Ari Mittleman: Pa. must work harder to combat antisemitism

Last week a 69-year-old Jewish man was killed on the streets of Los Angeles. Paul Kessler suffered blunt force head trauma when an anti-Israel protestor deliberately struck him with a megaphone.

This homicide was preventable. It did not happen in a vacuum. The primary contributing factor was the increasingly normalized Jew hatred on display not only in America’s second largest city, but on large and small college campuses and on the streets of states red and blue alike.

Indeed, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified last November before Congress that the Jewish American community is “getting hit from all sides” making clear that “antisemitism and violence that comes out of it is a persistent and present fact.”

The Jewish community makes up 2.4% of the American population but accounts for 63% of the targets of religiously motivated hate crimes. Over the last month, there has been a 300% rise in antisemitic incidents.

Five years after the tragedy in Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania Jewish community is most acutely aware of where virulent antisemitic hate speech can lead. Be it aggressive protests in Philadelphia City Council chambers or picnic tables and sidewalks spray painted in Pittsburgh, the temperature of the last month must be lowered.

As we prepare for the 250th birthday of the United States, Pennsylvania has the moral obligation to lead the nation in forcefully combating these trends. The Shapiro-Davis administration made history last November and is uniquely poised to make Pennsylvania a light unto the other states.

The Pennsylvania State House, in an important demonstration of bipartisanship, voted 153-49 last week to approve House Bill 1772. This critical legislation addresses this unprecedented rise in hate. Under the legislation, $5 million will be transferred from the state’s General Fund to the Nonprofit Security Grant Fund to cover this increase.

Eligible nonprofits — not just in the Jewish community — can use grants to make a range of security improvements. This could include safety planning, the purchase of security equipment upgrades to existing facilities and similar uses.

Sen. Kim Ward and her colleagues should swiftly consider this important bipartisan legislation.

Almost simultaneously, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a request of $1 billion in federal funding for a similar grant program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA). In 2023, there have been $305 million in grants appropriated under the longstanding successful Nonprofit Security Grant Program.

Over the last month, too many Jewish Americans are fearful of visiting their houses of worship. Freedom to worship is not without freedom from fear.

Surely, Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation can see the merits in this important federal investment and replicate the bipartisan work of Harrisburg.

In May, President Biden unveiled the first of its kind National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism. It included 100 new innovative actions that the agencies of the executive branch have begun to enact. These impactful policy approaches will protect Jewish communities and reverse the normalization of Jew hatred too prevalent in American society. The White House heard input from upward of 1,000 stakeholders in every sector. Neera Tanden, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, is laser focused on a swift implementation and stakeholder engagement.

The Shapiro-Davis administration should consider similar state level initiatives and comprehensive listening sessions.

The often-used phrase “never again” is attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower who in April 1945, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, witnessed the unbelievable horrors at Ohrdruf, a subcamp of the Buchenwald death camp. This cannot just be words. It must be backed with concrete actions. Never again is now.

Ari Mittleman is the author of “Paths of the Righteous.”