Amid rising concerns about anti-Semitism in Europe, several Jewish leaders testified before Congress on Tuesday, calling on the United States to take action in stopping violence against Jews.
Dan Asmussen, the president of the Danish Jewish community, said terror attacks in France, Belgium and other European countries are of great concern to the Danish Jewry. He and other Jewish leaders testified to a House subcommittee on foreign affairs about the rise of hatred in European cities, specifically Paris and Copenhagen, and the role of radical Islam.
At the same time, a group of eight representatives, led by Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., announced Tuesday a bipartisan task force to combat the rise of anti-Semitism worldwide.
Roger Cukierman, president of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France and vice president of the World Jewish Congress, said the tense atmosphere in his country has caused Jews to avoid wearing yarmulkes while traveling on subways and resulted in the presence of anti-Semitism in public schools.
“Where is the United States? Why isn’t the United States leading the world in the crisis?” asked Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress and a former U.S. ambassador to Austria during the Reagan administration.
Smith, who served as chairman of Tuesday’s hearing, re-affirmed the United States’ commitment to stopping violence threatening European Jewish communities.
He said the rise of anti-Semitism can be seen by “the arrival of jihadist anti-Semitism in Europe,” and he mentioned outbreaks such as the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in Paris, which ended inside a Jewish market with four Jewish men killed.
Smith also referenced an attack with links to the Islamic State that resulted in the deaths of four people outside the Jewish Museum in Brussels last May and another attack in which three students and a teacher at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, were killed in 2012.
Jews are fleeing France at alarming rates. More than 10,000 Jews, out of a total population of about 400,000, left France last year, with 7,000 of those immigrating to Israel.
Asmussen said that although Muslim organizations have condemned violence against Jews, more needs to be done.
“The real long-term solution needs to be found inside the Muslim community, and we need them to take more responsibility in speaking out against anti-Semitism, and against terror committed in the name of Allah,” Asmussen said.
Lauder said a “pathological hatred of Israel” is adding to the rise of anti-Semitism across the world as well.
Reps. Smith, Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.; Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.; Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.; Kay Granger, R-Texas; Steve Israel, D-N.Y.; Peter Roskam, R-Ill.; and Ted Deutch, D-Fla., will serve as co-chairs of the task force to combat the rise of anti-Semitism.
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