(Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images) Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and James Lankford (R-Okl.) announced in an Oct. 28 CNN op-ed that they are launching the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism.
Describing themselves as “a practicing Jewish Democrat from Nevada and a devoted Christian Republican from Oklahoma,” Rosen and Lankford urged their colleagues to put political partisanship aside and join the task force.
“We have not only seen anti-Semitism in the images of desecrated synagogues in Europe and the rambling bigotry of online manifestos, but also in swastikas graffitied on American college campuses, in hate speech here in the US, and — one year ago in Pittsburgh — in the loss of 11 of our fellow Americans, when our country experienced the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in modern American history,” Rosen and Lankford wrote.
They added such instances “are not isolated incidents,” pointing out that State Department Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Elan Carr said that the recent rise of anti-Semitism worldwide is “worse than it has been in decades.”
Rosen and Lankford explained that the task force will work with “law enforcement, federal agencies, state and local government, educators, advocates, clergy, and other stakeholders” to denounce, provide education and support legislation to help fight anti-Semitism.
“These are challenging times, but in great darkness, it is all the more important that we band together, as a community, as a country, and as a Congress to hold up our faith and our values as a source of light,” Rosen and Lankford wrote.
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted, “We must all come together to fight the rise in #antiSemitism that threatens communities everywhere. Thank you to @senjackyrosen
& @SenatorLankford for taking this important first step & launching the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism.”
We must all come together to fight the rise in #antiSemitism that threatens communities everywhere. Thank you to @senjackyrosen & @SenatorLankford for taking this important first step & launching the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism.https://t.co/mw0nY6H2l3
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) October 29, 2019
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