Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — Antisemitism and the Fight for Democracy

All

Speaker 2: right, I think we're live and we're ready to go get started today. Thank you all so much to everyone

Speaker 3: that's joining us for this conversation today and welcome. I'm incredibly excited for us to be doing this. In a minute, we're going to be hearing from two of the most foremost experts in the country in fighting anti-Semitism in America. And before we get to that panel, though, I want to talk a little bit about why we're doing this and most importantly, why we're doing

it now

Speaker 3: Anti-Semitism, hate and violence against Jews because of their identity is real and it is dangerous. It is also important to say here in this moment and during that conversation, that criticism of the Israeli government is not inherently anti-Semitic and criticism of Zionism is not automatically anti-Semitic. That being true does not mean that we should not recognize when criticism and when that criticism crosses a line into real harms against our Jewish community. Anti-Semitism is an assault on our values as Americans and especially as progressives. Antisemitism is also a threat to a community that is a vital partner in our struggles against injustice. So when the Jewish community is threatened, the progressive movement is undermined. That's why it is so important that we reject it as fiercely as we reject and look for misogyny, Islamophobia, or any form of bigotry or discrimination in any space that we occupy. Right now, antisemitism is on the rise in America and across the world. Acknowledging that fact does not take away from fights for liberation. It actually advances them

And the

Speaker 3: growth of antisemitic attacks and rhetoric before and since October 7th is unacceptable to all of us who believe in a better world, period

I want to

Speaker 3: be honest here. Some of this discussion can be complicated, but a lot of this is not complicated at

all. We

Speaker 3: can and should be equipping ourselves with the tools to recognize when actual antisemitism is clear and present, and also how to check it immediately when we see it. We are going to hear more about that in a minute

At the

Speaker 3: same time, it is also true that accusations and false accusations of anti-Semitism are wielded against people of color and women of color by bad faith political actors. And weaponizing anti-Semitism is used to divide us and create a false choice between the fight for Jewish safety and the cause for Palestinian self-determination. Defending and standing for the rights of Palestinians is not anti-Semitic

and

Speaker 3: we must be able to identify when bad faith political actors make accusations simply to divide us. People can disagree bitterly about Israel and Gaza, but it has felt that we've been at a point where even coming together to acknowledge and discuss any anti-Semitism at all can feel impossible. And one reason is that the way some have weaponized the issue can make others defensive

And

Speaker 3: because of that defensiveness, people shut down and other people's identities get completely flattened. And that's when all nuance goes out the window and we all become less safe for it. So what we are here to do today, and it is ambitious, is to talk about how actual anti-Semitism is hurting communities and is hurting the movement for a lasting peace

So

Speaker 3: with that, I think one big request that we have to anyone and everyone that's on here is to just keep your ears open throughout this conversation. And I want to introduce two of our wonderful partners that are going to help us have this have this discussion

The

Speaker 3: first is Stacy Burdett. She is a former top level staffer at the Anti-Defamation League and the former government and external relations director at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Welcome, Stacy. And Amy Spitalnik, currently serves as the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and is the former executive director of Integrity First for America, which won a groundbreaking lawsuit against the neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and hate groups that were responsible for the 2017 violence in Charlottesville. So welcome to you

Speaker 2: both. Thank you so much for joining us. And I think with Stacey, I think I'd like to start with you, and A Good Place is the beginning. I think it would be really great and a lot of folks would truly benefit from a discussion and just a clear laying out of what in your expertise is anti-Semitism

Speaker 3: and what isn't

Thank

Speaker 4: you so much, Congresswoman

Speaker 5: for inviting me and for that framing. So let's just start by acknowledging that none of us were conditioned to think about a group of mostly white people as scared and vulnerable

In

Speaker 5: our lifetimes, antisemitism was marginalized and formal discrimination against Jews was mostly over, so it's a shock to all of our systems and it means we have some relearning to do and maybe to adjust some of our thinking. Now the uptick in antisemitism isn't brand new. Jews have been disproportionately targeted by hate violence for years. So even if it doesn't fit neatly into how we think about racial injustice or what a target of hate looks like, we've got to understand anti-Semitism and fight it together. So very simply, anti-Semitism is a lie about Jews to blame them for what's wrong. It's such a lesson in how otherizing works. Here you have a group of people who assimilate into every society for generations. We look German in Berlin, we look Ethiopian in Addis Ababa, and we look Moroccan in Casablanca. with this invisible

form

Speaker 5: fake difference makes us a scapegoat that is so dangerous that it has to be banished or destroyed in order for the rest of the world to survive. So for thousands of years, whatever the narrative of the day was, Jews were at the center of a conspiracy theory. We were blamed for socialism and capitalism. We were blamed for starting the civil rights movement and for promoting racism. So people are usually surprised to see how anti-Semitism is at the center of the white power movement. Jews are totally racialized in their ideology. We're the arch enemy of the white master race, using our control of media and banking to brainwash white people to take their power. And so when you think about the shooter, most of us remember the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. That perpetrator blamed Jews for the browning of America. He saw a Jewish refugee resettlement organization bringing Afghan refugees into this country and a lot of white allies in the civil rights movement in the '60s were, guess what

Jewish. I

Speaker 5: mean, blaming Jews for the civil rights movement is particularly sickening because the theory is how could a race of inferiors disrupt the power structure of our country or help elect a black president? It has to be a secret mythical power manipulating them. So it's anti-Semitic and it robs everyone else of their humanity and their agency

And

Speaker 5: so looking at this conspiracy theory shows why anti-Semitism punches up at us sometimes and down at us other times, where we're outside invaders or infiltrating because we're the ultimate insiders. And I guess we can talk about it later, but in a very recent history of thousands of years

of

Speaker 6: this hatred, think about how the introduction of a Jewish country can figure into that hate system

So I

Speaker 6: just wanted to set a frame for why anti-Semitism isn't just hating people because they celebrate their Sabbath on their own day. So thank you. Thank

you

Speaker 7: so much, Stacey. And it's so important that we open that conversation with with

Speaker 3: this broader definition. And I think it gives us a very helpful understanding to have the next part of our conversation

I

Speaker 3: want to turn to you, Amy. Can you talk to us about the role that antisemitism is playing in America right now and that present snapshot

Speaker 8: Absolutely, and I want to echo Stacey's thanks for having us today for the opportunity to talk to your community about this

Speaker 9: topic. And I want to note that there's so much to talk about here and we're probably not going to get to all of it, so I really hope that this is just the start of

Speaker 10: our conversation. Look, we knew that we were facing a crisis of antisemitism long before October 7th, rising hate crimes, a cycle of violence, including, as Stacey noted, the deadliest day for the Jews in U.S. history in Pittsburgh

Speaker 11: in 2018. And then on October 7th, we witnessed the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust in Israel, and that compounded the crisis in new ways

As

Speaker 11: Stacey described, we know that antisemitism operates in unique ways. It's certainly a form of religious, racial

Speaker 10: ethnic prejudice. And it's important to note that some Jews face compounding forms of hate, Jews of color, LGBTQ Jews, immigrants, and others

But

Speaker 10: what's unique about antisemitism is that it also functions as this conspiracy theory that's used to divide us and that that threatens all of us, all

Speaker 11: of our communities and our democracy. And so in this moment, it's become sadly easier and easier to recognize and understand

Speaker 10: antisemitism in the increasingly mainstream form it's taking on the right

the

Speaker 10: cycle of white supremacist violence. In Charlottesville, Nazis chanting Jews will not replace us, Pittsburgh

Speaker 11: Poway, El Paso, Buffalo. The conspiracy theories behind these deadly attacks have been increasingly normalized in our politics and media from Trump on down, invasion and replacement rhetoric, a cabal of Jews seeking to

Speaker 10: replace the white race, Soros rhetoric, so often using his name or the Rothschilds or terms like globalists or cabals as stand-ins for Jews. And it's used ultimately to target not just Jews, but so many other communities to

Speaker 9: advance dehumanizing policies and to ultimately undercut our democracy, as we'll talk about

What's

Speaker 10: harder for us as progressives to recognize or understand is when anti-Semitism shows up in his normalized in

Speaker 11: our own spaces. And I want to be frank here, there is very real anti-Semitism that is in fact showing up in progressive spaces right now. And it's deeply painful and hurtful to Jews. As

has been

Speaker 11: said, criticism of Israel, Israeli policies and its government, it's not inherently anti-Semitic. And the majority of people, students, and others showing up to protest are there to speak out for Palestinian rights, not because they intend to be anti-Semitic

but

Speaker 11: we've seen the line into direct harm against Jews repeatedly crossed in recent months. And over the last eight months in certain ways, for me, it's been almost more personally painful to see what's happening in my own progressive community than for example, what I saw in Charlottesville because it's happening in my own community. We're seeing this manifest in a number of

ways. some

Speaker 11: of the obvious ways, or I hope obvious ways. Celebration or denial of the October 7th attack, which as I said was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Celebration or embrace of Hamas as a terrorist organization, labeling their actions creative resistance, chanting things like we want another October 7th. Eliminationist rhetoric, calling for Israel or Israelis or Jews to be wiped off the face of the earth. targeting Jews or Jewish institutions here for the actions of the Israeli government. My own synagogue was targeted in the fall. And I particularly want to take a minute to unpack one major way this is manifesting, because the term Zionist and Zionism is so deeply confusing and so often gets muddied in the public conversation. No two Jewish Americans have the same relationship with Israel

Some

Speaker 11: have no relationship, but the vast majority of Jewish Americans, about 90%, according to recent polls, do have a relationship with Israel, do believe that Israel should exist, that Jews should have a homeland and a place that is deeply tied with our history as a people, even if we fundamentally disagree with the Israeli government and its policies. And so to me, and the vast majority of American Jews, that's what Zionism is, despite how muddied the word has gotten in the public conversation. It's a belief that there should be a Jewish homeland

And for

Speaker 11: me, that goes hand in hand with Palestinian self-determination, two states side by side. And so not all anti-Zionism is inherently anti-Semitic. But a litmus test for Jews, 90% of whom have a relationship with Israel that says you have to leave that relationship at the door if you want to come into these coalitions, that is. And we see it in calls to ban or boycott Zionists, like these lists of Jewish authors or artists that are making the round. We're seeing it during Pride Month where in certain spaces Jews have been told they can't show up as their full Jewish selves. We're seeing it in calls to ban Jewish organizations like Hillel from campuses

Even

Speaker 11: this weekend, and it's one of its most horrific forms, chants like we saw in D.C. of, quote, kill another Zionist

Frankly, we

Speaker 11: saw it in some of the responses to this event. The people who are calling me and Stacey, you know, Zionist scum, not a human, evil and shouldn't live simply because we're here to have a conversation about anti-Semitism. And so when we use this term Zionist as observative, when we use it to call for bans, boycotts, the elimination

it's

Speaker 11: ultimately calling for the vast majority of Jewish Americans to be banned or boycotted and eliminated

And that is

Speaker 11: effectively a form of anti-Semitism. And what that does is ultimately divide Jews from the very coalitions, the very spaces we all need to

Speaker 12: be in right now. And

I think the

Speaker 13: point that you make, too, about

the the

Speaker 13: muddying

Speaker 3: of this term and how so many people have different, they engage in different definitions of this term, utilizing it in different ways. And that then creates an opening in a spectrum here. - Exactly. - Amy, as someone who, I'm very fascinated about a lot of your work at the intersection of anti-Semitism and what that means in the context of American democracy. And as someone who successfully went after the Nazis in Charlottesville in 2017, what does the current growth of anti-Semitism say to you about the state of our democracy and how are these things related

Speaker 10: Yeah, look, anti-Semitism is, as you know, Deborah Lipset

Speaker 8: often says "the canary in the coal mine" when it comes to democracy and the erosion of our democracy

And

Speaker 14: so we've talked a lot

Speaker 10: about how it works, right? Not just a form of racial, religious, ethnic bigotry, but this pernicious conspiracy theory that is intended to divide our communities to sow distress in our democracy, our institutions

And

Speaker 10: that makes not only Jews unsafe, but each and every community unsafe. And it undercuts our democratic norms and values and the rule of law. It fuels attacks, not just against Jews, but against so many communities, as we've talked about, the cycle of white supremacist violence. It fuels dehumanizing policies and anti-democratic extremism, right? Policies targeting immigrants because of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about replacement and invasion. talked about so often how the name George Soros is used as a stand-in for Jews to describe a conspiracy theory. Election denial, assaults on voting rights, these claims that there is an effort to replace white voters or publican voters as we often hear. We see it in the neo-Nazis who are showing up at anti-trans or anti-drag events to recruit for their cause. We see it in the assault on reproductive rights and some of these conspiracy theories about

Speaker 11: birthright

rates. As I

Speaker 11: mentioned, this is ultimately leading not just to dehumanizing policies targeting so many communities, but a cycle of violence that has directly harmed not just Jews, but Black people, immigrants, Muslims, and so many other communities motivated by these same conspiracy theories. It's also important to us understand and call out how some are exploiting

Speaker 10: real legitimate concerns about anti-Semitism in this moment

As I

Speaker 10: described, there is very real anti-Semitism happening on certain campuses and certain progressive

Speaker 11: spaces. And also there are those who are using and exploiting those legitimate concerns to advance policies like ending DEI initiatives altogether instead of working to ensure that anti-Semitism is part

Speaker 10: of the DEI conversation. or defunding liberal institutions, going after

higher

Speaker 10: education. And of course, particularly in the Israel conversation, we see how antisemitism is used to divide Jews from the very communities, the very pro-democracy coalitions we need to be in solidarity with right now. If our communities are pit against one another, if the vast majority of American Jews are being told they're unwelcome in progressive spaces because we have a connection to Israel or a relationship with Israel, that doesn't just make Jews isolated unsafe and unsafe, It makes all of us unsafe

and we'll never

Speaker 10: be able to come together to advance the sort of inclusive future we need. Ultimately, our safety is inextricably linked and bound up with one another's and with our democracy. And so as anti-Semitism is normalized in all of these ways in our politics and our media and all of these spaces we've been talking about, it continues to threaten all communities' rights and safety and undercut our democracy. And so too, in sort of a constant feedback

loop, As

Speaker 10: democracy erodes, it creates the conditions for anti-Semitism to further flourish. It's this feedback back and forth. And so if we don't bridge this divide, if we don't ensure that Jews are welcome in progressive spaces and coalitions, if we make sure that we're not letting our communities

Speaker 11: be pit against one another, we're not allowing this deeply painful

moment, to

Speaker 11: fracture the very coalitions we need more than ever, if we don't

Speaker 10: take on these increasingly dangerous and deadly and normalized conspiracies, we're gonna ultimately lose our democracy here. And so at the core of that fight is this recognition

T

Speaker 15: Thank you, Amy, it's

Speaker 3: very well said. And I also think it's important, it's a

good

Speaker 3: moment to highlight the words of Deborah Lipstadt here, which is that antisemitism is the canary in the coal mine. And as she says, it may start with the Jews, but it does not end with the Jews. Stacey, I wanted to ask you about how accusations of antisemitism and this important point

about

Speaker 3: Again, how accusations of anti-Semitism, and sometimes false accusations of anti-Semitism, are weaponized particularly against people

Speaker 16: of color and women of color who are also critical partners in a coalition for democracy

Thank

Speaker 6: you. So anti-Semitism is embarrassing in this country in public. I mean, less so in the last few years, and it wasn't always like that. But unfortunately, people use the power

Speaker 5: of that charge to hurt political opponents. There's no question many people want to protect Jewish safety. But there are others who still can't resist the opportunity to attack their opponents. And there are bad actors using this issue as a weapon in this moment against progressives. It's an issue that fits very neatly into a culture war narrative

And

Speaker 5: in that culture war, there's a big group of people determined to brand progressives and diversity itself as a threat. It's a dog bites man story. Oh, the tolerant liberals are actually illiberal bigots

And on

Speaker 5: top of it, this is perfect fuel for the misogyny against women in public life that is already dead

at

Speaker 5: such a fever pitch, especially women of color. And I've been an advocate on these issues for a lot of decades. And it's just true that in different moments, these charges of antisemitism stick like glue to some groups and less to others. And there's a lot to unpack about that

but

Speaker 5: we've got to keep in mind that the division is a goal of the bad actors. When we get together, we have always had the power to make change and people who are threatened by that change thrive on dividing us. And so one of the things we're doing in this conversation today is also to disrupt that because we have to understand each other and work together. When we are in relationships and

conversations

Speaker 5: There's more understanding of Jewish pain, more understanding of the pain and bigotry that targets so many groups. And I know

a lot of

Speaker 5: people who are concerned about appearing or being anti-Semitic. Sure, there are people who don't care. There are people who are indifferent. But there are so many people in our movement who do want to know how to express themselves without fueling harm or anti-Semitism or harm against anyone

And

Speaker 5: that's what we're doing here. It's very serious work

Speaker 18: and I'm just glad to be in it with you two women

Speaker 3: Thank you, Stacey, as am I. And I think that's an important opportunity for us to move to what I think is a really important part of this conversation, which is anti-Semitism in the context of October 7th and the war in Gaza

And

Speaker 3: first and foremost, I think to everyone who is who's paying attention to this conversation, it's important to say and be clear that the three of us do not hold the same positions when it comes to the war and the role that we believe the United States must play

And

Speaker 3: that is important to point out because what we do want to do here is be clear that it is possible for us to hold very different perspectives about these issues that often cut to the core of our beliefs without turning our backs on each other. And I'm making sure that we remain a community where no one is targeted or excluded on the basis of their identity. Now, Stacey

To follow

Speaker 3: up on what you were talking about, how can someone starkly oppose the actions of the Netanyahu government while also avoiding anti-Semitism? Look

if we want to be

Speaker 5: problem solvers, we have to be able to have respectful

Speaker 6: evidence-based conversations that are totally free of identity-based biases. And if you make a judgment or an accusation about Israel that I think is wrong or

Speaker 5: unfair, I want to challenge

Speaker 6: I want to challenge you on the merits. I want to challenge your argument on the merits. And I think we can have those conversations. So Israel is a country like ours. It's subject to criticism and protest and tough language that may hurt my ears

Speaker 5: that people use to hold it accountable

And

Speaker 5: the parameters around that should be, how would we speak about this country, right? Political protests and criticism are the essence of democracy. And we also need to take care with that

Speaker 6: expression because we need it for our democracy. I wanna just mention a couple of pain points in this moment, because if we can understand

Speaker 5: the

harm

Speaker 5: some words do to other people, we can be attentive to preventing it. And that's a great beginning that will matter to a lot of people. So I talked about the conspiracy frame. And so whenever we hear about nefarious control behind world events, or now we're talking about the conflict, evil control of government policy by Jewish billionaires or Zionist donors, those are just like

Speaker 6: the George Soros accusations that Amy described, you know, this evil puppet master, you know

trying to

Speaker 6: save democracy and support causes he cares about. So if

Speaker 5: your criticism of Israel is trafficking and stereotypes, you're really in the bigotry zone. I mean, stereotypes kill. That's how the Nazis got the German people to live with this so-called final solution. So we do the work all the time to avoid words that correlate with negative stereotypes and we need to do that here. Second, empathy and care and inclusion cannot be limited only to Jews who reject Zionism. To me, those are part of my community, friends and colleagues, and progressive Jewish groups are doing more good work than ever fighting anti-Semitism

Speaker 19: But still, excluding Jews who believe there should be a Jewish

Speaker 5: homeland is excluding most Jews, for whom it's just a feature of their identity and that's

in

Speaker 5: In our civil rights legal system and our civil society, it's discrimination. And there's a zone in which we don't agree exactly the nature of the overlap between anti-Jewish hate and anti-Israel criticism

We

Speaker 5: don't have the exact identical frame to characterize it and Jews disagree on some of these finer points, but we all agree that it's harmful. So let's just call it like eliminationist, whatever the intent, we're all reading 20 articles

a day. It's

Speaker 5: telling us and teaching us how provocative, scary, and hurtful some language is. Envisioning a world without a Jewish homeland is terrifying for a group of people who've been banished and expelled. And calling every single Jew who yearns for a refuge or a homeland a racist that causes harm. It's not in service to any future that's safe for Israelis and Palestinians, and it undermines our ability to live in the kind of community of support we want and we need. We don't have a common language for this conflict. We are navigating a lot of trauma

inherited

Speaker 6: from generations, new trauma, every single time someone

Speaker 5: checks Google News

And

Speaker 5: the question for us is, when we don't share language, how can we find a way to share humanity and empathy? Can we find compassion, empathy, grace, whatever you wanna call it? Can we summon the courage to take care that we aren't being indifferent to each other, that we aren't enabling antisemitism in our own friend group? I think

Speaker 6: we're good enough

and I

Speaker 6: think we will all be stronger for it. So thank you for that

of course. And

Speaker 20: I mean

Speaker 3: I think the point that you make about language is very important, which is that, you know, in an environment where a lot of folks can be oftentimes talking past each other, the same term will have dramatically different interpretations for different people. And that that is also part of the fray here. Now, I want to cut to the chase and something that is very real. And Amy, I'm going to turn to you for this next one

is

Speaker 3: that many people who support and believe in Palestinian self-determination, in dignity, in rights

feel that

Speaker 3: false accusations and weaponizing accusations of anti-Semitism are often used to detract from the broader critique that they're making about the very real reality on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank. and in the entire region. Amy, what do you say to folks who make this point and how do you

Speaker 22: think about that very real dynamic that people

are

Speaker 23: feeling? - Look, this is at the core of what we're talking about here, right? And that's why it's so important to do this work, to have

Speaker 11: conversations like this one across lines

Speaker 10: of disagreement, across different communities as challenging as it may

be. To

Speaker 10: understand

Speaker 24: where the line is, it's critical that people have a right to peacefully protest against policies that they disagree with, to speak out for Palestinian humanity and dignity and

Speaker 11: self-determination. And frankly, the same way that they went on any other issue. It's inherent to our democracy

And

Speaker 11: as I mentioned earlier, the majority of people showing up on campus or at other protests are doing so because they want to speak out for Palestinian dignity and human rights, not because they intend to be anti-Semitic. And so when we paint everyone showing up at these protests speaking out against the war in Gaza with a broad brush, it makes it that much harder to effectively call out real anti-Semitism and instead it just seeks to divide us. At the same time, as we've talked about here, we've seen the line crossed in too many cases in ways that cause direct harm to Jews, and that ultimately threatens all of us. And so for me, the guiding principle for all of this work is to understand that no one's going anywhere. Jews, Arab Americans, Muslim Americans here in the United States, Israelis and Palestinians in the region, all of our futures are inextricably bound up with one another. And in fact, the only future in which I'm safe as a Jewish American woman is one in which my Arab American, Muslim, Black, immigrant, LGBTQ neighbors are safe and vice versa. And so, too, is the only future in which Israel and the Israeli people are truly safe and finally secure, one in which Palestinian children and all people are finally safe and free

And so that

Speaker 11: requires us to do the hard work to understand how in disagreeing over policies and protesting vehemently, we don't cross that line into harm, into eliminationist rhetoric, into anti-Semitism. And that we also not allow legitimate concerns and fears about anti-Semitism to be exploited to advance

themselves

Speaker 11: a broader extremist agenda that seeks to pit our communities against one

Speaker 8: another and undermine our fundamental democracy and our liberal

values

Speaker 25: And I mean, that's so well said. And I think it also cuts to a different skill that we

Speaker 3: have, which is allyship. And that this isn't just like a term that is used in some saccharine way, but that it is a discipline and a practice

I am a

Speaker 3: woman of color. You are a Jewish woman. Our destinies are bound up. Our protection is bound up in one another. And it's so important that we stand up and defend each other. So Amy, to you, what does allyship look like to you in this moment? And what are the stakes for our democracy in that allyship

Speaker 26: right now? Look, there's so much... That is complicated about this, but for me this part shouldn't be

Speaker 11: complicated. Being an ally to the Jewish community right now doesn't mean that we're asking you to put an Israeli flag on your front door or support every action of the Israeli government. It means recognizing the very real Jewish pain

Speaker 10: and grief that our community is experiencing following the deadliest day for our people since the Holocaust. Pain and grief that we're still in because there are hostages that remain because

Speaker 11: the war is ongoing

It

Speaker 11: means calling for the hostages to be released alongside the other policy changes that you want to see, recognizing that what happened on October 7th was heinous and unacceptable, even as if and as you also oppose Israel's actions in Gaza or the Netanyahu government or believe that this war needs to end

And so too does

Speaker 11: the Jewish community need to lean into allyship right now, especially at a moment when we're understandably feeling isolation

and pain. Some

Speaker 11: have claimed that this very real isolation and pain that many of us are legitimately feeling over the last eight months is proof of failure, that allyship, bridge

Speaker 10: building, coalition building doesn't work. But to me, to JCPA, they're proof of need for us to invest more deeply, lean in more deeply to the challenging conversations like this one, to build bridges and coalitions across communities and across lines of difference wherever possible. That's what we're doing at JCPA, at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. We just launched last month two action networks rooted in protecting our democracy and countering hate in all of its forms, because we know that Jewish safety is inextricably linked with the rights and safety of all communities and with our democracy. And we cannot protect

Speaker 11: anyone or our democracy without confronting anti-Semitism head on. And Jews truly won't be safe unless all communities are safe. and

Speaker 10: our work to protect and advance the inclusive pluralistic multiracial democracy we desperately need can move forward in the coalitions we need to be in

Speaker 27: And so

Speaker 10: it's understanding this, it's understanding this deep interconnection, it's leaning in through conversations like this in these deeply painful and

Speaker 11: challenging moments, and it's fundamentally understanding what it means to show up for one another, not because we agree on everything, but because we can see each other's

Speaker 28: pain and grief and humanity at such a tenuous, challenging moment

Speaker 2: And it's such a, you know, you, you, you state this also beautifully in that it is in the difference and it's in the stark disagreement that our allyship becomes even more important to one another where, you know, where you may see people of color being unjustifiably

Speaker 3: or cynically targeted with political attacks and accusations, and you being able to stand up and

Speaker 2: say, "Hey, despite our differences, this is cynical and wrong and not okay." And for me to use my presence in spaces, just as many others, When we are in spaces and we see that line crossing

Speaker 3: into anti-Semitism, crossing from criticisms, legitimate, stark, even intense criticisms of the Israeli government's conduct crossing into actual anti-Semitism. It is in our responsibility to stand up swiftly in those spaces and to shut shut things down when that line is crossed

And so I wanna

Speaker 3: kind of conclude

and I

Speaker 3: wanna thank you both again so much for taking this time. As you mentioned, this is a difficult conversation and that is the point. I wanna conclude by summarizing and again, and saying that antisemitism is a threat to Jews and to the progressive movement, and as Amy has stated, to democratic freedom. And just like racism, anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, and misogyny, it makes all of us unsafe and we all have a stake in fighting it. And it's not on Jews to address anti-Semitism on their own. When it comes to the current conflict, it is possible to recognize Jewish pain, fear, and grief in that moment, and that does not take away from our grief and pain for families in

Gaza. It

Speaker 3: is also important to educate ourselves about the lines past which criticism of the Israeli government can slip into a spectrum of anti-Semitism. And doing so and educating ourselves protects our Jewish neighbors, it protects the broader movement for the lasting peace from being discredited as well

So I

Speaker 3: want to thank you both. Thank you, Amy. Thank you, Stacey, for joining us today for this very important conversation. And I want to thank everyone who joined this live stream. And hopefully, if you're still here, that means you kept your ears open. And I want to thank you for doing that

And

Speaker 3: if you learned something here or found it useful, please share it with a friend or family member. And remember, we are all in this together. Whether we like it or not, it is inextricable. We are bound up. And operating in that is the core of our belief system and it's what joins us all together

Speaker 16: So thank you both so, so deeply. I really appreciate this opportunity. Thank

you

Speaker 29: Congresswoman

Speaker 16: Thank you so much. Thank you

Thank you