This week I was on Capitol Hill for the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on antisemitism.

As a rabbi who has been working in politics for decades, I can confidently say: not only are Republicans unserious about addressing antisemitism — they are cynically using Jewish pain to enact their cruel, antidemocratic agenda.

Watch our new video explainer on yesterday’s antisemitism hearing, showing how Republicans make themselves look like defenders of the Jews — all while ignoring the dangerous and blatant antisemitism from their own party.

Listening to the hearing was enraging because MAGA Republicans want us to believe they’re deporting activists, attacking immigrants, defunding education and civil rights enforcement, and eroding democracy for Jewish safety! (Meanwhile, they dismantled the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education — the office that is literally responsible for investigating antisemitism on college campuses! 🙄)

Antisemitism is a problem we can — and must — solve, but not in isolation. It’s deeply connected to all other forms of discrimination and oppression, including anti-Black racism, anti-immigrant xenophobia, Islamophobia, transphobia, and more.

That’s why the greatest threats to American Jews today aren’t student protesters (many of whom are Jews!) and social justice movements — it is the white nationalist movement, its enablers in Congress and Trump’s White House, and their efforts to take away our freedoms and build a country only for themselves.

We made this explainer video to spread our message loud and clear: We see through MAGA politicians who use real Jewish fear and trauma to advance a racist, authoritarian agenda.

Watch and share our video with highlights from yesterday’s antisemitism hearing, including outrageous attacks on Jewish witnesses.

Thank you for rising with us at Bend the Arc to share that real safety for our communities comes from building a thriving multiracial democracy together.

Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block
Washington Director, Bend the Arc