Happy New Year. Welcome back. This is For the Hill.

We need some clarity in the way we fight antisemitism today. Internally, the Jewish community is fracturing. Externally, our internal divides make fighting rising antisemitism around us that much more difficult. While I don’t want to offer false hope or a bandaid to cover this problem, I know that at the very least, a piece of solving it will mean nuanced, balanced, good-faith, open conversations—conversations about antisemitism, where it manifests, where it is weaponized, where it deals with Israel and Palestine, when it’s separate from Israel, when it draws on historical antisemitic tropes, and so on. But assigning naked blame, failing to consider the full context, blanket accusations, or uplifting one perspective as the sole true perspective does nothing to fight antisemitism; in fact, I would argue it makes the internal divisions of the Jewish community that much bigger. It makes antisemitism that much harder to actually fight.

Let’s dive in.

Since our last newsletter, a new Mayor of New York City was sworn in after a nationally debated election. One of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first actions in office was to revoke nine executive orders from the previous Adams administration. Among those revocations was an executive order adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism. This decision has received backlash from many Jewish organizations and leaders. But what is often missing from this backlash is the real function and meaning of the IHRA definition. The IHRA definition is a working, non-legally binding definition of antisemitism, meaning that it was never meant to be taken as law. The Nexus Definition of Antisemitism and the Jerusalem Declaration are two other leading definitions of antisemitism, both referenced in the Biden Administration’s 2023 National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism.

Words matter, but action matters more. We look forward to seeing the Mamdani administration deliver on its promises to keep all New Yorkers, including Jewish New Yorkers, safe. We also must continue to commit ourselves to combat both antisemitism and its weaponization in all forms. We welcome the partnership of any leader who wishes to do the same.

Read a reaction from Kevin Rachlin, Nexus’ Vice President of Government Relations and Washington Director, here.

In similar news, Julie Menin was unanimously elected to serve as the New York City Council Speaker this week. She is the first Jew and the first Jewish woman to serve in this role, and will also work closely with Mayor Mamdani in New York City politics. We look forward to seeing the work they will do together.

The recent US raid in Venezuela led to an onslaught of antisemitism online. We’ve seen this trend before: crises around the world are attributed to Jews and/or Israel as a part of a larger antisemitic conspiracy alleging widespread Jewish control.

Antisemitism is first and foremost a conspiracy theory. One of the ways antisemitism has adapted itself to fit into a modern context is by attaching itself to major news stories and engaging in tropes of disproportionate Jewish control. Read a full thread by Nexus on antisemitism online in the aftermath of the Venezuela raid here.

On the fifth anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, a former January 6th insurrectionist, Jake Lang, who was pardoned by President Trump, held a demonstration outside of AIPAC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. At this demonstration, Lang claimed “Jewish money” was causing a “brownification of America.” This is the Great Replacement theory. There is no other way to spin it. Lang was also recorded performing a Nazi salute, throwing gold chocolate coins (invoking the antisemitic trope that Jews are inherently wealthy), calling for lawmakers who have accepted donations from AIPAC to be hung, saying he didn’t believe the Holocaust happened “at that level,” and claiming AIPAC was working to turn American children into “n—er lovers.”

Actions like this are antisemitic, plain and simple, no matter what organization they target.

Jake Lang is currently running for a Senate seat in Florida. I hope it doesn’t shock anyone when I say we deserve far better from our leaders. At the very least, we deserve leaders who don’t evoke antisemitic, racist, disgusting tropes.

In the wake of the Bondi Beach Massacre last month, the Antisemitism Response and Prevention Act (ARPA) was introduced by Representatives Jerrold Nadler (NY-12), Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Maxwell Frost (FL-10), and Becca Balint (VT-AL). We at Nexus applaud this crucial step, bringing common-sense solutions that we know work to combat antisemitism—combating antisemitism by protecting our democratic institutions.

We urge all Members to support common-sense solutions to combating antisemitism and cosponsor the Antisemitism Response and Prevention Act. Read more about ARPA here.

Have any questions or concerns? Email me at [email protected] or our Vice President of Government Affairs, Kevin Rachlin, at [email protected]. We would love to hear from you.

Until next time,

Ella