House Panel Convenes on Combating Rise of Antisemitism

Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Jim McGovern, D-Mass., led a hearing on Tuesday to address the sobering rise of antisemitism around the globe.

The hearing, hosted by the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the House of Representatives, came at a time of increased threats against American Jews and a generational divide on support for the state of Israel. It also came as the Trump administration has sought to aggressively combat threats to religious liberty with the recent announcement of the creation of a Religious Liberty Commission.

The Tuesday hearing sought to survey the different forms of antisemitism around the world and ascertain how the U.S. can improve its ability to combat them. 

The hearing included four witnesses: Marina Rosenberg, senior vice president of international affairs at the Anti-Defamation League; Ted Deutch, the chief executive officer of the American Jewish Committee and a former member of Congress; Eric Fusfield, the director of legislative affairs for B’nai B’rith International; and Stacy Burdett, a consultant in antisemitism response and prevention. 

At the beginning of the hearing, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., who is Jewish, made the broad point that when it comes to hatred, “what starts with Jews rarely ends with Jews.”

“Antisemitism does not just threaten Jewish communities, it threatens the values that hold free societies together,” Deutch concurred.

The panelists emphasized that one of the world’s greatest perpetrators of antisemitism was the regime governing Iran. Deutch detailed the crimes of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and called out the Iranian regime for its sponsorship of Hamas. He said addressing antisemitism must start with the fact that the regime in Tehran is bent on destroying Israel and the Jewish people.

Rosenberg said that, in her professional view, Iran was the No. 1 exporter of antisemitism around the world and of Holocaust distortion and denial. She said that to combat the threat, civil society has to play a major role because governments cannot address the problem alone.

“This is a moral issue. It is about the kind of country we are,” Deutch added. 

One recent example of antisemitism discussed in the hearing was the case of Jewish supporters of the soccer team Tel Aviv Maccabi, which faced what Israeli officials described as a premeditated pogrom in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, in December 2024.  

Rosenberg emphasized that it was not enough to talk about dead Jews, but that there also needs to be a recognition of the contribution of living Jews worldwide. Fusfield mentioned that it was a good time to celebrate the accomplishments of Jewish Americans, since May is Jewish American Heritage Month. 

The panel also addressed the compatibility of free speech and combating antisemitism. Deutch said there’s no conflict between free speech rights as enshrined in the First Amendment and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.

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