Jewish members of Congress continue to demand action against the rise of antisemitism across the U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL-23) wrote a letter to Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) this week, urging him to form a Select Committee on Combating Antisemitism.
The letter states that according to the Anti-Defamation League’s Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, 2021 saw 2717 such actions compared to 2,026 incidents in 2020, an increase of 34%.
Additionally, Rep. Moskowitz highlights rapper Kanye West in particular after his appearance on Alex Jones’ podcast making antisemitic comments and embracing Holocaust denial. This in turn inspired an incident at Florida Atlantic University, in which several men held a banner reading “Kanye is right.”
Moskowitz responded to The Floridian’s request for comment about his letter, detailing the plight of his family during the Holocaust.
“As the grandson of someone who escaped the Holocaust and was a part of the Kindertransport out of Germany, my family has witnessed what happens when antisemitism rises and goes unchecked. In the last year alone, we have seen a troubling rise in antisemitic rhetoric and violence that has gone mainstream both at home and abroad. Left unchecked, this hate poses a direct threat not only to the Jewish community but the entirety of our society as it creates division and sows discord. A select committee would help develop bipartisan solutions to the rise in hatred towards the Jewish community,” stated Moskowitz.
Moskowitz’s remarks come on the heels of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) removal from the House Foreign Affairs Committee for her own antisemitic comments throughout her time in Congress.
While Moskowitz believes that Omar should not have been on the Committee, to begin with, he voted against her removal because removing members of the minority party from committees would set a bad precedent.
Nonetheless, if this Select Committee is formed, Moskowitz would have no shortage of Florida Representatives , both Republican and Democrat, to sit on the committee with him.
Originally published in The Floridian by GRAYSON BAKICH.
