(JTA) — The U.S. Senate has launched a Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism to coincide with the first anniversary of the attack at the Tree of Life synagogue building in Pittsburgh.
Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada, and James Lankford, R-Okla., members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, are the co-chairs.
They said the mission of the task force is to collaborate with law enforcement, federal agencies, state and local government, educators, advocates, clergy and other stakeholders to combat anti-Semitism.
“Today, the two of us — a practicing Jewish Democrat from Nevada and a devoted Christian Republican from Oklahoma — are calling on our colleagues to set aside the labels, the bickering and the grandstanding to join together to take on one of the most disturbing trends of our time,” Rosen and Lankford wrote in an op-ed announcing the launch of the task force. “We stand united in the common goal of defeating hate and combating the violent scourge of anti-Semitism,”
“In the United States, we’ve seen evidence that anti-Semitism and acts of hate are growing at an alarming rate. The State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism earlier this year called the rise in anti-Semitism worse than it has been in decades. And the impacts go far beyond the Jewish community alone.”
The same task force in the House of Representatives was reinstated in February.
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