Open Letter to AOC and Bernie

Dear Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Sanders,

The tragic murder of a young Jewish couple outside the Capital Jewish Museum last week is a stark reminder of the consequences of unchecked and irresponsible extremist rhetoric and the failure to address rising antisemitism. As public servants, you have a duty to foster a climate of safety and civility for all constituents, including Jewish Americans. You have more than failed in that responsibility.

For years both of you have knowingly stoked the embers of anti-Jewish hostility—dismissing warnings, ignoring data, and doubling-down on rhetoric that demonizes Zionists and dehumanizes Jews. This week’s cold-blooded killing did not materialize in a vacuum; it is the foreseeable result of the climate you helped create. So please spare us the public hand-wringing and, at the very least, step aside while others try to clean up some of the damage.

To you and all of your friends who insist that anti-Zionism is somehow hermetically sealed off from antisemitism, and therefore rail against the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition of antisemitism for daring to note their overlap, this moment ought to be a searing indictment of your beliefs. Since Oct. 7, antisemitic incidents in the United States have surged more than 400 percent. Synagogues, JCCs, kosher restaurants, Jewish-owned businesses, and visibly Jewish individuals have been vandalized, threatened or attacked. On campuses across the country, Jewish students weave through mobs chanting for a “global intifada,” scrub swastikas from dorm doors, and field death threats between classes. Studies have shown that the campus environment translates directly into county level antisemitic incidents, including hate crimes. Under even the thinnest scrutiny, the façade of “merely anti-Zionist” protests collapses into unapologetic Jew-hatred.

The data is clear that when you demonize Zionists as a proxy for Jews, it creates a permissive environment for unlawful targeting. And the social-science literature only confirms what Jewish history teaches: Sustained hateful extremist rhetoric targeting minority communities escalates into actual violence and even murder. Study after study tracks the correlation between antisemitic incitement and real-world violence, but you could also just look at the more obvious data points: During the last war in Gaza there was also a 400% uptick in antisemitic incidents  and the same thing happened during the war before that. There is no clearer demonstration than recent events as to why we need the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and why the IHRA definition includes examples of problematic anti-Zionism, such as “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.”

If anti-Zionism were truly unrelated to antisemitism, why would Jews from Los Angeles to London be assaulted whenever Hamas decides to fire a rocket or kill a child?

Which brings us back to you. You have not merely been passive observers; you have poured accelerant on a growing fire. Your oft-repeated tales of “billionaire donors buying our democracy”—invariably illustrated with Jewish names and organizations—could have been lifted straight from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. When demonstrators in your districts chant to “Globalize the intifada,” you supply photo-ops and statements of support, not condemnation. You have done this for years, seen what it causes, and continued to act with reckless indifference to the damage you were inflicting. At some point, when it all became just a little too much, and a little too clear, when people noticed a correlation between your words and the rise in antisemitic violence, even you, Senator, had to admit that you needed to “tone down the rhetoric.” That did not last long, however, because you never really cared. Recently, you have even sabotaged efforts to protect us. Rep. AOC, you voted against the Antisemitism Awareness Act, while Senator Sanders went even further and sought to gut it by inserting actual Hamas talking points into the text itself.

The issue of antisemitism should not be related to partisan gamesmanship; it is a matter of basic civil rights and there are clearly lives at stake. Thank God there is a wide roster of elected officials across the aisles who understand that protecting American Jews from violence is a constitutional obligation. Law enforcement cannot do that without a clear, operational definition of antisemitism—which necessarily covers anti-Zionist double standards that hold every Jew on earth responsible for Israeli policy.

No one is suggesting criminalizing speech. Label it accurately and let Americans debate it in the open. What must be criminalized—and already is—is the harassment, vandalism and violence now sweeping the country under the banner of “liberation.” For too long, conflation of speech with conduct, and antisemitism with criticism of Israel, has allowed antisemites to do what they want and then claim they were merely expressing political views. Like shooting a young couple, then screaming “Free Palestine” to justify the murder. Even then, the New York Times reported that some were having difficulty finding a motive. Laws like the AAA and the Define to Defeat Act are designed precisely for those who profess such confusion.

So here is the modest request for you both: just stop. Stop amplifying conspiracies. Stop legitimizing chants that call for Jewish death or expulsion. And stop torpedoing legislation meant to keep your Jewish constituents safe. If you cannot bring yourselves to defend them, at least refrain from making them targets.

Get out of the way—and let those committed to protecting every American, including Jews, do the work you refuse to do.

Dr. Mark Goldfeder, Esq. is director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center. Follow him @markgoldfeder on X/