On the recordJanuary 10, 2019
I thank Chairman Engel for helping to shepherd this legislation through the committee last year and for bringing it to the floor so quickly this year. I thank the ranking member, I thank my fellow co-chairs of the Anti-Semitism Task Force, and I especially want to thank my colleague, Chris Smith, who has been a stalwart ally in combating anti-Semitism and has worked to create and strengthen this position for many years. Mr. Speaker, 4 years ago, on January 9, 2015, a gunman entered a kosher supermarket in Paris, killing four. Last year, on the anniversary of the Hypercacher shooting, another kosher supermarket in southern Paris was targeted with swastikas and arson. Tragically, there have been countless attacks against the Jewish communities of Europe over the last few years, some of which make headlines, but many of which don't: The anti-Semitic murder of a Holocaust survivor; the man attacked in Germany for wearing a kippah, a Jewish skullcap; the shootings at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels that killed four; the shooting at a Bat Mitzvah in Copenhagen; an 11-year-old in England attacked on the street as children shouted, ``Burn all the Jews;'' and White supremacists and anti-Semites marching in European capitals. Anti-Semitism is certainly not a new phenomenon, but we should expect that the United States Government would take a leading role in tracking, combating, and preventing it.…
