[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 252 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 252
Unequivocally condemning the recent rise in antisemitic violence and
harassment targeting Jewish Americans, and standing in solidarity with
those affected by antisemitism, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 27, 2021
Ms. Rosen (for herself, Mr. Lankford, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Blunt, Ms.
Cantwell, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Carper, Mr. Moran, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Cornyn, Mr.
Menendez, Mr. Daines, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Peters, Mr. Portman,
Mr. Sanders, Mr. Tillis, Mr. Cardin, Ms. Collins, Mr. Bennet, Mr.
Cassidy, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Cramer, Ms. Sinema, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Ms.
Klobuchar, Mr. Risch, Mr. Markey, Mr. Hoeven, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr.
Braun, Mr. King, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Wicker, Mr. Schumer, Ms.
Murkowski, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Thune, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr.
Reed, Mr. Barrasso, Mr. Booker, Mrs. Fischer, Mr. Coons, Mr. Kennedy,
Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Casey, Ms. Ernst, Mr. Wyden, Mr.
Rounds, Mr. Hickenlooper, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr.
Van Hollen, Mr. Romney, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Young, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr.
Shelby, Mr. Warner, Mr. Toomey, Ms. Smith, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Grassley,
Mr. Warnock, Mr. Burr, Mr. Ossoff, Mr. Graham, and Mr. Brown) submitted
the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary
June 14, 2021
Committee discharged; considered and agreed to
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Unequivocally condemning the recent rise in antisemitic violence and
harassment targeting Jewish Americans, and standing in solidarity with
those affected by antisemitism, and for other purposes.
Whereas antisemitism remains a serious and growing danger for Jews in the United
States and around the world;
Whereas, in May 2021, antisemitic incidents and rhetoric have surged in the
United States and around the world as hostilities between Hamas and
Israel escalated;
Whereas, since the beginning of 2021, there has been an increase in acts of
antisemitism, including--
(1) individuals in London calling for Jewish ``daughters to be raped'';
(2) a German synagogue being pelted with rocks;
(3) an attack on Jewish diners in Los Angeles, California;
(4) fireworks hurled at a crowd in New York City, New York;
(5) synagogues in Tucson, Arizona, and Skokie, Illinois, being
vandalized;
(6) Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi's claim in an
interview that Israel ``controls the media'' and has ``deep pockets,''
perpetuating an antisemitic conspiracy theory; and
(7) Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's invocation of the blood
libel myth, which has historically been used to justify violence against
Jews;
Whereas such antisemitic incidents are part of a broader increase in the number
and intensity of antisemitic incidents in the United States and around
the world, as evidenced by--
(1) studies by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European
Jewry, finding that violent antisemitic attacks worldwide rose 18 percent
in 2019 and shifted online in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, which
resulted in antisemitic conspiracy theories related to the pandemic
proliferating; and
(2) hate crime statistics collected by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, demonstrating--
G (A) a 14-percent increase in antisemitic hate crimes in the United
States in 2019; and
G (B) that Jewish Americans were the target of 60.2 percent of all
religiously motivated hate crimes in 2019, despite accounting for 2 percent
of the population of the United States;
Whereas Holocaust denial and distortion, including intentional efforts to excuse
or minimize the impact of the Holocaust, dishonors those who were
persecuted and murdered and reinforces the need for advancing accurate
Holocaust education globally;
Whereas, over the course of the past decade, Holocaust distortion has grown in
intensity;
Whereas protecting the history of the Holocaust and recognizing and confronting
Holocaust denial and distortion is critical to preventing antisemitism;
Whereas Jewish houses of worship are increasingly targets of violent attacks in
the United States, as evidenced by the deadly assaults on synagogues in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2018 and Poway, California, in 2019;
Whereas, in October 2020, the Department of Homeland Security warned that
``racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists--specifically
white supremacist extremists--will remain the most persistent and lethal
threat in the [United States] Homeland'';
Whereas the Nonprofit Security Grant Program of the Department of Homeland
Security provides critical funding to support physical security
enhancements to Jewish organizations and institutions, including
synagogues, that are at high risk of a terrorist attack or targeted
violence;
Whereas the United States has played a crucial leadership role in combating
antisemitism internationally, including by working to promote Holocaust
education, improve the safety and security of at-risk Jewish
communities, combat online radicalization, ensure foreign public
officials and faith leaders condemn antisemitic discourse, and
strengthen foreign judicial systems in their prosecution of antisemitic
incidents;
Whereas section 59 of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22
U.S.C. 2731) establishes the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism
of the Department of State, which is headed by an individual who has the
rank of ambassador and reports directly to the Secretary of State, to
develop and implement policies and projects to combat global
antisemitism by working closely with foreign governments,
intergovernmental organizations, and civil society; and
Whereas the Never Again Education Act (36 U.S.C. 2301 note; Public Law 116-141),
which was signed into law on May 29, 2020, expands United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum education programming, requires the museum to
develop and nationally disseminate accurate, relevant, and accessible
resources to improve awareness and understanding of the Holocaust, and
authorizes various Holocaust education program activities to engage
prospective and current teachers and educational leaders: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) unequivocally condemns the recent rise in antisemitic
violence and harassment targeting Jewish Americans, and stands
in solidarity with those affected by antisemitism;
(2) recommits to combating antisemitism in all forms;
(3) calls on elected officials, faith leaders, and civil
society leaders to denounce and combat all manifestations of
antisemitism;
(4) urges the President to--
(A) continue the leadership role of the United
States in combating antisemitism internationally,
including by nominating a qualified Ambassador to
Monitor and Combat Antisemitism and engaging
intergovernmental organizations to ensure that the
anti-discrimination efforts of the organizations
include combating antisemitism;
(B) advance accurate Holocaust education and
counter Holocaust denial and distortion, including by
fully implementing the Never Again Education Act (36
U.S.C. 2301 note; Public Law 116-141);
(C) ensure the physical security of Jewish
institutions and organizations, including by requesting
sufficient resources for the Nonprofit Security Grant
Program of the Department of Homeland Security to keep
at-risk houses of worship, schools, and community
centers safe from terrorist attacks and other forms of
antisemitic violence; and
(D) produce an analysis that accounts for the level
and scope of the threat that antisemitism poses to the
people of the United States; and
(5) urges Federal, State, local, and Tribal law enforcement
agencies to fully participate in the data collection process of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation in order to improve
antisemitic hate crime data collection.
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