Republicans and Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee veered between accusations of partisanship and appeals to national unity in an at-times fiery hearing on antisemitic terrorism on Tuesday.
Lawmakers and witnesses at the Judiciary’s subcommittee on oversight hearing, which was called in the wake of a spree of violent attacks on Jews in recent months, could not agree whether the primary threat to American Jewry came from the anti-Israel left or the white supremacist right.
“Why is there this massive spike in antisemitism? It’s not because of a handful of neo-Nazis in their mother’s basements,” said Dan Schneider, a vice president at the Media Research Center.
“I believe it’s because there are a few of these massive, mega-corporations that now create, curate and distribute information to an unprecedented degree, and these corporations are intent on amplifying narratives that harm Jews,” he said.
He named media outlets like the Associated Press and big tech companies like Google as examples of organizations that are biased against Jews and Israel.
Another of the Republican witnesses, Debra Cooper, chief of digital activism at End Jew Hatred, pointed to teachers unions throughout the country as one set of institutions that were “insidiously antisemitic” and spreading Jew-hatred in K-12 schools and on college campuses.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who is Jewish, pushed back on those arguments.
“My constituents are afraid to go to synagogue, because of neo-Nazis living in the basement, not because of the American Federation of Teachers, not because of the American Association of University Professors, not because of the Associated Press,” he said.
“Somehow, the people who have great antisemitism detectors in major media institutions can’t see what it means to have neo-Nazis at large in America threatening people’s lives,” he said.
The chairman of the subcommittee, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), argued that the notion raised by some Democrats that U.S. President Donald Trump contributes to nationwide antisemitism wasn’t borne out in the statistics from the FBI and others about anti-Jewish violence and bigotry.
“I get you don’t like President Trump. I get it. I do, you don’t. It’s okay,” Van Drew said. “The statistics that we’re using, because it takes a number of years to actually develop them, are not from when he was even in the presidency. They are from when Joe Biden was the president of the United States.”
“I’m not going to lay that on Joe Biden’s feet either, but the point is to push that all on President Trump is inherently unfair, so let’s stop it,” Van Drew said.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), who is Jewish, acknowledged antisemitism on both the left and right and said that the threat in America is not because of Israel, but squarely directed at Jews.
“This theory out there that, ‘Oh, you can be anti-Zionist, or you can be anti-Israel and not be antisemitic,’ I would say that theoretically, you could, but that is not what’s happening,” Moskowitz said.
“That was not what was happening when they were holding up signs saying, ‘Go back to Poland.’ It’s nothing to do with Netanyahu,” he said. “I have police outside my house 24 hours a day. You think that’s because of Netanyahu?”
Moskowitz said that he appreciated Van Drew calling the hearing but didn’t think it addressed the scale of the problem.
“Mr. Chairman, this hearing ain’t gonna fix s***. Okay?” Moskowitz said. “This is a virus that is spreading, and until we’re serious about stopping what’s going on online and the brainwashing of our kids, this is going to get worse.”
“More people are going to die in this country, and it is going to be us,” he said.
“Mr. Moskowitz, you say that this isn’t enough, but damn it, we had to start somewhere,” Van Drew replied.