A trio of Jewish House Democrats have sent a letter to President Biden urging him to appoint an ambassador-at-large to combat anti-Semitism following a spate of attacks in New York, California and Florida, according to a report.
The Democrats — Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Elaine Luria of Virginia and Kathy Manning of North Carolina — also raised concern about comments made by elected officials of both political parties in the letter obtained by Punchbowl News.
“Jews across the United States are facing an extraordinarily tense environment of fear and insecurity. It is undeniable that this increase in anti-Semitic incidents has coincided with recent conflict in the Middle East. It must be made clear that there is simply no excuse whatsoever for harassing or targeting people because they are Jewish,” the three write in their missive.
“Blaming Jews for conflict in the Middle East or seeking to hold them collectively responsible for Israel’s government policies is anti-Semitic, and it is wrong,” the letter said.
The Democrats called on Biden to nominate “an experienced and qualified” person to monitor and respond to the attacks.
They noted that the Anti-Defamation League found more than 17,000 messages on Twitter using some variation of “Hitler was right” in a week’s time.
Gottheimer, Luria and Manning also noted the comments made online by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and other members of “the Squad” without mentioning them by name.
“Elected officials have used reckless, irresponsible anti-Semitic rhetoric. These include repeated, unacceptable, and blatantly anti-Semitic statements made by a Member of Congress comparing facemasks and other COVID-19 public health measures to ‘what happened in Nazi Germany’ during the Holocaust,” they wrote, referring to Greene.
“We also reject comments from Members of Congress accusing Israel of being an ‘apartheid state’ and committing ‘act[s] of terrorism,'” they wrote, in reference to Ocasio-Cortez and her progressive gang.
“Sadly, we have learned from our history that when this type of violence and inflammatory rhetoric goes unaddressed, it can fuel increasing hatred and violence, and lead to unspeakable acts against Jews,” the three wrote.
“That is why we need a united, bipartisan, national-level commitment to confront and address the threat of anti-Semitism head-on. Anti-Semitism is wrong, and it deserves to be unequivocally condemned by all,” the letter said.
