Dear Members of Congress,
We write to you today on behalf of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, the largest national Jewish organization focused on domestic policy, whose supporters across the country are fighting for a United States free from white supremacy, antisemitism, and racism, where every person is free to thrive. Our work centers around community safety. We fight antisemitism as part of our fight for Jewish safety, and as a multiracial, multiethnic community that exists at every identity intersection, we’re also fighting for the safety of Black, Indigenous, people of color, immigrant, disabled, and LGBTQ Jews, as well as for the safety of our broader American communities.
As the 119th Congress convenes, we urge you to defend democracy, fight authoritarianism, support legislation that meets the needs of our communities in the long-term, and oppose legislation that enables the dangerous MAGA agenda.
In our vision for community safety, every person has what they need to live healthy lives. Our recommendations below include measures to protect our democracy, to counter antisemitism and other forms of bigotry, to expand community violence intervention programs and to reduce the harm of unrestrained policing, to further immigrant justice, to promote economic justice, and to protect civil rights, civil liberties, and reproductive rights.
Protecting Democracy
As President Trump prepares to re-enter the White House, he is armed with the Project 2025 infrastructure and is more emboldened to chip away at democratic norms and safeguards than ever before. We are deeply concerned that the United States sits on the precipice of authoritarianism — and it is critical that members of Congress act as a check on Executive Power and defend our democracy.
We firmly believe that Jewish safety is contingent upon the safety of our democracy so we urge all members of Congress to prioritize supporting legislation to protect our democracy in the long-term and in the near-term opposing legislation that erodes democracy:
- Defend the non-profit sector by opposing the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act. This legislation has the power to grant President Trump unilateral power to investigate and effectively shut down any tax-exempt organization based on a unilateral accusation of wrongdoing, without any explanation required. It is critical that we are able to organize, and that we have a robust non-profit sector that represents our needs and our interests to the government. With the authority granted by this legislation, those organizations advocating for our rights and needs could find themselves shut down by a Trump Administration that disagrees with their positions.
- Support the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to undo the harm to voting rights that the Supreme Court wrought in their Shelby County decision. We also urge you to support the Freedom to Vote Act which would set robust national standards for federal elections to combat laws that make it harder for people to vote. It would protect against election subversion, get money out of politics, and ban partisan and racial gerrymandering.
- Our judiciary must be accountable to the people, the Constitution, and the law, not to corporations and right-wing politicians. We urge you to support measures to reform our courts including measures to restore ethics, fight corruption, expand the size of lower courts, expand the size of the Supreme Court, and implement Supreme Court term limits.
- The more than 700,000 residents of the District of Columbia have been without adequate representation in Congress and have had their legitimately elected government overruled by Congress for too long. It is critical that Congress passes the Washington, D.C. Admission Act which would grant D.C. Statehood. It is also critical that all members oppose resolutions of disapproval that overturn the will of the people of D.C. and their government.
Fighting Antisemitism and Other Forms of Bigotry
We believe that the path toward a safer future for all people exists in a multiracial democracy where everyone has what they need to thrive. We know that Jewish safety is deeply connected to the safety of all people targeted by white supremacy, and the safety of every single one of us will not exist in isolation. Bend the Arc is deeply concerned about anti-Black racism, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab bigotry, anti-Asian hate, anti-LGBTQ hate, and anti immigrant xenophobia in our country today. Following the deadly attacks on October 7th, American Jewish, Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim communities in particular have all experienced violence in our country, including the murder of a six-year-old Palestinian boy, the shooting of three Palestinian college students, and a 63% increase in antisemitic hate crimes.
We firmly believe Jewish safety is bound up in our collective safety, and we urge members of Congress to support several measures to fight all forms of bias-motivated violence:
- As the Southern Poverty Law Center has tracked, there is a chronic problem of “consistently inconsistent” reporting of hate crimes by local law enforcement agencies to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with thousands of jurisdictions underreporting or not reporting data at all. The transition to the new National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) can hopefully improve data collection, but additional measures are needed, including the implementation of mandatory reporting by all law enforcement agencies. To that end, we urge Congress to pass the Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act, which would condition federal funding under the Safe Streets Act on credible hate crime reporting to the FBI for law enforcement agencies serving populations of more than 100,000 people.
- It is also critical to prevent hate crimes before they happen, and so we urge members of Congress to prioritize robust funding for prevention initiatives. Sadly, we also know that prevention is not always possible and that communities need support in the aftermath of hate-based violence, so we urge robust funding of the Community Relations Service of the Department of Justice and increased funding for community-based programs authorized in the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. This includes funding for victim support services and restorative justice initiatives for those impacted by bias-motivated harms.
- Federal resources must be adequately directed at tracking white supremacist-motivated violent extremism, so we urge you to support the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which would establish offices and procedures for this purpose.
- Address the issue of white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement by passing legislation directing the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to avoid hiring and retention of officers “who promote unlawful violence, white supremacy, or other bias against persons based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), or disability” as set forth in President Biden’s executive order on policing.
Additionally, we urge you to refrain from supporting the codification of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of antisemitism by opposing the Antisemitism Awareness Act and other legislation that codifies the IHRA definition. Rather than a codified definition, we need a multi-pronged approach to fighting antisemitism and all forms of bigotry that uses and invests in the existing tools of government as well as structural reforms that ensure a thriving and inclusive democracy where every single one of us is safe, no matter our race, class, or faith. Indeed, we know from decades of work with government entities that not having a codified definition does not prevent necessary and important work to fight antisemitism and other forms of hate crimes. Indeed, no other form of bias has a legally codified definition, and that fact does not hinder governments from enforcing statutes preventing discrimination, prosecuting hate crimes, and doing other important work to prevent hate crimes. This was the course set by the Biden-Harris Administration’s national strategy to combat antisemitism, which was developed without such a codified definition, and we urge you to follow that lead.
Finally, in order to dismantle antisemitism, it is also critical that we talk about it like we believe we can end it together. Our Dismantling Antisemitism Messaging Guide contains recommendations we urge you to incorporate into your public communications and we welcome the opportunity to provide a deeper training for you and your staff.
Community Violence Interventions and Policing
To support the safety of our multiracial, multiethnic Jewish community as well as the safety of our broader American community, we urge members of Congress to take a public health approach to community safety. This means investing in non-carceral crisis response, community leadership, and measures that address root causes in appropriations — which reflects what Americans nationwide, in both parties, want to see.
When it comes to stemming violence, treating all people with dignity, and preventing harm before it occurs, a range of programs are already delivering extraordinary results — all while increasing equity in our communities, connecting people to care, and enhancing community health. For years, communities nationwide have been piloting new ways of responding when mental health and other crises occur — responses that center on trained experts and care rather than punishment. Communities are also expanding programs of community violence intervention (CVI) that employ trained professionals to intervene and de-escalate violent conflicts. Since its launch, the Denver STAR program, which sends social workers to address mental health and other crises, has contributed to a 34% drop in low-level crime while in Baltimore, CVI programs have helped drive a 30% reduction in violent crime.
We were concerned that some of the rhetoric in the most recent election cycle focused on a failed and harmful “tough on crime” approach to the criminal legal system. We urge members of Congress to instead adopt a public health approach to safety. This approach has the power to enhance public safety while meaningfully tackling the violence that has impacted far too many lives. But these investments cannot happen alongside policies that criminalize individuals experiencing homelessness, sustain the school-to-prison pipeline, or otherwise undermine public safety using counterproductive carceral and enforcement-based systems. Embracing an affirmative agenda for community safety means embracing the measures discussed here while adding accountability for the policing and incarceration practices undermining safety today — especially the safety of BIPOC communities.
We firmly believe Jewish safety is deeply connected to the safety of the places in which we live and we urge members of Congress to prioritize several legislation and appropriations to promote true community safety:
- In appropriations, robustly fund CVI programs and other forms of non-carceral crisis response, including programs that fund unarmed, non-police first responders (such as social workers, nurses, and other health professionals) situated outside of police departments. We also urge that these programs be funded outside of enforcement-and-criminalization-focused agencies (for example, increase funding in the Department of Health and Human Services for grant programs that encourage and expand mobile crisis response teams).
- Reduce the federal government’s harmful role in criminalizing, harming, and incarcerating BIPOC communities, and address the public health crisis of police violence by decreasing funding for programs like the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Program, and ending funding for the 1033 program that dangerously militarizes local law enforcement. Additionally, support measures to increase police accountability like the Ending Qualified Immunity Act.
- Support legislation like the Break the Cycle of Violence Act, the Mental Health Justice Act, and the People’s Response Act, all of which would invest in violence prevention, crisis response, and other programs grounded in public health approaches to safety.
Immigrant and Border Community Safety
President Trump has made clear his plans to enact mass deportations, conduct sweeping raids, and forcibly remove beloved and longstanding members of our communities from our country. It is critical that members of Congress show up for immigrant communities and oppose all attempts to fund and legislate this reckless anti-immigrant agenda.
Immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are vital members of our communities who deserve to live in America with dignity and safety. Jewish families—past and present, here and elsewhere—have been denied entry, scapegoated, forced to flee, detained, and enslaved. Whether our families have stories of our ancestors passing the Statue of Liberty to come to the U.S., stories of surviving slavery and persecution in the U.S., or other diasporic stories of fleeing and fighting for our lives, we all share a central tradition of exodus and liberation. This history and our Jewish values make immigration policy deeply personal to the Jewish community.
We have been dismayed to see a rhetorical and substantive shift in this past year toward enforcement-only policies, exemplified most recently by the Senate border bill which would dismantle asylum, rather than provide desperately needed pathways to citizenship and funding for community-based alternatives to detention. We do not believe that bill to be a compromise on anything but our country’s fundamental values as a nation of immigrants. It is critical that members of Congress see our history as a nation of immigrants as positive and essential, and to shift the narrative about immigrants and immigration alongside shifting policies.
We firmly believe Jewish safety is not possible without immigrant safety so we urge members of Congress to prioritize several measures to promote immigrant and border community safety:
- Oppose funding increases for the agencies responsible for immigration enforcement. One of the best ways that Congress can serve as a check on the anti-immigrant agenda of the Trump Administration is to deny the funding that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol would need to conduct mass deportations and further militarize border communities, through budget and appropriations negotiations.
- Support pathways to citizenship for Dreamers, those with Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure, farm workers, and essential workers. This could be achieved through legislation like the American Dream and Promise Act and the Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929. We also believe it is critical that these communities not be provided pathways to citizenship at the expense of harmful enforcement targeting other immigrant populations, or turned into bargaining chips for the sake of greater border militarization.
- While we urge Congress to reduce our country’s reliance on detention, we also urge members of Congress to support legislation like the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act which protects the rights of those who are detained and is aimed at improving conditions in detention.
- In appropriations, invest in programs that keep immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers with their families and in communities, such as non-profit-run voluntary community-based resettlement services, ideally funded outside of the Department of Homeland Security or, at a minimum, outside of ICE.
- Support the well-being of border communities by decreasing funding in appropriations for Border Patrol Operations, refraining from funding any new Border Patrol agents, cutting funding for invasive border surveillance technologies that militarize border communities, and rescinding all previously appropriated wall funds.
- Support legislation like the New Way Forward Act which would repeal laws passed in 1996 that disproportionately harmed families of color by criminalizing migration, enacting mandatory detention, decimating judicial discretion, and entangling local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement.
Promoting Economic Justice
We cannot have true community safety in our country until each person has the resources they need to live and thrive. Income inequality in the United States is higher than most other developed nations and is more pronounced when disaggregated based on race with white families having on average six times the wealth of Black and Hispanic families. Since the earliest days of our nation’s Labor Movement, American Jews have been deeply involved in the struggle for economic justice. Our tradition calls on us to promote economic justice and fight for the equitable treatment of all workers.
We firmly believe Jewish safety is bound up in the ability of all people to support themselves and their families and so we urge members of Congress to support several measures to promote economic justice:
- Wages in this country have not kept pace with inflation. It is critical that Congress passes the Raise the Wage Act which would raise the minimum wage to $17 in five years, index the minimum wage to the cost of living, and eliminate the subminimum wage for tipped workers and workers with disabilities.
- Unions are a vital part of ensuring strong labor rights, and the right of workers to collectively bargain must be protected. To that end, we urge all members of Congress to support the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act which would strengthen the federal protections for workers’ right to form a union and bargain collectively for higher wages and better benefits.
- The path toward equitable multiracial democracy has to include a real reckoning about our nation’s history of racism and slavery, and its very real impacts on Black Americans today. Income inequality is especially pronounced for Black Americans. One way to begin addressing this inequity is by advancing the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, which would establish a federal commission to study the legacy of slavery in the United States and its ongoing harm and develop proposals for redress and repair, including reparations.
Protecting Civil Rights, Civil Liberties, and Reproductive Rights
True community safety is not attainable without ensuring the civil rights and reproductive rights of all people are protected. American Jews have a long history of advocating for the full rights and dignity of every American. Polling consistently shows that people in our country overwhelmingly support full equality for LGBTQ people, which is consistent with Americans also overwhelmingly support the right of every person (including pregnant people and transgender people) to make their own healthcare decisions as well as the full protection of the rights of religious minorities.
We firmly believe Jewish safety is connected to the safety of all people to live free from discrimination and to have bodily autonomy so we urge members of Congress to support several measures to promote civil rights, civil liberties, and reproductive rights:
- Congress should ensure no future president can use religion to profile or discriminate in immigration by passing the NO BAN Act, which would prevent religion from being used to deny someone refuge or asylum.
- As people of faith, we do not believe religion should continue to be used as a weapon to discriminate and deny critical civil and human rights. Members of Congress should support the Do No Harm Act. By adding a third-party-harm standard to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, this legislation ensures that courts would no longer be able to interpret RFRA in a way that misuses religion to discriminate.
- It is critical that the civil rights of LGBTQ people be protected at work, in the child welfare system, and in other areas of daily life. All members of Congress should support the Equality Act and the John Lewis Every Child Deserves a Family Act, and oppose legislation that would demonize, harm, and strip the equal rights of transgender people.
- With the Supreme Court’s decision striking down Roe v. Wade and state laws across the country restricting critical reproductive health care, Congress must act to protect the right to bodily autonomy of all people by passing the Women's Health Protection Act and the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act.
- Oppose attacks on gender-affirming care. Transgender people—including transgender Jews—are vital members of our community and our country and deserve to be able to live their lives with safety. With recent state-level laws making it more difficult (in some states, impossible) to access critical health care, Congress must act to protect health care access for transgender people.
At the core of the Jewish tradition is the story of the Exodus — we are taught that an erev rav, a mixed multitude, rose up against slavery and despotic rule, and left mitzrayim, the narrow place of Egypt, entering the expansive desert where we had to learn a new way to govern ourselves and allocate our resources. Our American Jewish community is a mixed multitude — a multiracial, multiethnic family, existing at every identity intersection — living within a larger mixed multitude in a nation that contains both the narrow place of oppression and the wilderness of possibility.
A new Congress represents an opportunity to move closer toward the promised land of a democratic society where each person in our mixed multitude has what we need to live and thrive. For all of these reasons, we urge you to defend democracy, fight authoritarianism, support legislation that meets the needs of our communities long-term, and oppose legislation that enables the dangerous MAGA agenda. We urge you to exercise your considerable power to make our country a more equitable and safer place, where each person can flourish.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Jamie Beran
CEO, Bend the Arc
Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block
Washington Director, Bend the Arc