I am writing in response to the Trump Administration’s new efforts to “fight antisemitism.” They claim to establish an antisemitism task force and a Project Esther written by the same people who wrote Project 2025, neither of which had any Jewish organizational input or advice. And I am very concerned with the direction, or non-direction, of these efforts.
As the child of a Holocaust survivor, the reality of the Holocaust was at my dinner table every night of my life. I grew up understanding the urgency of making a difference and combating evil when it rears its head. I became the leader of community Jewish organizations, including this Federation, and of a national Jewish organization. I have sat on boards of organizations fighting injustices and for economic and social justice whenever possible, and feel I am quite sensitive to what is happening in our country right now with the rise in antisemitism.
I believe antisemitism is being exploited and weaponized to divide people, including Jews, to instill fear and to demonize people. The Task Force and Project Esther being advanced by the Administration are premised on a fiction that the left is singularly responsible for antisemitism in our country – and is ignoring the root causes of antisemitism, the vile expressions and rhetoric, and the acceptance of Holocaust deniers in positions of power. There is no mention of white nationalism, or Christian nationalism, no mention of holocaust denial or Hitler salutes. No mention of blood libel or deicide. No mention of replacement conspiracies. No mention of Islamophobia or other religious bigotry. No mention of dual loyalty or Jewish cabal and undue power and money.
When I see T-shirts with Camp Auschwitz at demonstrations, or I hear of government round-ups or deportations, or listen to leaders decide who is worthy to live in this glorious melting pot of our country, I don’t need lessons of history to remind me of what this means. I learned it at my dinner table. I have family stories of what happens when acts of hatred go unchecked, when neighbors tell police where to find ‘others’ to be deported, when fear of protesting or disagreeing allows the hatred or division to flourish, and people disappear.
The stated goal of the task force, or of Project Esther, is to stop the ‘Hamas Support Network’. There is no question that Hamas is a terrorist organization that killed more than 1200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. But not everyone who has voiced concern about Israel’s response to this tragedy is a Hamas supporter, which this project alleges. And not everyone who disagrees with its premise is an antisemite. Antisemitism is a serious problem in the world. It needs to be confronted seriously. I have studied it and worked on it on behalf of our country as special envoy to monitor and combat anti-semitism. I have seen it up close. I have felt it. I have worked to eradicate it. I have strategized with many about it. It is not simple. It is not singular. It is not all about Hamas. And I am sad to say and sad to see antisemitism used as a wedge issue and weaponized to divide people and communities this way instead of seriously trying to confront the hatred that produces it.
So what to do about it? Our Jewish values tell us what to do.
1) Most importantly, we must demand better education for our children – at all levels. Teaching tolerance, history – the bad and the good, and understanding truth from propaganda. The real lesson of the Holocaust is that it happened. And it can happen when hatred goes unchecked.
2) We must do what we Americans do better than any other country. We must build alliances and coalitions with our neighbors and organizations of other vulnerable peoples. Other religious, ethnic, and racial groups. We must be there for them, as we expect them to be there for us.
3) We must demand leadership from people who ask us for our sacred votes – we must ask them to hold up our values of kindness, mercy, mutual respect, welcoming of strangers, feeding the hungry, caring for the widows, educating our children, and walking with humility. We expect them to fight this oldest hatred with the seriousness it demands.
I know the Jewish community is already working on these three points. Now more than ever, the work must continue, and we must stand behind it.
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The Trump administration promises “Forceful and Unprecedented Steps to Combat Anti-Semitism.”
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