Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Sunday night that Democrats and Republicans have to stand with the Jewish community to stop “the enduring evil of antisemitic hate.”
Speaking at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas’ annual event, Klobuchar – who won the Minnesota DFL endorsement for governor this fall – said that the community has to continue to confront the “rising tide of anti-Jewish hate and violence here at home,” citing a report that more than 90 percent of Jews say they feel less safe in the United States because of antisemitic violence.
“The Jewish community, like all religious communities, must be able to worship and practice their faith without fear,” she said. “Last year, [officials] tracked more than 6,000 instances of anti-Semitic harassment, assault, and vandalism, including 14 reported incidents at Jewish institutions and schools in our own state.”
Klobuchar mentioned incidents at Temple Israel, Minnesota Hillel, and a recent one at Hopkins High School, where there was antisemitic graffiti and a message praising Hitler.
Klobuchar touted her work with the JCRC and Minnesota faith community to strengthen the ability to combat hate crimes, her support for increasing the funding for the Non-Profit Security Grant Program to $1 billion, up from almost $275 million, and standing against the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement that targets Israel.
“I have seen firsthand the trauma that these hate crimes can inflict, not just on victims, but on entire communities,” Klobuchar said.
Minnesota’s senior senator was one of several elected officials who were at the event, which featured a conversation between best-selling author Sarah Hurwitz and Ethan Roberts, the JCRC’s deputy executive director. Reps. Angie Craig and Kelly Morrison, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Secretary of State Steve Simon were all in attendance, as were state senators and representatives, as well as municipal elected officials.
Minnesota’s Republican Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth, also a gubernatorial candidate, was scheduled to address the gathering but was a late cancellation due to the death of her father.
The number and stature of elected officials in attendance, as well as Minnesota National Guard leadership, surprised Hurwitz when she was talking with people prior to the program starting.
“I said, ‘So how big is the Jewish community here, like 200,000?’” she said. “[Someone] said 60,000. This is really impressive, and it’s such a privilege and honor to be here.”
Author Sarah Hurwitz in conversation with JCRC Deputy Executive Director Ethan Roberts at the JCRC annual event (Darrell Owens Photography).
Hurwitz’s second book, the New York Times bestseller and National Jewish Book Award-winning As A Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us. She said, in an interview prior to the visit, that the book is “my effort to understand how antisemitism has shaped Jewish identity. I wanted to help people understand how 2,000 years of anti-Judaism and antisemitism has affected how people think about Jews and how we as Jews think about ourselves.”
She said that one of the things that inspired the book was the 2021 Israel-Hamas war, when she started seeing content on social media that went beyond a critique of Israel.
“It was a really ugly form of Jew hatred; often masquerading as anti-Zionism, but it was just pure Jew hatred,” she said. “And it was coming from my side of the political aisle.”
Hurwitz spent eight years working in the Obama White House as a speechwriter first for President Barack Obama, and later First Lady Michelle Obama.
She said that while she sees Holocaust education as “critical” history education, it’s not a substitute for antisemitism education.
“[Our kids] show up on camps, there’s not a lot of Nazis, it turns out,” she said. “What you see on campus is a combination of Soviet anti-Zionism and Islamist Jew-hatred.”
Hurwitz said that it could go a long way to teach people how the Jews were persecuted in the former Soviet Union, which led to 2 million Jews fleeing the country.
“I think when they showed up at campus and saw their classmates screaming KGB slogans like Zionism equals racism, Nazism, genocide, I don’t think they’d be so charmed,” she said. “So, what do I tell young people, and really people of all ages, about antisemitism? It’s important to understand the different kinds.”
Hurwitz also said that while she is a proud and passionate Zionist, she’s also very critical of the current Israeli government.
“I strongly vehemently oppose some of their policies. I vehemently oppose some of their ideologies,” she said. “I’m also a proud, patriotic American. I love this country. I served it for years in government, and I happen to vehemently oppose the current president. I disagree with many of his policies. I disagree with his overall ideology.
“My book [has] plenty of critiques of Israel. Visit Israel, it’s like the national pastime of the Israeli people to criticize their country. But there’s a difference between critique and hatred.”