With alarming rise in antisemitism, Congress must pass the Jewish American Security Act

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On Oct. 27, 2018, a shooter fueled by hate walked into the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and opened fire at the congregants gathered for Shabbat morning services. He killed 11 people and injured six others, in the deadliest targeted attack on Jews in U.S. history. The senseless killings were the culmination of an antisemitic radicalization that primarily took place online.

For this reason and many others, exactly one year after this horrific murder, both of us came together to form the first-ever Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism. It became our priority to stop such carnage from ever happening again, and to address the anti-Jewish bigotry at the heart of it.

No one should ever be targeted, harassed, or made to feel unsafe simply because of what they believe or how they worship — freedom of religion is a core principle that makes our country the country we love.

The Task Force has grown to include more than half of the Senate — in equal numbers from both sides of the aisle — and we’ve successfully pushed both Democratic and Republican presidents to make strong commitments to fight antisemitism and address it head-on when it arises.

Through the work of our Task Force, we have secured funding to protect houses of worship and community institutions. We have pushed for stronger enforcement of civil rights protections for students. We have passed bills into law to invest in Holocaust education. And we have fought to ensure that antisemitism is recognized, tracked and addressed wherever it occurs, both in the U.S. and around the world.

Our work must continue.

Since Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitism and physical attacks against synagogues have spiked in an unprecedented way. In the last year, there were an average of 17 antisemitic incidents per day in the U.S., and physical assaults against Jews were the highest in recorded history. Nearly three out of four American Jews experienced or witnessed antisemitism online in the last year. Over 40 percent of Jewish college students reported experiencing antisemitism during their time in school, and over a third have avoided displaying their Jewish identity, citing a fear of antisemitism.

When these instances of discrimination and harassment go unchecked, antisemitism accelerates into the horrific violence we’ve seen all too often in recent years.

A young couple who worked at the Israeli Embassy was brutally gunned down and killed as they left a reception at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. In Colorado, an attacker threw Molotov cocktails and used an improvised flamethrower at a group of Jews gathered to advocate for the return of hostages held by Hamas terrorists, injuring many and killing an elderly woman. The list goes on and on.

Every single attack represents a violation of Americans’ freedom to safely practice their religion. Failing to confront the moral rot of antisemitism in our country is an abdication of our responsibility to uphold this fundamental right. We cannot continue to allow discrimination and violence to go unchecked.

Yet despite the disturbing rise in antisemitism, not a single piece of federal legislation focused solely and directly on combating it has been passed into law since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Our work must continue to address the rising violence and bigotry of antisemitism.

That is why we worked together to introduce the bipartisan Jewish American Security Act as a historic effort to fight antisemitism and protect Jewish communities in the spaces where they are most frequently targeted — including on college campuses, in Jewish communal institutions and online.

For the first time ever, this bill would designate an Antisemitism Coordinator at the Department of Education to lead departmental efforts to combat antisemitism, and would establish protocols for colleges that receive federal taxpayer money from the department to create clear nondiscrimination policies and processes for students experiencing antisemitism to report it, seek support, and try to reach a resolution. Our bill would also require the disaggregation of campus hate crime data so we know who is being targeted and why.

It would enhance the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, authorizing a record $1 billion in yearly funding for nonprofit institutions at high risk of terrorist attacks — which includes Jewish institutions and houses of worship, but also those of other faiths, like Christians, Muslims and more — to make their facilities safer.

As antisemitism festers online, our bill would allow the Federal Trade Commission to hold social media platforms accountable to their own standards by requiring transparency on how they monitor and handle antisemitic content. By doing so, we will have more insight how antisemitic content is amplified online, which will provide increased insights into antisemitic radicalization — similar to the pipeline of extremism that went unchecked and led to the horrific attack on the Tree of Life synagogue.

Jewish Americans have been an integral part of America’s story since its founding 250 years ago. The first foreign government to recognize the United States after it declared independence was the tiny Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius. The island’s 600 or so Jewish residents quickly helped the United States by sending lifesaving supplies and munitions around the British blockade. During the Revolutionary War, Jews, who had come to the United States seeking religious freedom like their Christian brothers, took up arms and supported the fight for freedom.

After George Washington was inaugurated, Moses Seixas, a Jewish leader from Rhode Island, wrote to the new president asking that Jews be given the same religious freedoms as Christians. Washington agreed. President Washington wrote back to Moses Seixas and included a quote from the ancient prophet Micah stating, “May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants — while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

As the U.S. celebrates our 250th anniversary, let us recommit ourselves to the wise words of our first president and ensure that American Jews have the support of their government to freely and safely exercise their Constitutional rights without fear.

Jacky Rosen is the junior senator of Nevada and James Lankford is the senior senator of Oklahoma. They are co-founders and co-chairs of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism.