Jewish students and Rep. Nancy Mace demand Zero Tolerance for Antisemitism at Capitol Hill

all right good afternoon everyone Congresswoman Nancy mace uh from South Carolina uh this afternoon I want to announce that our office is teaming up with amami and their Zero Tolerance efforts across the country I've seen I represent the low country of South Carolina South Carolina's first congressional district and it's a very historic Jewish Community one of the first synagogues ever built in the United States of America was built in Charleston South Carolina we have a very large and growing and strong Jewish population and Jewish Community there and um you know in recent months since October 7th a lot of those in our Jewish Community have called have been worried about their safety when they step out of their homes or when they step on to college campuses for our Jewish Youth and we want to make sure that we are demanding de decisive steps from universities to combat anti-Semitism and Jewish hate rather than to pay lip service to it in um you know in my district last year alone in 2023 there were over 50 reports of anti-Semitic incidents in the low country in South Carolina we know that violent anti-Semitism is up across uh all across the country by over 133% on college campuses and a staggering 73% of Jewish students on college campuses and universities have reported that they have witnessed or been part of or a victim of anti-Semitism in their their own universities and colleges and since hamas's invasion of Israel those numbers are only getting worse and we ought to have a zero tolerance policy for any type of anti-Semitism period in our country and the stories we're hearing are awful as a mother of two teenage kids whose whose children are about to go off to college I cannot imagine the kind of hate that any child would find on a college campus that should be um a safe place for them our right now has drafted a letter to the Department of Education um that we are sending around to our colleagues our members of the house this week um this action and the letter addresses uh in accordance with the statutory Authority Under title six of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the letter emphasizes the necessity for the Department of Education to establish a standardized Reporting System the system will cover all cases of anti-Semitic bias and discrimination and if you uh support um anti-Semitism if you're against the kind of um violence and acts that we've seen of anti-Semitism all around the country you should be supporting this letter regardless of your political affiliation we want to make sure that we don't seek to dictate policies for handling this incidents we want to make sure that these incidents are reported and that our students are safe this is not a tall task transparency in universities actions in mitigating anti-sm bias and discrimination um we know that American money is being being funneled to unra an organization that enables and employs Hamas terrorists this is a proven fact it's better spent on resources for colleges funded by uh and to support Jewish students right here at home rather than sending money overseas that supports terrorism that money should be right here in the United States to support our Jewish uh our Jewish citizens and our Jewish students so the the zero tolerance National Reporting System empowers Jewish students with a vital voice and a safety net and with that I wanted to thank all of the students who are here today on our nation's capital many of them traveling from all across the United States from New York and New Jersey Arizona South Carolina and my home state of South Carolina we're really proud to stand here with each and every one of you and um and we're here to work with you we look forward to work continuing our work with you I will next pass it off to Charlie Harari all right sir you're up thank you we thank the for her leadership and for setting the way for really the future many of our students are on campuses today and they're they're there to learn they're there to do what every American wants to grow and to create a better future for themselves unfortunately we living in a time right now where that's in becoming more and more impossible and intable students University are becoming hostile environments breeding grounds of hate students feel harassed they feel threatened physically emotionally and there really is very little response to the universities are giving at a level that's working and we need the government to do what the government does to protect our freedoms to enable our citizens to live under the banner that America stands for which is the freedom to be able to act and to learn and to study and to grow it's basic but we're living in a Time believe it or not where even the basic rights are not being upheld and so we'd like to publicly thank the congresswoman for her leadership and we implore everybody to sort of be part of this zero zero tolerance for hate God gives us the ability to take care of each other and with God's help we will be able to create an environment which every single student and every single individual feels the safety and the security to pursue their dreams and to be able to live their lives that America stands for we thank you we thank the congresswoman I would like to call upon two of our students to share some words Josh thank you so much my name is Joshua and I go to Stanford as a South African it is an immense honor to stand and engage in the deliberative policy process that I would argue is the Envy of the world regrettably the same can't be said for our legislature where parliamentarians have been calling for the arrest of prominent rabbis and have engaged in various campaigns to undermine the safety of the Jewish people of South Africa that said I fear that the impunity propagated across American college campuses may lead to the same level of hatred among American politicians if it continues to go unchecked and if there are no proper procedures for reporting hate on our campuses I bring up my South African identity because its interplay with my Jewish Heritage is very Central to what has been my college experience in a student government meeting a few years ago when I defended Israel students had said that I as a Jewish South African am predisposed to supporting aate regimes and thus had no right to discuss the issue a few years later on October 9th a student who had celebrated the October 7th Massacre and had praised Kamas for their act of resistance was ambed by an anonymous South African who called them from a South African phone number on a WhatsApp group a group of people decided to state that since they already knew a particular South African it would be most wise to pin it on me a friend let me know that this was happening out of concern for my safety and distraught as I was I informed my roommates and removed my door sign and then decided to call campus security campus security had kindly explained that it is not their jurisdiction to interfere in times like this but rather it is their duty to determine whether a crime has happened or not they then suggested that I contact the public ident protected identity harm office which I did and I heard back from them about 3 days later that office empathized with me and suggested that to seek the recourse I needed I chat with the safety officials on campus who I had already spoken with so she put me in touch with different officers of that department when I spoke with them they suggested that I reach out to the protected identity harm office to talk to them about what may best be done it became abundantly clear that the whole system was dedicated to moving students from Department to Department until exhaustion eventually outweighed Their Fear And I'd argue that my experience was one of the more benign students have had their safe housing vandalized with slogans of free Palestine which have nothing to do with the students identity ultimately they too have had to face the same issue only with more officers having to talk with housing Public Safety police and other such and other such organizations on campus ultimately with universities being risk mitigating they benefit from burying their students in bureaucracy and it creates an image that they're doing perfectly fine and that they're perfectly safe an initiative like this that creates a transparent reporting system can ensure that the government actually knows the reality of what's happening on our college campuses and in doing so can bolster the transparency and accountability and other democratic values that the people of America so rightfully hail October 9th is the day I drew a Target on my back my name is Jazelle klon and I'm a student and Resident assistant at jaxel University on October 9th a fellow resident assistant sent a message to our group chat it entally belittling the attack on Jews in Israel on October 7th as a Jew I felt obligated to respond and shut down any notion that the attack on October 7th was in any way justifiable I was instantly met with intense backlash from the rest of the RAS I was dismissed as their colleague and as their fellow Drexel dragon from that day since then I've been seen as one thing and one thing only in their eyes a Jew I am not safe on campus I know a girl who openly Jewish and had her dorm door burnt down as as far as I know draxo is still in investigating she is not safe on campus I have a friend who was walking home one Friday night from Shabbat dinner wearing a keepa a yamaka who was hit in the face by someone shouting F the Jews as far as I know Drexel is still investigating he is not safe on campus college is the place for students to learn more about themselves and to discover their passions in a safe environment Jews Jewish students deserve no less we deserve the same protection of our civil liberties as any other student in America to feel safe is not a privilege but rather it is a right it is our right as American Jews thank you thank you so much congresswoman mace for this groundbreaking policy pushing forward we know that our students need to feel safe on campus all students should feel safe and the critical step that's needed is the transparency and accountability that University should have in reporting every complaint of anti-Semitism or civil rights violation to the office of civil rights it's time to open the books to understand what's happening that the universities who are doing a good job should be celebrated so that the students on those campuses should feel safe should feel supported and the students who are on other campuses where there simply is no response when a student reports or complains those campuses should be held accountable there should be transparency about what's happening on those campuses and this simple change in the policy of the Department of Education in holding the school's accountable to report the number of incidents and their response to those incidents would create the change that needed to start having every student on campus have a voice today we know so many students are simply not reporting anymore because they've learned helplessness they call 911 and nobody answers the phone that is a basic right problem so we're here together with students from 20 universities across the country representing over 25,000 students at 100 locations where Oli exists to stand up for zero tolerance against anti semitism to say that it's time to make the change and this policy pushed forth by congresswoman mace is the kind of policy that we need to be able to create the change in America I'm Malcolm hline I'm the CEO ameritus of the conference of presidents of major American Jewish organizations the umbrella of the 53 National Jewish organizations and I would say on our agenda today there is nothing more important than the struggle Against The Firestorm of anti-Semitism that is permeating our country from coast to coast from every age level from kindergarten through elementary schools through high schools and the campuses but today the campus is the front line we are seeing the next generation of American leaders being trained in hate to tolerate intolerance and our call today for zero tolerance echoing the actions of the congresswoman to put on record once and for all that we will hold to account those who engage in those who support those who give sucker to those who are silent in the face of the anti-Semitism the Jew hatred that we see evidenced in so many ways including in physical violence against people on the streets and on our campuses we will not tolerate it anymore we cannot we learned the lesson and took the pledge of never again after the second world war after the Holocaust that is not an empty phrase to be yelled at rallies this is a pledge that each generation Jew and non-jew alike must take because we want to protect America we want to protect Western values we want to protect our society while Jews may be the first victims they're never theel last and every other minority every other group becomes a victim of this hatred when it's let allowed allowed to metastasize in our society we are seeing too much tolerance for the actions of the few who have now turned our campuses into warfronts where students cannot walk to their classes cannot wear AA publicly on the street we will not accept it and so we say never again will Jews have to be walk walk in fear we stand together with these college students and we are thank God backed by many people people of Goodwill Across America and the congresswoman is an Exemplar of that so we thank her and we thank her colleagues but it's time for True enforcement true accountability no excuses no [Applause] exceptions yep uh lastly I want to thank uh Rabbi marwitz for being here Charlie Harari uh as well and uh Malcolm Hine thank you for being here today and all the students that came here from around the country across the country and even from South Africa AF uh your remarks were um poignant they were real they were honest they were raw and we need to do everything that we can to ensure hate does not exist for anyone on our campuses most especially for our Jewish students who are feeling it so hard today thank you all in this concludes our press conference right now thank you all and God [Applause] bless