Why we should all support the Countering Antisemitism Act
Decisive action is desperately needed to stem this repugnant tide of bigotry.
The rapid and frightening surge in antisemitic incidents across America has been a grotesque stain on our nation's pluralistic ideals. From college campuses defaced with swastikas to synagogues targeted by depraved acts of violence, the world's oldest hatred has reared its ugly head with disturbing vigor in recent years.
What’s worse is that, following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, this surge only intensified, shocking the American Jewish community to the core. Decisive action is desperately needed to stem this repugnant tide of bigotry.
That's why the newly introduced Countering Antisemitism Act, introduced by Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.), and by Reps. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.) and Chris Smith (R-N.J.), deserves vigorous bipartisan support from all who cherish democratic values and human dignity.
This timely and comprehensive bill represents a counterpunch to measures that Congress has thrown in recent decades. Its proactive, whole-of-government approach syncs seamlessly with President Biden's National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism released last year. Rather than wade into divisive issues, the authors respected the breadth and depth of Jewish concerns, getting a handle on what is working and where we should be going to counter antisemitism.
The bill focuses on actions that everyone agrees are needed. It is a basis for broadening the coalition against antisemitism, within and outside the Jewish community. It’s just what is needed is to pull people together against hate, not against each other.
The bill's multipronged offensive hits antisemitism from multiple angles. It establishes a national coordinator and interagency task force that would centralize efforts in a way that forestalls bureaucratic drift. Regular agency reporting requirements and a mandated annual threat assessment enforce accountability.
Importantly, the act recognizes that one of the sharpest arrows in our nation’s quiver is education. It commissions a thorough study of Holocaust education practices nationwide, identifying curricular gaps and professional development needs. Equipping the next generation with historically grounded empathy is a vital preventative measure.
The bill additionally empowers the Department of Education to streamline its handling of discrimination complaints on college campuses. Too many young Jewish students have had to run a gauntlet of harassment and marginalization. Designating a point person to navigate these cases signals that such abuses will no longer be treated as regrettable but unavoidable background noise.
Not every proposal hits its intended mark. Promoting former President Donald Trump's Executive Order 13899 and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of antisemitism, while well-intentioned, is ultimately unnecessary, given antisemitism's context-specific nature. More glaring is the failure to directly address resurgent right-wing extremist ideologies — an increasingly virulent vector.
The National Strategy aptly incorporates multiple tools for identifying and understanding antisemitism's varying manifestations, including the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition and the Nexus Document created by my organization. A wide-ranging approach that brings Americans together against this ancient bigotry's normalization is crucial.
But these issues should not detract from the fundamental righteousness of confronting antisemitism head-on. The act's architects deserve immense credit for refusing to indulge the temptation to wring hands and furrow brows as this pernicious phenomenon festers. They are backing rhetoric with resources, commitment and bureaucratic heft.
Antisemitism is that rarest of discriminatory ideologies — one that paradoxically often cloaks itself in the mantle of antipathy toward bigotry. Its contortions are as predictable as they are pernicious.
This legislation meets that ever-mutating scourge with reason, education and moral clarity. In doing so, it protects not just Jewish Americans, but the universal principles of human dignity that all zealotry ultimately endangers.
Kevin Rachlin is the Washington director of the Nexus Leadership Project.