Biden Unveils a National Plan to Fight an Ancient Hatred
The Biden administration issued the nation’s first. National Strategy for Combating Anti-Semitism Thursday, calling on the government, law enforcement agencies and schools to crack down on discrimination and stop the spread of hate online.
“Silence is complicity,” President Biden said in a videotaped announcement. “An attack on one group of us is an attack on all of us.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual audit, 3,697 incidents of anti-Semitic attacks, harassment and vandalism were reported in the United States last year.. The figure, a 36 percent increase over 2021, is the largest number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States since the organization began monitoring it in 1979.
In its announcement, the White House noted that American Jews make up 2.4 percent of the U.S. population, but account for 63 percent of religious hate crimes. According to the FBI
The strategy was developed in consultation with nearly 1,000 federal and local officials, faith leaders and civil society groups, and includes more than 100 recommendations for the federal government by a one-year deadline. These actions include workshops to combat bias in employment and the workplace, increased Holocaust education programs offered by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and removing barriers to reporting potential hate crimes. An interagency effort is involved.
Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, called the Biden administration’s national strategy “historic.”
“It’s the first time we’ve ever seen anything like this, at a time when anti-Semitism is inexplicably on the rise,” Mr Greenblatt said. “If we want to turn this around, it requires an all-deck approach.”
Mr Greenblatt added that the number of incidents had increased by more than 500 per cent over the past decade. These incidents include a variety of actions, such as social media harassment and vandalism; They also include violent acts, such as mass shootings Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh And in 2018 Chabad of Poway Synagogue in Poway, California, in 2019.
“The magnitude of it is truly astounding,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel advocacy group. “The approach of the entire working group was to look at the prevalence of bigotry and hatred, in the context of this rise of nationalism.”
The administration sought input from academics and religious leaders, community activists and law enforcement agencies. First, Mr. Biden sought advice from a foreign special envoy for combating antisemitism in Europe, who was invited to the White House earlier this year to share his experiences fighting antisemitism.
“That the Biden administration wanted to hear from us what should be included in the American strategy” was a highlight in US-European relations on the issue, said Felix Klein, the German Commissioner for Jewish Life and Combating Antisemitism. said The White House effort.
Europe is also experiencing an increase in antisemitism, Mr. Klein said, and its historic struggles with antisemitism are being viewed as lessons for the United States.
He added that in the past the talks were focused on European issues. “American leadership in this field is great and important.”