess I learn something every day, and it was--it was just
amazing to me that that was going on.
I don't have a question for you. I just wanted to make that
comment.
But, Ambassador Gold, recently, Prime Minister Netanyahu
said that--called President Trump the best friend Israel has
ever had in the White House. In his first term, he has done
numerous things to ensure Israeli is safe and secure, and I
just want to list those quickly. If you disagree, just
interrupt me, but he relocated the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem;
he recognized Golan Heights as part of Israel; he recently
issued an executive order condemning anti-Semitism at U.S.
college campuses; he withdrew from the failed Iran nuclear
deal; he's a strong opponent--a strong opponent of Boycott,
Divester, Sanction movement, BDS; and, also, he just--as you
saw this week--I know you were there yesterday--the historic
peace plan, and these are impressive accomplishments.
Would you agree, Mr. Gold?
Mr. Gold. Again, I do not want to get drawn into your
American domestic ping pong.
Mr. Gibbs. OK.
Mr. Gold. However, when somebody does something for you
which is exceptional, which stands out, it's rude not to say
thank you. And I'm particularly grateful for what President
Trump has done. Now, I think that these are ideas that have
been out there in the American discussion for a long time.
In 1995, you had the Jerusalem Embassy Act supported by Tom
Daschle and Bob Dole. Now, why is that important? Because there
was a bipartisan spirit supporting these kind of moves, but it
just got stuck and no one did anything, and the first one who
did it was President Trump, to actually move the embassy.
So, many of the actions that the President has taken are
actions that have been suggested, thought about, legislated
about, but no one did anything. He did it, and I think that's
appreciated by the people of Israel.
Mr. Gibbs. I appreciate that.
Last year, in the House, we voted to condemn the BDS
movement with 398 votes, including 209 Democrats, very
bipartisan. But there's some of my colleagues here in Congress
that support the BDS movement. Do you think--what signal does
that send to Israel?
We had a strong bipartisan vote, but then we have some that
have come out strongly against--supporting the BDS movement.
Mr. Gold. I'm just going to put it this way: BDS, from my
standpoint, is evil. And you know why it's so painful? Because
for us to build a new future in the Middle East with our Arab
neighbors, we can't have boycotts. We can't have divestment. We
can't have sanctions on each other.
What is happening now in parts of the West Bank, for
example, is that we're building new malls, new factories that--
in which Jews and Palestinians are shopping together, working
together, living together. You want to be inspired? Want to
make peace? Go to Hadassah Hospital. Do you know what you'll
see in the Hadassah Hospital when you go in the emergency room?
Jewish doctors, Palestinian doctors, Jewish patients,
Palestinian patients, all together trying to build an effective
health system for the city of Jerusalem.
That's what we need, and we don't need people to come with
ideologies from South Africa or from other places telling us
that we should be boycotting each other. That isn't going to
make peace. That's going to make the hatred worse.
Mr. Gibbs. I totally agree, because I think the more we
interact and have commerce and trade, we build those
relationships, and the region and the world is a safer place,
and we have more respect for each other. So----
Mr. Gold. 100 percent.
Mr. Gibbs [continuing]. I totally agree with you, and I,
you know, hope that peace plan moving forward that the
President put out this week moves forward in a judicial way and
we get it done.
So, I yield back. Thank you.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you.
I recognize the gentleman from California, Mr. Harley
Rouda, for questions.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you, Chairwoman, and thank you for
convening this very important hearing. I'm anxious to bring it
back to the bipartisan purposes that we're all here for. And
thank you for all the witnesses, for your testimony as well.
I know some of the previous testimony talked about how we
have seen, with recent surveys and polling, that many of our
teenagers don't fully understand what occurred in World War II,
what occurred in the Holocaust, what occurred with the rise of
Hitler. And, 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 had joined a far right neo-Nazi
group. In my district, teens played a drinking game around cups
arranged in a swastika and bragged about German engineering on
social media. In my district, members of a water polo team held
their hands up in a Nazi salute while singing a German Nazi
propaganda song. In my district, synagogues have been
desecrated while neo-Nazi recruitment flyers appear again and
again on the campuses of high schools and colleges. In my
district, watermelons have been thrown on the front steps of
African American students. In my district, it is not uncommon
to see white supremacy flags flying behind cars and trucks as
they travel across the roads and highways in our district.
In the 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 some of these incidents and educated them.
They sat down with kids with Eva Schloss, the stepsister of
Anne Frank, invited them into their synagogues, and helped them
understand what had transpired, showing very clearly how
important education and elimination of ignorance is.
I want to turn to Dr. Friedberg, who serves as a historian
at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 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?
Ms. Friedberg. Thank you. Thank you, Congressman, and I
wish you didn't have such a long list to give.
It's about more than just Holocaust education. As a
historian, I can say that I'm very disturbed by the general
decline in the teaching of history around this Nation. I know
that when our partners from Europe and other places abroad
come, they are surprised because the United States does not
have a national curriculum or national education standards.
There are benefits and negatives to that, but in most other
countries, there are standards. We leave things to state and
local levels. So, it's not a uniform thing.
One of our goals at the museum is to lift the level of
quality Holocaust education across the country by training
teachers, by facilitating regional cores so that local teachers
who are experienced--and they don't have to just be in history;
they can be in a literature class, they can be in what we used
to call civics, they can be a religious, faith-based 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'd most like to make is that even people
who think that they know about the Holocaust often talk about
it in such a simplistic way as though it's some kind of
morality tale, where there is just, you know, pure evil and
pure good. Obviously, there is pure evil and good in the story
of the Holocaust, but the vast majority of people who lived in
Europe during the time were a mixture, either were onlookers or
complicit in some ways and helpful in others.
We had a special exhibit a few years ago exactly on this
topic called ``Some Were Neighbors,'' and I encourage you to
look at our online version of it, which describes the way that
everyday people had--everyday, ordinary people had choices
about whether to get involved, whether to stand by, and whether
to facilitate. So, it's about more than just numbers and
statistics; it's dates. It's really about social cohesion and
psychology.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you. And thank you for your leadership in
this area.
Currently, only 12 states across the country require
Holocaust education. And on Monday, I'm very 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.
But I do want to point out: You know, we can legislate all
we want to fight hate, fight anti-Semitism, 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, in academia, and elsewhere, to
make sure that we are all fighting hand in hand, shoulder to
shoulder to fight this.
And, Mr. Greenblatt, I'd like to turn to you for closing
comments on my time here. Can you talk about some of your
education initiatives and how important they are as well?
Mr. Greenblatt. The ADL is--thank you for the question. The
ADL is one of the leading providers to the United States of
anti-bias, anti-hate content in schools. We reach over 1.5
million students, including many in Orange County and across
southern California.
We think, indeed, education is the best antidote to
intolerance. Teaching about the Holocaust, we've seen the
studies. When students understand what happened in the Shoah,
it leads to a greater awareness by anti-Semitism and a greater
tolerance for people from minority groups. So, we know it
works, we need more of it, and let's hope the Senate passes the
Never Again Education Act.
Mr. Rouda. Thank you very much. I yield back.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you.
I recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Chip Roy, for
questions.
Mr. Roy. I thank the chair.
And I thank each of you for taking time to visit with us
here today.
Good to see you, Mr. Shelton.
Mr. Shaffir, I just want to say thank you for being here.
Thank you for your testimony, and by that, I don't mean your
testimony here, but your testimony of faith triumphant and what
you represent. And rest assured, there are many of us committed
to ensuring that the history of the horrors of the Holocaust
are known, and that what I believe is the hope for humanity
that now emerges from that, and the hope that we see in the
Jewish people is something that we will be able to carry
forward together, so thank you for being here. It means a great
deal.
I've had the fortune to visit Israel twice. I hope to go
again soon. I've always had great joy going there. My most
recent visit, my wife and I were struck by two things in
particular, one, we went there on an APEC trip. We were there
on a bipartisan basis for a few days, Democrats for a week,
Republicans, we overlapped.
We were there and we had, as many of my colleagues
remember, we joined together for Shabbat dinner and broke
bread, drank wine, were visiting and talking about most things,
you know, nonpolitical, a few things political but for the most
part, just life. And we were just struck by the happiness of
the Jewish people.
We were struck by the fact that they often poll, you know,
happiness worldwide. I don't know who does these polls, but the
Israelis tend to poll in the top ten of happiness worldwide,
this despite having 150,000 missiles pointing at Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem on a given day, despite being under constant siege in
a, you know, nation that is a fraction of the size of New
Jersey.
So, it struck us about how happy the Jewish people are. As
a result, my wife and I, we came back and joined with some
friends of ours in Austin, Texas, where I live outside of, and
now we have shut down on Sundays and we put our telephones and
our iPads down and have started joining in Sunday suppers and
trying to restore a sense of community and have been doing that
religiously, so to speak, ever since last August on our return
from Israel. And it was a response to our great affection for
our experience in our time in Israel. So, again, thank you.
I'll tell you, the second thing that struck us was Yad
Vashem, and I had not had a chance to go there in my previous
trip to Israel. I was struck there also by the feeling of hope
that you get as you walk through obviously the horrors of the
history of the Holocaust, but you see sort of light at the end
of the journey, and it is, of course, by design. The design of
the museum is extraordinary. But you look through the old
letters and you look through the hope of the Jewish people, and
it struck us in an extraordinary way.
So, a couple of questions, Mr. Gold, for you. Can there
be--just yes or no, because I'm using a little bit of time, but
can there be any room for error in Israel in defending herself
from her enemies? Is there much room for error given the
assault, constant siege on Israel?
Mr. Gold. Well, some of that comes down----
Mr. Roy. Microphone.
Mr. Gold. Some of that comes down to a space in time.
Mr. Roy. Right.
Mr. Gold. I mean, how long does it take to fly across the
United States----
Mr. Roy. Right.
Mr. Gold [continuing]. In a jet plane?
Mr. Roy. Yes, five, six hours. Depends on where you're
going, yes.
Mr. Gold. So, to fly from the Jordan River to the
Mediterranean, three minutes.
Mr. Roy. Right.
Mr. Gold. So, the margin for error is pretty much reduced.
Mr. Roy. And a couple other questions. Are there currently
attacks coming in from Gaza despite unilateral withdrawal by
Israel in 2005, like on a regular basis?
Mr. Gold. Absolutely. In other words--in fact, I can tell
you that we withdrew from Gaza in 2005. And in the period right
after the withdrawal, the amount of rocket fire on Israel----
Mr. Roy. Has gone up, yes.
Mr. Gold [continuing]. Went up by 500 percent.
Mr. Roy. Are there currently about 120,000, 150,000 rockets
sitting in Lebanon pointing roughly at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
to the best of the intelligence of Israel?
Mr. Gold. And other places.
Mr. Roy. And other places. Would Israel be safe without
Iron Dome, David's Sling, and these technologies to knock down
missiles?
Mr. Gold. No. It would require Israel to live on a hair
trigger.
Mr. Roy. Right. And you've already said that Iran is an
ongoing threat to Israel.
Here's my question: How important is a strong and sovereign
Israel to the hope in the future of the Jewish people? And what
role do efforts to deny the historical connection to the land
of Israel, including Jerusalem, play in the rise of anti-
Semitism?
Mr. Gold. That's an excellent question.
Mr. Roy. A blind squirrel finds a-every once in a while.
Mr. Gold. But I would say this, that the historical
connection of the Jewish people with, let's say, Jerusalem, is
something which can be documented, which can be shown, which
can be demonstrated in terms of archeological finds that we
have. And when countries get behind resolutions at UNESCO that
try and deny that connection----
Mr. Roy. Right.
Mr. Gold [continuing]. First of all, it delays peace. It
makes our adversaries think, you know what, maybe we're right.
And it is a vile lie. And you know how you know that? Open the
Quran, see the mention of the Baitul Maqdis, which is the--
Arabic for the temple. The Arabs knew it, the Muslims knew it,
we're connected with Jerusalem and with the land.
Mr. Roy. Madam Chair, if I might do a unanimous consent
request?
Chairwoman Maloney. What is it?
Mr. Roy. I would like--I have two articles here I want to
get in the record, I ran out of time, that--there's just two
articles. While Democratic Mayor Bill deBlasio and Governor
Andrew Cuomo are letting anti-Semitic attackers go free without
bail, just yesterday, Attorney General Barr announced a zero-
tolerance policy toward perpetrators of anti-Semitic crimes.
I ask that an article titled, quote, ``Bail Reform Is
Setting Suspects Free After String of Anti-Semitic Attacks''
and one titled, ``Barr Says Justice Department Will Get More
Involved in Fighting Anti-Semitic Attacks'' be submitted for
the record.
Chairwoman Maloney. OK. So, ordered. Give us a copy of it.
Mr. Roy. Thank you.
Chairwoman Maloney. OK. I now recognize Debbie Wasserman
Schultz of Florida for questions.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I just want to stipulate at the outset of 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 the--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 the backdrop of International
Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the 75th anniversary of the
liberation of Auschwitz, I just, as it was mentioned earlier,
returned from Poland and Israel to mark that anniversary.
When you walk down the platform, the train platform at
Birkenau, and I have been to Auschwitz-Birkenau before, but the
enormity of the evil, and the human capacity for evil that
exists today, very clearly, really overwhelms you. So, the
importance of this hearing and shining a spotlight
continuously, never forgetting that that human capacity for
hatred and evil has not diminished, is absolutely critical.
The statistics of--have been documented by ADL. In 2018,
they tracked a staggering 1,800 anti-Semitic incidents in the
United States, finding a 105 percent increase in anti-Semitic
assaults, and a five percent increase in harassment over the
previous year. I'm glad Mr. Rouda read through the litany of
anti-Semitic attacks in his own district.
When I landed at the airport in my district, at the end of
this trip last week, I landed to a text from one of my mayors
with a flyer that was being distributed throughout the city
that says, as follows, a red flyer with a Nazi SS--a picture of
a Nazi SS henchman on it that says, ``Our patience has its
limits. One day we will shut their dirty, lying, Jewish
mouths.'' Learn more at--I won't promote the website that that
was on the flyer. Hatred knows no boundaries, and it has
existed through thousands of years.
Mr. Greenblatt, I appreciate the efforts of ADL. I'd like
to ask you, given that we appear to be living in an age where
we've had a resurgence of conspiracy theories that are
festering and growing and being promoted by the highest levels
of power in our country, and condoned and pedaled, in some
cases, by the highest level of power in our country, do you see
a connection between the growth of conspiratorial thinking and
the rise of anti-Semitism and bigotry?
Mr. Greenblatt. Thank you for the question. We should talk
offline about that flyer and that mayor----
Ms. Wasserman Schultz. Yes.
Mr. Greenblatt [continuing]. So, I can make sure my staff
in Florida is following up.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz. Thank you.
Mr. Greenblatt. There is no doubt that the pension for
conspiracy theories are contributing to the rise in prejudice
generally, and specifically to the spike in anti-Semitism.
Essentially, anti-Semitism is, at its very root, a conspiracy
theory that the Jews are somehow--both have too much power and
yet are weak, that we are uber human and subhuman, that we are
responsible for all the world's ills, and it goes on and on.
Indeed, when people in power promote prejudice, it
endangers all of us. The Jews are typically the first to be
harmed, but anti-Semitism never ends with the Jews. It ends up
consuming everyone. So, whether you're the President of the
United States or the president of a university or the president
of a school board, we need everyone to speak out firmly and
forcefully against anti-Semitism and the conspiracy theories
that often are associated with it.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz. Thank you. In the words of Pastor
Niemoller, ``I did not speak out, and there was no one left to
speak for me.''
Mr. Greenblatt. Right.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz. Mr. Shelton, thank you so much for
the work of the NAACP in combating bigotry in all its forms, in
being relentless, and always being in the forefront of our
Nation's leadership on combating hatred. The Jewish and African
American communities have walked in lockstep for generations,
and that is the purpose of our forming a bipartisan coalition,
Black Jewish Caucus in the Congress.
Can you--given that we are now dealing with the 21st
century version of age-old bigotry and anti-Semitism 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?
Mr. Shelton. First, thank you so much for the comments.
It's extremely important that we focus on the challenges of all
communities and recognize what we call a convergence in
interests. That is, as we think about what our communities
want, it is so amazing, if you speak to different groups
separately, that they'll say the same thing.
We want our families safe and secure and have a real
opportunity for a future. We want top notch education and good
healthcare. So, in other words, understanding each of our
pathways that bring us to this conversation is extremely
important as well.
As they say, we may be--as the saying goes, we may be--we
may come from different places and different ways, but we are
in the same boat now, and as such, understanding those
experiences really makes a difference. When I talk to my Jewish
friends about the experiences coming to this country, it's
amazing how the challenges and negative impacts are described
in such similar ways.
It was a different experience. It was a different time, a
different group of people, but the outcomes were just so
similar. The attacks were too eerily similar as well, and the
challenges are similar too. So, coming together to celebrate
who we are and what we are, each other's--the passions for life
and experiences is a very important part of it, but also,
understanding what our vision for the future is is important as
well.
Again, I sit down with my friends from ADL or other
organizations to talk about these issues, my friends at the
Religious Action Center, a reform Judaism, to discuss these
concerns and otherwise and others from the Jewish community.
I would say that applies to so many other communities as
well. It doesn't talk about the African American Jewish
community. It is still a wonderful thing that we see that we've
gone through a lot of pain for different reasons and in
different ways. But what we seek together in understanding that
working together, we can achieve these goals, I think is where
we find ourselves locking arms a little bit more tightly.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz. Absolutely.
Madam Chair, our communities are clearly inextricably
linked and. And what Mr. Shelton said about the minority
communities across the globe, the moral imperative for us to
come together, unite against hate and continue to shine a light
on the evil, that is still, unfortunately, permeating societies
all across the globe.
Thank you. I yield back. And thank you, Madam Chair, for
your indulgence.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you. Your time is expired.
We now recognize the gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Glenn
Grothman, for questions.
Mr. Grothman. Thank you very much.
First of all, some good news. I spent as much time as
anyone in my district, and I know the Congressman from
California may see rising amounts of evil in his district, but
I have never heard anybody utter anything the least bit anti-
Semitic--or maybe one guy, you could say, told a racist joke.
But in my district, I don't think it's like California, and I
think much more accepting in my district. So, I don't want to
make it appear like all America is that way.
In any event, there is, seems to be, though more mainstream
politicians, trafficking in hate in an effort to apparently
feel it's going to raise their profile and get more easily
elected.
I remember even before I was involved in politics, reading
about the Crown Heights affair in New York. Embarrassingly, a
person posing as a Christian minister inciting hatred, winding
up encouraging somebody to die. I couldn't believe we had
somebody like that in New York. I was glad he wasn't in
Milwaukee. A few years later at Freddy's Fashion Mart, again,
fanning the flames of anti-Semitism and resulting in people
dying. I suppose you're always going to have in a country of
over 300 million a few horrible, evil people like that.
However, what concerns me is rather than being swept into
history's background, we recently have had this person become
somebody who a lot of politicians like to stand with, look for
him for getting more votes, and mainstream politicians,
successful politicians. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House,
Reverend Sharpton, thank you for saving America and crediting
him with getting the majority back in this House.
So, this is not somebody people run from. It's something
that mainstream politicians are embracing this individual. One
after another, people are looking to become President. I met
with this guy in New York, you know, Amy Klobuchar, the mayor
there of South Bend, it concerns me.
I'd like if any of you would comment as the--how this
embarrassingly, purportedly Christian minister, why this guy is
so beloved, or apparently respected by so many--what should be
mainstream politicians.
Mr. Greenblatt. Mr. Congressman, if I might just generally
respond. First of all, I would say that what we've talked
about, some instances like what has happened in New York, for
example, what happened in Pittsburgh, no state is immune from
hate. There are approximately 84--the ADL tracked 84 hate
incidents in the state of Wisconsin in 2019. And, in fact, it
was in Baraboo, which is a suburb of Milwaukee, where we had
high school students doing the Heil Hitler salute last year in
the photo of their student prom.
Mr. Grothman. Baraboo is more outside of Madison, but go
ahead.
Mr. Greenblatt. Fair enough. So, I just want to point out
the fact that prejudice can happen in any geography. It can be
a problem in the majority, it can be a problem in minority
communities. It can be a problem in Christian communities, as
well as non-Christian communities. So, no one is immune from
it. The question becomes what do we do about it? One thing I
will just say is----
Mr. Grothman. Well, the question I'm trying to get though
is----
Mr. Greenblatt. Yes.
Mr. Grothman [continuing]. You know, what is this about
this embrace----
Mr. Greenblatt. Right.
Mr. Grothman [continuing]. Of Reverend Sharpton? I mean,
there are----
Mr. Greenblatt. Look, I was going to say to that like,
again, I think Reverend Sharpton has a long track record. I
haven't agreed with all of his statements. On the other hand, I
will tell you, after the situation and the murder in Jersey
City, I remember getting a text from him on my phone, ``Hey,
what can we do about this?'' He's consistently addressed these
issues on his television program. So, I think he has a mixed
track record for many, but I appreciate some of the
outspokenness he's had of late.
Mr. Grothman. OK. There's a group that sometimes sends me
stuff called AMCHA Initiative, and they sometimes talk about
anti-Semitism on college campuses. I wondered if any of you
could comment on what's going on on college campuses and why--
you know, this is where, kind of, the minds of the future are
molded, so to speak--and why it seems to be you have more--I
don't know what to call it intellectual, I don't know what you
call it--but why anti-Semitism, why it seems to--why American
campuses seem to be a place where it seems to foment a little
bit more? What's the deal with American campuses?
Mr. Greenblatt. Well, I'll respond to that, but would
invite others to jump in. I mean, I think, Mr. Congressman, one
of the challenges that the way that Jewish state has often
demonized on college campuses, saying that it's--using the same
tropes that is often used to demonize the Jewish people.
Once they said the Jewish people were foreign, that they
were illegitimate, that they were alien, should go back to
their countries, now they say that about the Jewish state on
many of these college campuses. We need university presidents
to recognize--I certainly believe in free speech deeply, even
speech we don't like, but there is a price for free speech.
It's not free.
And university presidents need to not dismiss when anti-
Semitism is used to demonize the state of Israel. They need to
call it out and make sure all students understand that
prejudice shouldn't be tolerated, even when it is supposedly
being used, you know, in a debate about politics.
Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman's time is expired.
I now recognize the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. John
Sarbanes, for questions.
Mr. Sarbanes. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I thank everybody on the panel for being here, for staying
with us so long, and for your incredibly compelling and
important testimony on the topic of today's hearing.
Mr. Shelton, you talked about convergence of interest, and
I think that's a really important point to emphasize. As you
were saying that, I was recalling that the AHEPA, which is
American Hellenic Education and Progressive Association, so
that's the largest and most active organization in the country
that represents interests of the Greek American community. It
was formed in the south in response to Klan activity that was
directed at Greek Americans back in the 1920's and 1930's. So,
that convergence of interest is very directly bearing on that.
But all of these communities that we're speaking about
today have that conversions of interest. And, clearly, there's
two very important responses that we need to have when these
incidents of hate speech, antireligious, racial incidents
occur, acts of violence. One is to show an immediate sense of
solidarity in responding to it; the other is to take very
practical steps to try to protect against these attacks, and I
think we're bringing important focus in the Congress to both of
those things.
But if I could go back to the solidarity element for a
moment. Often, our concept of solidarity is reactive; in other
words, something occurs and then we assemble a kind of unified
coalition response to that to condemn it, and obviously, that's
an important thing to do. What that seeks to overcome is human
nature, because when an incident occurs the immediate reflexive
human response is to think, am I part of the group that was
attacked, or am I not part of the group?
And if you weren't part of the group, the specific group
that experienced the pain or the attack, your reflex is, in a
sense, relief. You momentarily set yourself apart. That's a
difficult thing to overcome. But we need to get to a place
where this convergence of interest concept is so deep and
abiding that if any particular subgroup within our community,
in our society feels pain or is attacked, that we feel it
regardless of whether we are part of that group.
What I wanted to ask anyone to comment on is, what
opportunities do you see or activities underway that are
knitting together this sense of solidarity sort of at the
ground level, on the front end, if you will, so that when the
attack occurs the broad community feels it in that instant
rather than there being that kind of delayed response, which is
important, but is a delayed response?
So, maybe you could speak to in Pittsburgh and other places
where different communities are aligned with each other,
creating coalitions, so that they feel equally these attacks
regardless of which group it's directed at.
Mr. Orsini. I think that's a very important point. When the
attack happened in Pittsburgh, what happened prior to the
attack--we have a community relations counsel. Our community
relations counsel director in Pittsburgh spends time with all
faith-based groups. That's his job. And he convenes an
interfaith committee. We talk to different groups.
When the attack happened in Pittsburgh, it was
instantaneous. We had every faith-based group, African
American, Muslim, Christian groups surrounding us in
Pittsburgh. That didn't happen by chance. That happened by that
interfaith community working together, and we felt that through
the community in Pittsburgh right away.
We had a Muslim group working with us, and, quite frankly,
they were one of the first groups that donate money to the
Victims of Terror Fund, and it was heartening to see that. But
that work was done prior to that shooting.
Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman's time is expired. Thank
you so much.
I'd now recognize the gentlelady from Illinois, Ms. Robin
Kelly. Pardon me? Oh, we didn't see you. I did not see him come
in.
The gentleman, Mr. Keller, is recognized.
Mr. Keller. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I would like to
thank all of the witnesses on today's panel for being here for
this incredibly important hearing.
When discussing the issue of education, President George W.
Bush said, ``Continuing failed policies meant leaving children
stuck with the soft bigotry of low expectations.'' Now, we're
discussing--and when we're discussing anti-Semitism today we
can say that we are facing hard bigotry of soft words. These
words come in phrases like boycott, divestment, and sanctions
of Israel.
Even worse, they come in deafening silence from people in
this country when terrorists or bigots physically attack or
kill people of the Jewish faith merely because of their
religion. Americans must not be silent in the face of this open
and ugly bigotry. Anti-Semitism is, unfortunately, still alive
now 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz. The Simon
Wiesenthal Center has produced a list of the worst instances of
anti-Semitism, including some as recent as last month during
the Hanukkah season.
Ambassador Gold, can you speak to the trend we've seen with
these anti-Semitic attacks, and what can be done, or what we
can be doing to move toward the goal of eliminating the
boycott, divestment, and sanction and other forms of anti-
Semitism?
Mr. Gold. I'm a big believer in knowing who your adversary
is. You know, if you're in the military, there's an
intelligence branch, and it tries to give a picture of how your
adversary is laying out his forces, and that's what you have to
do in this business too. You have to find out who they are and
what they're doing.
Many times people don't know or it's left up to op-ed
writers to conjecture where this is coming from. But you can
get to it. You can find out. It's important if you're going to
try to figure out where the anti-Semitism is coming from to
have multilingual capacity.
When I wrote a book back in 2003 called ``Hatred's
Kingdom'' about how did the hatred that was--that entered into,
that was part of the attack on America on 9/11, where did it
come from? I hired a team which could actually read off the web
some of the most sensitive Arabic information. It was not
classified. People weren't even aware of it.
So, that's what you have to do. You have to--whether it's
in Arabic or it's in Farsi or it's in Urdu, you've got to see
where it's coming from. And once you know that, you have a
criminal justice system that should operate.
And I want to stress something which is obvious probably to
everybody here, and that is when I bring up subjects that sound
like the problems of radical Islam, it's not against all
Muslims. It's not something that should be misinterpreted. But
radical Islam is as much a threat to Muslims as it is to Jews
or Christians.
Mr. Keller. I think people that are silent--you know, that
silence, sometimes you might want to consider that some of
those may be adversarial, too.
Mr. Greenblatt. Mr. Keller, may I just say something?
Mr. Keller. Well, actually I wanted to get to another point
for the Ambassador if I can.
You know, President Trump has been at the forefront of this
issue taking actions such as relocating the U.S. Embassy to
Jerusalem, recognizing Israel sovereignty of the Golan Heights,
signing an executive order to combat anti-Semitism on college
campuses, and just yesterday, releasing his blueprint for peace
with the Palestinians.
Again, for the Ambassador, how do you think these actions
have impacted the U.S. relationship with Israel today, and what
will its relationship look like moving forward?
Mr. Gold. I think the actions taken by President Trump are
very dear to the Israeli body politic. And, you know, we've
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.
Mr. Keller. Thank you, and I yield back.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you.
I now recognize the gentlelady from Illinois, Ms. Robin
Kelly, for questions.
Ms. Kelly. Not that I want to bring any of you--well, thank
you, first of all--into anything political, but I just have to
say, since Al Sharpton's name was raised, and I don't believe
in everything 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 we've seen in a long time, and people--he has
a base and he has elected officials that follow him.
So, 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.
Chairwoman Maloney. Will the gentlelady yield for a second
on Al Sharpton?
Ms. Kelly. A second. I don't have a lot of time.
Chairwoman Maloney. OK. We've had a terrible increase of
incidents of anti-Semitism in the city that I represent, New
York. And the community has come together. He has been one of
the leaders in bringing the community together. His national
organization has had numerous meetings reaching out to the
community, preaching really that we have to unify and fight
this.
So, I thank the gentlelady for the point you made. Thank
you. I yield back.
Ms. Kelly. Sadly, in recent years, we've seen a rise in
anti-Semitic Neo-Nazi rhetoric, fueled, in large part, by
disinformation campaigns on 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
importance of remaining ever vigilant in promoting human
rights, because we have seen an increase in hate, period.
Dr. Friedberg and Mr. Greenblatt, people frequently dismiss
comparisons to Hitler and Nazi Germany because the Nazi regime
and the Holocaust are so uniquely horrific, but can you please
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 government?
Ms. Friedberg. 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 10 years at the time that the Nazis
rose to power. And as I mentioned earlier, they rose to power
as part of a democratic process. Nonetheless, that did not
inoculate that society from the dangers of Nazism.
However, I do want to also emphasize that the Holocaust was
not a tsunami. It was not something that once it started there
was no way for it to stop. And 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, broad generalities of
good and evil, but in the specifics 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.
So, for example, we are very pleased to have a longstanding
partnership with the ADL. Our law enforcement and society
program trains members of the police. It 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 not just to
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 don't know, 50,000 or 60,000
members of state judiciaries, members of the military. We work
with every military academy. So, just to say that it's not just
about whether society is in advance, but how do we make people
aware of their roles and responsibilities?
Ms. Kelly. I have another question for you. How did a
modern, advanced, industrialized, diverse, and culturally rich
nation devolve to genocide in a matter of years?
Mr. Greenblatt. Yes. I think it's a great question,
Congresswoman. You know, as I mentioned in my opening remarks,
my grandfather was from Germany, and lived through and endured
Nazi Germany and watched that industrialized democratic country
descend into madness. And although he survived, most of his
family was slaughtered. What he endured was unspeakable, and
didn't even begin to touch on what Mr. Shaffir experienced.
So, I think one of the things we need to look at, and we
haven't even talked about it this morning, Ms. Chairwoman, is
how Nazi Germany used the instruments of democracy to
dehumanize, demonize, and, ultimately, lead to a path of
genocide, and, in particular, media and social media. We
haven't talked about the role of Silicon Valley. I know I only
have a few seconds left, but it has got to be talked about this
morning if we want to try to stop anti-Semitism and other forms
of hate from spreading even further.
Ms. Kelly. And I just wanted to share with you that I am a
diversity trainer, and I started under----
Mr. Greenblatt. Oh, is that right?
Ms. Kelly [continuing]. Started under you guys.
Mr. Greenblatt. Bravo. That's great.
Ms. Kelly. Thank you. I yield back.
Chairwoman Maloney. I now recognize the gentlewoman from
Michigan, Mrs. Brenda Lawrence, for her questions.
Mrs. Lawrence. 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, these 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 a--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 whose 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 are
being sic'd on people in the south. She told me, Brenda, in
your lifetime, you're going to have to educate people because
we know racism is ignorance. It's the stereotypes. It's those
generational, as we spoke of, just hatred that's passed along.
She said, and then you're going to have to forgive them
because if you don't, you consume their hatred and their anger.
Why did I want to start a conversation and bring together two
groups in this body that's supposed to pass laws and policies
to stand together, to fight against hatred in America? The
statement that I used, that Martin Luther King used, if we see
it done to one, it's going to happen to others. We see through
history that so many people sat on the sideline. And to sit
anywhere in America today and say, Oh, I don't 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
African American, I've 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 Anti-Defamation League
witnessed a similar uptick in violent hate crimes, and to what
do you attribute this increase? We have not talked about what
is happening where we're seeing more and more--and it's more
violent. We talked about the words, the hatred of words, but
now we're seeing violence.
Mr. Greenblatt. Right.
Mrs. Lawrence. And any of you, please, what is it that's
happening that we as policymakers----
Mr. Greenblatt. Right.
Mrs. Lawrence [continuing]. Need to step up? So, please----
Mr. Greenblatt. Well, Congresswoman, a few thoughts. So
quickly, No. 1, again, I applaud your leadership in starting
the bipartisan Black Jewish Caucus with Congresswoman Wasserman
Schultz. It's so important, and hope we can find ways to work
together. Just like the ADL and the NAACP, we have literally
worked together for generations.
No. 2, we talk about at the ADL the pyramid of hate. When
you don't call out bigotry when it's spoken, it can lead to
acts of hate, acts of hate like harassment, which can then lead
to violence. Violence, when you don't interrupt it, can then
lead to even worse, and, ultimately, to genocide.
So, we believe prevention is better than response. And so
that starts, in part, by something where you were kind of going
earlier, using the bully pulpit. Leaders need to lead. And they
don't just need to interrupt intolerance when it happens; they
need to not allow intolerance to happen on their watch in the
first place. That means 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 where you're from or who you love. We need more of that
in this country, and we need it now.
Mrs. Lawrence. Mr. Shelton.
Mr. Shelton. Just adding, the new technology is extremely
important if you think of propagandizing of these hate
manifests and ideologies. If you think about the utilization of
social media tools to do everything from television shows to
radio shows, music and everything else, they're trying to
further indoctrinate these ideologies of hate into our everyday
society.
So, the bottom line is, you have to keep doing what you're
doing. You've got to keep up with hearing from groups like ours
about what----
Mrs. Lawrence. Yes.
Mr. Shelton [continuing]. We've experienced and what's
going on across the country and develop new strategies, tools,
and resources to stop it at every place along the way. They're
digging into every little community, but they're also going
very broad and extensive in many of the ideological things
we're seeing being promoted by these hate mongers.
Mrs. Lawrence. I know my time is up, but I must say, we
must, Madam Chair, address social media that has become the new
weapon of hatred and racism.
I just want you all to know, as we have said, we have so
much work to do. Thank you for being here.
Thank you, Mr. Shaffir, for sharing your story. Thank you.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you, Brenda.
I now recognize the gentlelady from West Virginia, Mrs.
Carol Miller for her questions.
Mrs. Miller. Thank you, Chairwoman Maloney.
And 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 don't 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, you
know, 1.1 million people. The world watched in horror, because
I don't know if it was naivete or if it was lack of the fact of
the instant news like we have today that they didn't really
comprehend that such things would happen.
I grew up in the city of Beckley within the city of
Columbus in a Jewish community. I grew up going to bat
mitzvahs, bar mitzvahs. I went to my nephews' bar mitzvahs.
Bless their heart, now they're all adults.
And I think back to being in high school and one of the
girls I knew, her mother had numbers tattooed on her arm. And,
of course, you know, I was born in 1950--I shouldn't probably
say that out loud--but growing up just when everyone came home
from World War II, even I didn't really understand until I was
an adult the horror, you know, but that's because I read and
I--you know, I was able to educate myself. So, it's so very
important that we pass this along, because history will repeat
itself if we don't let people know what has happened in our
past.
You know, I'm thankful for the efforts that our President
has taken to strengthen our relationship with Israel, and it,
to me, is so important. I think we've moved the mark by doing
what we've done and, you know, having the embassy in Jerusalem.
I just can't comprehend the anti-Semitism that we are
witnessing today.
Ambassador Gold, the fight against hate and education about
what has occurred during the Holocaust is so important to keep
in mind as we create our policy in the future. How has the
Holocaust's dark legacy impacted the people of Israel?
Mr. Gold. My son served in the armored core of the Israeli
Army, and I remember, at one point, his commanding officer
takes him to Yad Vashem to show him the disaster that the
Jewish people confronted during the Holocaust, and his officers
try and imbue him as well as other soldiers with that message.
So, it's very much--the Holocaust is very much in the
conscience of Israel's citizenry.
It doesn't 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 self-defense,
especially when we have, not all neighbors, but certain
neighbors that still use language that looks like it came out
of Germany in the 1930's.
Mrs. Miller. I have seen some of that language. I was
fortunate to be able to go to the museum in Israel. When the
guide took us in, he said, you have 45 minutes to view
something that would take eight or nine hours.
Mr. Gold. Sure.
Mrs. Miller. And it's just so overwhelming. I just--I can't
say enough about how we need to educate our children to
understand.
How do you think it's impacted the policy that's coming out
of Israel? The policymakers, the policy?
Mr. Gold. I think people have to separate as much as
possible what happened in the Holocaust from everyday
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'd better take it seriously. You can't ignore it.
You can't just turn the other way.
And I think therefore the Israeli leadership from the
highest levels down to a corporal or private in the army
understand what's at stake. It's very serious. But I think we
approach it with a sense of tremendous responsibility. And 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 abilities 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 1990's.
Mrs. Miller. Yes.
Mr. Gold. I've studied the Battle of Srebrenica in 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 don't like to
mix the Holocaust with other developments around the world, but
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.
And I'll just tell you one thing. Can I do it?
Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman's time is expired, but
you can say one more thing because I want to hear it too. Tell
me.
Mr. Gold. You know, the state of Israel has many countries
that turn to us--and you'd be surprised to know who they are--
and indicate a desire to, under the table, have relations with
us. And I remember sitting with senior European diplomats and
asking them, and saying, Look, we're 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, Dore, we believe in realpolitik.
And we would try and expand our diplomatic relations and
basically turn away from the crimes that these countries are
engaging in. That's horrible. And 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.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you. The gentlelady's time is
expired.
I now recognize the gentlewoman from Michigan, Ms. Tlaib,
for questions.
Ms. Tlaib. Thank you so much, Ms. Madam Chair.
Thank you so much to Mr. Shaffir for coming here, for your
incredible courage. I will make sure that my sons hear your
testimony. I think it's really important for my children to
consistently hear exactly what the Holocaust means and, again,
so that we don't repeat it.
And, Mr. Gold, you are absolutely right, humankind, what it
can lead to if we do nothing.
So, thank you, again, for--Chairwoman and my colleagues,
for holding this important hearing today. It is imperative that
we honor the victims of the Holocaust, to learn from the
lessons of history, and continue to fight against anti-Semitism
and all forms of hate.
I always--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. So, this week, I'm really honored to be a
cosponsor of the Never Again Education Act as we make sure that
our children and every other generation understands what it
means when we talk about the Holocaust.
When I visited the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington
Hills, Michigan, with my young son, Adam, I remember he spent
the day reading everything he could. When I had called
beforehand, they said, Well, 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 that stuff on TV, he can see the reality
of what is actually real. I wanted him to see it.
So, he was reading this whole wall--you can look it up
online--a whole wall of these news clippings, and even the news
clippings documenting unspeakable atrocities of the Holocaust.
And something I'll never forget, when he looked up at me and he
asked, Mom--he calls me mama. 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. And 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. Friedberg, as a historian, and when you
spoke about it, it was so important because it resonates with
me about what's happening even across the world, and Mr. Gold
talked about it, but even what's happening to Muslims in China.
I'm really fearful we're going to find out much too late about
what's happening there.
But what can you tell me about the environment that enabled
Adolph Hitler and the Nazis to rise to power? What can we--you
know, history teach us about how the democratic process can
devolve into a regime capable of such atrocities?
Ms. Friedberg. Thank you, Congresswoman, very much, and
also for sharing your personal perspective. I've brought my
squirmy, young son with me here today.
What I can tell you is that when you study the Holocaust
and beyond Nazi Germany, what you see is that hate is only part
of the story. And it would be a mistake and too comforting for
us to think that if we can just inoculate ourselves against
racism, that people will not do bad things to other people.
But what we find when we study the Holocaust in its
specificity is much of what enabled the Nazi rise to power had
to do with motivations that are much more relatable,
motivations like career aspirations, greed, fear, opportunism.
We can see, for example, that the Nazi regime--and some of
our fellows at the museum have researched this--offered great
opportunities for women to be in roles that they had not been
able to be in before, and 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, but an
environment in which a lot of social norms were broken down.
So, I want us to be careful not to think that there was
some kind of brainwashing of the German people, but that also,
for example, the Nuremberg laws of 1935, most of what happened
to Jews in Nazi Germany was done legally. It was done in a
framework of laws. This was not criminal. It was actually the
government's actions.
Ms. Tlaib. Adam noticed that. He saw the slow but sure
enough taking away people's properties and things. Yes, he
noticed that.
Ms. Friedberg. Yes. Smart kid. So, as an example, in the
Nuremberg laws, I'll just give one example, Jewish doctors were
no longer allowed to treat so-called Arian patients. Think
about that. If you're a medical resident and your chief
resident is Jewish and suddenly he's gone, maybe you don't
object so much because this opens a door to you and you're just
going to be quiet. You're maybe afraid to make noise and it's
an opportunity.
So, I want us to think about that 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 anti-Semite in our hearts.
Ms. Tlaib. And I want you to know, Mr. Shaffir, one of the
things that spoke to me, why I took my son to the Holocaust
Museum, is when he was nine years old--he's 14 now. When he was
nine 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 people-- to violence toward Muslims.
I was just talking to his father, almost whispering to him,
but he heard. And he comes into the bedroom, and he's like,
Mama, don't worry, don't worry, if anybody asks if I'm Muslim,
I will lie and tell them I'm not. At that moment it struck me,
I was like, Oh, honey, no. We can't allow, you know, this to
continue, this kind of form of oppression.
I think, you know, all of you are doing incredibly
important work, and I think--I loved seeing the NAACP here
because an African-American Baptist pastor said it beautifully
in Detroit. He said, We're not a country that's divided; we're
a country that's disconnected, and we need to connect in
understanding all of us as fellow human beings that never, ever
deserve to be targeted based on who we are or our faith or
anything like that.
So, thank you all so much for your incredible testimony.
And thank you, Chairwoman, for your leadership.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you. Thank you.
Mr. Shaffir. May I add something to----
Chairwoman Maloney. Yes. Yes.
Mr. Shaffir. First of all, I would like to thank you very
much for taking your son to actually witness something like
that. It's very important. And I hope that and I wish that more
mothers and more parents will take their children to places
like that. Thank you very much.
Ms. Tlaib. Thank you.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you. I now recognize the
gentlelady from California, Ms. Katie Porter, for questions.
Ms. Porter. 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 that he wanted to go visit was
The Holocaust Museum.
Today's hearing topic, the ongoing battle against hate, is
really personal for my community in Orange County. According to
the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, the Poway synagogue
shooter posted an anti-Semitic message on 8chan before he went
on his rampage.
And Samuel Woodward, the man accused of killing 19-year-old
Blaze Bernstein at a park in my district, in Lake Forest, was
reportedly a member of a militant Neo-Nazi group.
Investigations found that Woodward openly described himself as
a Nazi.
I want to take a few minutes 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. Orsini, did social media play a role in the planning or
the execution of the attack at the Tree of Life synagogue?
Mr. Orsini. Unfortunately, I can't answer that question.
That case is still under prosecution, and I've made an
agreement not to talk about anything about the shooter himself.
Ms. Porter. I appreciate your professionalism.
Mr. Greenblatt, at a more general level, could you comment
on what the research might tell us about how white supremacists
are using the Internet and social media today?
Mr. Greenblatt. Sure. Thank you very much for the question.
I think social media has really, today, become almost a
breeding ground of bigotry, and I say this as someone who
worked in Silicone Valley for many years. I managed products,
led teams of engineers. But Facebook is the frontline in
fighting hate. Anti-Semitism thrives--and 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 rallies taking place 24/7 with a swipe or
a click, and your young kids, Congresswoman Tlaib, or your
young kids, Congresswoman Porter, can literally, with a couple
clicks on their phone, engage in the kind of horrific content
you would never--that could never be published in print, would
never be shown on television, could never find its way into
film; it's now available to our children.
So, I think there are things that companies can do to start
the process. And, again, we believe in the First Amendment at
the ADL, but we literally started a center in Silicone Valley
in 2017. Our Center on Technology and Society is doing cutting-
edge research. I have Ph.D.s in artificial intelligence machine
learning who are working at ADL now doing research. And I'll
just share, if I might, Congresswoman, some of the things that
Silicone Valley could do today to tackle this problem.
No. 1, they all have terms of service that prevent hateful
speech, whether it's anti-Muslim, anti-Jewish, anti-Black, and
all they need to do is recognize they are not public places;
they're private companies. And the same way you couldn't 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.
No. 2, they should adjust their algorithms. You can find
salacious content on cable television late at night, but it's
not available in the middle of the day for young children to
see it. Adjusting the algorithms is the equivalent of having
some editorial guidelines.
No. 3, slow it down. The shooter in Christ Church who
murdered 15 Muslims in cold blood in two mosques; the shooter
in Halle who tried to burst into a synagogue, the shooter in El
Paso, they used GoPro cameras and live-streamed their snuff
films. But, frankly, there is no natural law that says, when I
click ``publish,'' it should be available for billions of
people to see. There should be a delay on this content, and
they should use AI to prevent this kind of thing from getting
out there.
No. 4, the companies should stop hate for profit. YouTube
shouldn't flight ads and allow neo-Nazis to make money on this
content. Twitter shouldn't allow extremists to literally
profiteer off of prejudice. This should stop right now.
And, last, the companies should submit to regular
independent third-party audits. This is crucial.
I should say, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, we work with all
these businesses, and they have taken some steps, but they
haven't done enough. And 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 they're doing
enough to take the venom out of their systems.
Ms. Porter. That is very helpful. Thank you so much for
your concrete suggestions. I really appreciate it.
I'm really excited about bringing the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum's traveling exhibition to the University of
California-Irvine, and, so, Dr. Friedberg, I hope that, at some
point, you'll 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.
Ms. Friedberg. And I'll encourage those of you here in
D.C., come see the exhibit here on Americans in the Holocaust,
and I'll be happy to come speak in Irvine.
Ms. Porter. And I've come and seen it twice----
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you.
Ms. Porter [continuing]. And I've taken numerous people
there. I think it's wonderful.
Chairwoman Maloney. The Congresswoman's time has expired.
I now recognize the gentlewoman from New Mexico, Ms. Deb
Haaland, for questions.
Ms. Haaland. 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'd like to first 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,'' and that's Mr. Raphael
Lemkin. I think he would be proud of every single one of you
for carrying on his legacy, so thank you for that.
In its 2018 report, the FBI found that the number of
victims of anti-Latino or Hispanic hate crimes increased by 21
percent over the previous year. In my home state of New Mexico,
hate crimes have increased over 400 percent, and that includes,
recently, the shooting death and beating deaths of homeless
Native Americans in the city of Albuquerque.
On August 3, 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 anti-
immigrant manifesto warning about the, quote, Hispanic invasion
of Texas, and vowed to shoot, quote, as many Mexicans as
possible.
Among those was Angie Englisbee. She was murdered that day.
She was 84 years old and a New Mexican, the oldest of 10
siblings. She had seven children, 21 grandchildren and great
grandchildren. Children have lost their parents, parents have
lost their children, and yet we can't 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, Hispanic, Muslim, and immigrant
communities.
So, my first question is for you, Mr. Greenblatt. In your
view, what might be driving the increase of anti-immigrant or
anti-Latino sentiment?
Mr. Greenblatt. Congresswoman, I'm really grateful you
asked this question, because it allows me to say something I
didn't have the opportunity to say before.
Hate crimes are vastly underreported. Sometimes this comes
from the fact that the people in the communities don't know to
report their experience as hate crimes. Sometimes it comes from
the fact that law enforcement isn't trained. But I am deeply
concerned about the Latino and the immigrant communities who we
know are afraid to report these incidents. I know this because
I have heard this from immigrants and Latinos.
And the ADL developed a partnership with the Government of
Mexico. We've provided hate crimes training to over 2,000
Mexican consular officials across the United States, over
2,000, because Mexican nationals living here in the U.S., they
are literally going to their consulates to say, my child's been
bullied at school, my business was vandalized, because they're
afraid to go to the police because of the rumors of ICE
enforcement. It is unthinkable that people living here legally
are afraid of the authorities.
So, why is this happening? The anti-immigrant movement in
the United States has been empowered in ways we have never seen
before. You have the kind of hateful rhetoric coming from
people in positions of authority, starting with the White
House, demonizing immigrants, dehumanizing Latinos and people
seeking refuge in this country, in ways that I think are
unconscionable.
ADL has done reporting on this. I would point you to our
report on the anti-immigrant move in the United States. We need
people in positions of authority to use that authority wisely
and recognize that this country needs to be welcoming of
everyone, particularly those vulnerable people seeking refuge
in our shores. Frankly, that's why this country was founded,
and that's what we need to live up to those values today.
Ms. Haaland. Thank you so much. Thank you for that.
I will go to Dr. Friedberg. During the Holocaust, many
countries, including the United States, erected barriers to
make it nearly impossible for Jewish people to immigrate. Is
that correct?
Ms. Friedberg. Not exactly. Thank you for the question. In
fact, they didn't need to erect barriers during the Holocaust
because the barriers were already in place. Immigration laws
that were passed in this body in 1924 severely restricted
immigration based on country of origin. And one fact that is
very important to know is the United States did not have any
refugee policy. I'm going to repeat that. There was no refugee
policy in the United States during the period of the Holocaust.
So, it's not that it wasn't 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 coming for family reunification. So, it just was not a
priority of the U.S. Government at that time.
Ms. Haaland. Thank you so much. I'll just--I have one more.
I have a--I think I'm out of time.
I yield, Madam Chair. Thank you.
Chairwoman Maloney. The gentlelady's time has expired.
I would now recognize the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Lacy
Clay, for questions.
Mr. Clay. Thank you, Madam Chair, and 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, which my friend and witness,
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
Jewish cemetery in University City, Missouri, was vandalized,
causing shock and pain to families. I had the opportunity to
work with them to make that cemetery whole again, and I
considered that not only my duty, but an obligation of faith.
Earlier this week, 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, and hate can
proceed and grow and good people remain silent.
Many of us remember the quote, Unite the Right rally that
took place in Charlottesville in August 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 self-
described neo-Nazi rammed his car into a crowd of
counterprotesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 30 other
people.
Dr. Friedberg, ``into the ovens,'' I believe, is a
Holocaust reference. Would you agree?
Ms. Friedberg. Yes.
Mr. Clay. Do you believe the public at large understood the
significance of those words?
Ms. Friedberg. Some do and some don't. 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 that
were being invoked.
Mr. Clay. Thank you.
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?
Mr. Shaffir. Well----
Mr. Clay. Turn on your mic.
Mr. Shaffir. Memories like that keep coming back. I
remember when I was six and seven and eight and seeing all the
violence against Jewish people, against Jewish children. It
kind of wakes me up more, and I'm trying to do as much as I
possibly can while I'm alive, because after we're gone, very
hard for somebody to know what really happened there.
Mr. Clay. No, and you're right. I appreciate you coming
forward today and telling--sharing your story----
Mr. Shaffir. Thank you.
Mr. Clay [continuing]. With us here in Congress.
Mr. Shaffir. Thank you.
Mr. Clay. Thank you.
Mr. Greenblatt, how does the Anti-Defamation League define
neo-Nazi?
Mr. Greenblatt. So, at the ADL, we track extremists across
the board, including right-wing extremists, some of whom
identify as, quote, neo-Nazi. These are people who openly
embrace the Third Reich, its ideology, its iconography, and
continue to promote it today.
Mr. Clay. So, how would you characterize the threat of neo-
Nazism in the U.S. today, and do you believe the
Charlottesville march reflects or contributes to increasing
anti-Semitism?
Mr. Greenblatt. Yes. I think the issue today is less Nazism
itself and more extremism, of which Nazism represents one sort
of hue or variance of that. So, I worry about the violent
right-wing extremism, which has been responsible for 73 percent
of the extremist-related murders in this country over the past
decade. I worry about the right-wing extremism which was
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 African Americans, Jews, Muslims, LGBTQ
people, Latinos, immigrants, anyone who is different from their
vision of this country, is demonized, dehumanized, and they
think ultimately should be murdered. And we've seen that play
out in El Paso, in Pittsburgh, in Poway, in too many places in
the past few years.
Mr. Clay. 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?
Mr. Greenblatt. Well, we're on the record as calling for
the resignation of Stephen Miller because of his utilization of
white supremacist ideas and ideology. We've seen some of the
documents that have been released suggesting he was trying to
promote this in the media. And, you know, again, ultimately we
judge people based on what they do, and not just what they say,
but what they do, and the set of policies, we think, don't
reflect, as I said earlier, our values in this country.
As the grandson of a refugee, as the husband of a refugee,
I just can't countenance a country in which we don't embrace
refugees and other people seeking refuge here.
Mr. Clay. My time is up, but I thank you all for your
response.
And I yield.
Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you so much.
And I now recognize the very patient gentleman from New
Jersey, Mr. Malinowski.
Mr. Malinowski. Well, it takes patience to fight anti-
Semitism, so thank you.
Mr. Greenblatt, I wanted to start with you. You said this
morning that ADL's research has found that the increase in
anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic 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. So, I wanted to explore that
with you.
Obviously, there's a lot of explicit anti-Semitic rhetoric
in the public sphere today. Charges of dual loyalty, for
example. But I think a number of the questions have focused on
less explicit examples. So, for example, Ms. Debbie Wasserman
Schultz asked you about conspiracy theories, and I wanted to be
even more explicit about that.
When people in the public sphere rail against globalists--
--
Mr. Greenblatt. Yes.
Mr. Malinowski [continuing]. The deep state----
Mr. Greenblatt. Yes.
Mr. Malinowski [continuing]. 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?
Mr. Greenblatt. Well, clearly the invocation--Congressman,
thank you for the question. Clearly, the invocation of those
anti-Semitic tropes create an environment which is literally
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'd invite you
to open up YouTube and look at the comments on this hearing,
which I am--I have just learned are rife with the kind of
Holocaust denialism and anti-Semitic conspiracy that Mr.
Malinowski is asking me about.
I mean, this is a clear and present danger, and it's
happening right now, unfolding as we speak.
Mr. Malinowski. And you were also asked about anti-
immigrant rhetoric, so rhetorical attacks on immigrants
threatening our culture, statements about immigrant invasions
or infestations, same category in terms of impact on safety for
Jewish Americans.
Mr. Greenblatt. Yes. I mean, short answer is yes. These are
the invocation of classic anti-Semitic tropes and long-standing
stereotypes. As is mentioned by Dr. Friedberg, they were used
to justify restrictive immigration laws in the first half of
the 20th century----
Mr. Malinowski. Right.
Mr. Greenblatt [continuing]. And they're used to dehumanize
people today.
Mr. Malinowski. In fact, Mr. Orsini, the shooter in
Pittsburgh explicitly cited his paranoid fears about immigrants
invading America and blaming Jews for funding refugees in the
United States. Is that not correct?
Mr. Orsini. It's accurate, correct.
Mr. Malinowski. And then let me just raise the question of
Israel, because obviously demonization of Israel, including by
movements such as BDS, contributes to a less safe climate for
Jewish Americans. But is it enough, Mr. Greenblatt, to be pro-
Israel, to say that you stand against anti-Semitism in the
United States?
Mr. Greenblatt. Look, I am unapologetically, unabashedly,
unashamedly Zionist, and my organization is proud to be pro-
Israel. But at the same time--and I will tell you that BDS, the
architects of the BDS campaign and the impact it creates
absolutely contributes to anti-Semitism. And there is no doubt
that delegitimizing the Jewish state contributes to
delegitimizing the Jewish people. But here today, when we talk
about anti-Semitism, there are no BDS placards in Brooklyn when
Jews are being assaulted in the streets. And so I think we need
to be able to say, yes, we can be pro-Israel, but we can also
be antibigotry, and the things aren't necessarily the same.
Mr. Malinowski. Mr. Gold, have you heard of a man named
Robert Jeffress?
Mr. Gold. I have not.
Mr. Malinowski. You mentioned the embassy opening in
Jerusalem, and I was in favor of recognizing Jerusalem as the
capital of Israel. Robert Jeffress is an evangelical pastor who
was invited by the administration to say the opening prayer at
that ceremony. He claims to be pro-Israel. He's also said, and
I'm just quoting him, you cannot be saved being a Jew. He said
that Judaism, like other non-Christian religions, not only 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 pro-Israel and who gave the invocation at that
ceremony.
So, can you see that it may be possible to be superficially
pro-Israel while, in fact, also contributing to the climate
that is making life less safe for Jews in America?
Mr. Gold. There's an expression in English, it's called due
diligence, and hopefully, when you organize ceremonies of such
importance for the U.S. Government or for any western or any
power in the world, you have to check who's coming. And,
obviously, these are detestable positions.
But I wanted to ask something else, because I'm getting a
sense here--and I really don't 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 anti-Semitism,
it's both right wing and left wing. It's both. And you can't
just lean over and say it's one and ignore the other.
So, hopefully, when we decide what are the sources of anti-
Semitism that are confronting us, worldwide, we look at both
sources and we fight against them.
Mr. Malinowski. Well, let me just say I fully agree, and I
think most of us would agree that the extremes of left and
right tend to come together, and anti-Semitism is the place
where they come together.
Thank you, and I yield back.
Chairwoman Maloney. I thank the gentleman.
And, without objection, the gentleman from Pennsylvania,
Mr. Doyle, shall be permitted to participate in today's
hearing.
And the gentleman from Pennsylvania is recognized for
questions or statement.
Mr. Doyle. I thank the chair.
And, first of all, I want to say thank you to you, Mr.
Shaffir, for being here today. It's a very powerful testimony,
and we must continue to hear these stories so that we never,
ever forget. And I think it's most important for young people,
the young generations coming up, to make sure that they know
this too.
And I also want to welcome Brad Orsini----
Mr. Orsini. Sure.
Mr. Doyle [continuing]. And say thank you for being here
today and what you did before and after for the Tree of Life
attack in our home city of Pittsburgh.
For the panelists 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 that 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 the television that morning--I was in my
kitchen--that there was an active shooter down in Squirrel Hill
near the Tree of Life, it almost didn't register at first.
So, I guess we're learning that there's really no place
that's a hundred percent safe, no matter--even though we have
this sense of security in our neighborhoods that nothing bad
ever happens, we see something bad can happen.
And so, Brad, I wonder if you could explain the ways that,
you know, in places that you'd never expect--these aren't areas
where you expect to have these kinds of incidents, how you
look--what signs 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 community views their
security?
Mr. Orsini. Sure. I think it was a watershed moment for the
entire Jewish community across the country. Nobody that knows
Pittsburgh and knows Squirrel Hill would have ever imagined
that. But I would say, I think anybody that's been involved in
a mass casualty attack would say the same thing: It never
happens to us.
And that's why our work is so important, the work at the
Secure Community Network, that we do now across the country to
make awareness, teach and educate our community to be
resilient, teach our community to be first responders. We're,
in effect, a community. It can happen to anyone, anywhere. And
a lot of things we've 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 and 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 didn't know who Patriot
Front, Identity Evropa was. We see those signs all over
Pittsburgh. It's important for us to educate the community why
not to dismiss any signs of hate, even though it's a piece of
paper on a telephone pole. We need to let our community, our
country know who these people are so we can identify them,
assess that threat, and mitigate the next attack. And social
media plays a big role in this.
We work hand in hand with the FBI, but the FBI needs help.
They can't openly search social media sites. They've got to
rely on the community. The community needs to be great partners
with law enforcement so we cannot dismiss any signs of hate.
Mr. Doyle. Thank you.
Mr. Shaffir, I see in your testimony that you said
something, I think, that 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?
Mr. Shaffir. As I mentioned earlier, I'm involved with the
Holocaust Museum. We travel for the museum to various colleges,
various high schools. We speak to various groups. And only
important thing that we do right now is to educate. Very
important to educate. And I keep constantly saying that
education is so important, and I will continue to do so.
Mr. Doyle. Thank you.
Madam Chair, thank you so much for your gracious time, and
I will yield back.
Chairwoman Maloney. 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 and individuals,
including Liz Igra, Holocaust survivor and president of the
Central Valley Holocaust Educators' Network; Julie Raymond,
director of political outreach for AJC, Global Jewish Advocacy;
Deborah Lauter, executive director of New York City Office for
Prevention of Hate Crimes; Eric Fusfield, director of
legislative affairs and deputy director of the International
Center for Human Rights and Public Policy of B'nai B'rith; a
report from the Jewish Federations of North America; an op-ed
from our witness, ADL president, Jonathan Greenblatt.
I want to thank all of my colleagues, and especially an
incredible, a remarkable, distinguished panel, for your wisdom,
your insights, your ideas, and your time for being with us and
sharing this incredible hearing with us. So, I think we know
that we have a lot more work to do and that we can't sit back
and let these acts of hate go unconfronted and responding to
them. And I think we've 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, and I welcome all of you and all of the members of the
panel here and of Congress to give me your ideas for any
additional thoughts for proposals you believe the committee
should review.
I just want to thank you again. And I'd like to thank our
witnesses for testifying today. And, without objection, all
members will have five legislative days within which to submit
additional written questions for the 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 Museum and for working with Congress, Dr. Edna
Friedberg. We are hopeful that it will pass our bill in the
Senate, and we'll have a centralized data base 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. It's been a remarkable hearing.
I'm very inspired. Thank you for being here and for all of your
wisdom inspiring all of us.
This meeting is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 1:31 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]
[all]