Thursday, January 09, 2020

Rosen Delivers Opening Remarks at U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Hearing on Anti-Semitism

Senator Jacky Rosen's office issued the following:


U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen, founder and co-chair of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism, addressed the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCRIF) on the need for increased efforts to combat anti-Semitism and highlighted actions she has taken in Congress to confront hate.

Watch Senator Rosen’s Full Remarks Here.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen, founder and co-chair of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism, addressed the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCRIF) on the need for increased efforts to combat anti-Semitism and highlighted actions she has taken in Congress to confront hate.

“We are all deeply affected by anti-Semitic violence – acts of hate that have left many injured, and many dead,” said Senator Rosen. “But we must also be ready to act, to do our part to combat anti-Semitism. This epidemic has been on the rise for quite some time, and it must be taken seriously.”

BACKGROUND: Senator Rosen holds the distinction of being the third female Jewish Senator in U.S. history, as well as the first former synagogue president to serve in the United States Senate. As such, Senator Rosen has been an outspoken advocate of combating anti-Semitism in the United States, the Middle East, Europe, and around the world.

Earlier this year, Senator Rosen and Senator James Lankford launched the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism. The collaboration is the first of its kind in the United States Senate, serving as a corollary to the House of Representative's Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism. Since its formation, over thirty Senators have joined the Task Force, an even number of Democrats and Republicans.

Senator Rosen is the lead sponsor of the Never Again Education Act, bipartisan legislation to establish a dedicated federal fund to provide teachers with resources and training necessary to teach our students the important lessons of the Holocaust and help prevent anti-Semitism before it starts.

Her bill currently has nearly thirty bipartisan co-sponsors.

Senator Rosen is also a cosponsor of the bipartisan Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2018, which adopts a broad definition of anti-Semitism for the purposes of enforcing federal antidiscrimination laws in education. Specifically, the bill requires the Department of Education to consider this new definition of "anti-Semitism" as part of its assessment of whether an action based on an individual's Jewish ancestry was motivated by anti-Semitic intent, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in education. Among other things, the definition includes making stereotypical allegations about the power of Jews as a collective, denying the Holocaust, and accusing Jewish citizens of a country of being more loyal to Israel to than to the interests of their own nation.

Earlier this year, Senator Rosen helped introduce bipartisan legislation to upgrade the State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism to the rank of an ambassador and require its Presidential appointment and Senate confirmation. Last Congress, Rosen co-sponsored this bipartisan legislation and helped advance it in the House, where it passed by a vote of 393-2.

Senator Rosen also attended the swearing in of the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. Rosen was the only sitting Member of Congress to attend the swearing-in ceremony for Special Envoy Elan Carr.
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