A resolution condemning all forms of antisemitism.

Mr. President, I applaud my colleague for reaching out to see if we could work together on this important resolution--a resolution that, coming to the Senate in 2013, as did my colleague, neither of us believed we would need to stand on the floor of this body to introduce.

In August of 2017, students and their families had just arrived in the town of Charlottesville to move in at the University of Virginia. A close friend of mine, Rabbi Jake Rubin, is the Hillel rabbi at the University of Virginia. The students and their families, many of whom were coming to Charlottesville or to Virginia for the first time, excited to begin their college career, gathered with other Hillel students on campus on a Friday, together with members of the Charlottesville Jewish community, for fellowship and worship. Soon, they heard chants outside the place where they were worshipping, and they saw individuals dressed in a sort of uniform of khaki pants and white shirts, carrying torches and marching. They were marching at something that was a 2-day rally billed as a Unite the Right rally. But it was the words that were coming out of the marchers' mouths that terrified these worshippers and students because what they were chanting were slogans from Nazi youth rallies from the 1930s: ``Jews will not replace us,'' ``blood and soil,'' and other horrible and chilling statements terrified these young people and the adults who were with them.

The next day, this rally/riot continued--White supremacists, White nationalists, neo-Nazis, and neo-Confederates. An individual in a vehicle ran his car into a crowd, injuring many and killing Heather Heyer, a paralegal from the Charlottesville area.

Two State troopers, both of whom I knew because they were part of the Governor's security detail during my tenure as Governor and also the tenure of then-Governor McAuliffe, were patrolling in a helicopter to try to provide order in a difficult situation. Their helicopter went down, and both of them were killed, trying to protect public safety.

We didn't think that would happen in Virginia. We didn't think that would happen in the hometown of an archetypal American political leader who believed that the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of religion was one of the most important things about our country--that you could worship as you like or not and not be preferred or punished for the choice that you make. Yet it did happen in Virginia. It did happen in our country.

As my colleague mentioned, this day was a day that extended a long history of anti-Semitism in the country: lynchings--the Leo Frank lynching in Atlanta, GA, in the early 1900s--Jews wrongly accused of crimes and then killed, crimes that they didn't commit; American boycotts of Jewish businesses in Michigan in the 1930s; restrictive covenants that prohibited Jews from moving into certain neighborhoods; restrictions on access to country clubs and educational institutions; bars that made it difficult to become members of certain professions; and even in addition to formal restrictions, a culture of intolerance, a culture of segregation that treated Jews as not fully equal in this land of equality. I had hoped that those days were behind us.

But it is not just Charlottesville. There is a Jewish day school, the Gesher Day School a few miles from here in Virginia, that experienced bomb threats in 2017 and 2018. The Jewish Community Center in Fairfax, VA, has been repeatedly defaced with Nazi graffiti and anti-Semitic graffiti. In a heartening sign, when that happens, the faith communities of Virginia--Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, and Baha'i-- gather to scrub the graffiti off. Yet this hasn't happened just once; it happens over and over again.

The shootings at the synagogue in Pittsburgh; the shootings in California; the assassination of Jewish senior citizens at a senior center in Overland Park, KS, near where my parents live; the uptick in reported hate crimes against Jews, as my colleague mentioned--hate crimes directed against any religion in this country are often directed against Jewish Americans. So we stand at a time when, regardless of where it comes from and regardless of who perpetrates it, we have to acknowledge that it is real, that it is dangerous, and that it is growing. Those of us in leadership positions have to be able to stand against it as firmly as we can.

I applaud my colleague for reaching out to see if we could work on this together. This is a topic that could be used for partisanship and that one side could point at things folks on the other side have said that they didn't like. Senator Cruz and I talked about that, but what we realized is that this is just too important an issue to get bogged down in partisan politics, that the clear and present danger felt by members of the Jewish community and the escalating rhetoric against Jews in many parts of the country and around the world are things that call for a bipartisan response, a clear condemnation, and also a Senate commitment that, as a Senate, we will do all we can to combat anti- Semitism so that we can be true to the equality principle that is our Nation's North Star, so that

we can be true to the freedom of religious worship that is enshrined in the First Amendment. It is in the First Amendment for a very important reason.

I applaud my colleague, and I hope it is the pleasure of this body to accept the motion he will soon make by unanimous consent that we pass this strong statement of where the Senate is on this most important topic.

With that, I yield the floor back to my colleague from Texas.

Mr. President, today, I would like to thank Senator Kaine for joining with me in introducing what should hopefully be a simple but crucially important matter for the Senate--to issue an unequivocal, direct, and clear condemnation of all forms of anti-Semitism.

Unfortunately, we are living in an era where the need for a strong and clear condemnation of anti-Semitism has become acute. We are in the midst of a wave of anti-Semitism seen both here in the United States and all over the world.

In just the last few years, we have seen repeated anti-Semitic comments made publicly, including insinuations questioning the loyalty and the patriotism of American Jews. We have seen physical violence against Jews, including shootings in Jewish places of worship, such as the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and the Chabad of Poway. We have seen a wave of physical attacks against Jews in the streets of New York. And we have seen the growth on our college campuses of movements to aggressively boycott products made by Jews in Israel.

As we have learned this week, things have gotten so bad that the New York Times has announced it will simply stop running political cartoons in their international edition after being criticized and forced to apologize for recently running a blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon.

This resolution was also prompted, unfortunately, by the inability of the House of Representatives to come together and vote on a resolution straightforwardly and directly condemning anti-Semitism.

Too many in political life have given in to the extremes, including the embrace of boycotts and at times outright hatred for Israel, the world's only Jewish state.

So when the House tried to condemn anti-Semitism, sadly, they were instead forced to water it down into a general resolution decrying bigotry of all sorts, listing every group they could think of.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with condemning bigotry and hatred in general, but anti-Semitism is a unique prejudice with a unique history that has led to unique horrors throughout history.

Jews today are the most targeted religious group in the United States for hate crimes, according to the data compiled by the FBI. We need to be able to acknowledge that clearly and directly, and that is what this resolution does.

This resolution outlines how ancient forms of anti-Semitism continue to live on today. It emphasizes that anti-Semitism is a unique form of prejudice stretching back millennia, and it condemns the modern form of those ancient prejudices. It talks about how, for centuries, anti- Semitism has included exactly what we are seeing here today, including physical attacks against Jews, attacks on the loyalty of Jews, accusations of dual loyalty, campaigns to boycott, to confiscate, or to destroy Jewish businesses, and accusations that Jews use money to purchase political power. These are all false and vicious slurs.

This resolution also speaks to the unique prejudice Jews here in America experience, which we must acknowledge. I would like to read one clause in particular in the resolution: ``[I]n the United States, Jews have suffered from systematic discrimination in the form of exclusion from homeownership in certain neighborhoods, prohibition from staying in certain hotels, restrictions upon membership in private clubs and other associations, limitations upon admission to certain educational institutions and other barriers to equal justice under the law.''

This is a shameful legacy, and it makes it all the more incumbent that we in the Senate speak in one voice and stand resolved that the U.S. Senate condemns and commits to combating all forms of anti- Semitism.

This bipartisan resolution has 56 cosponsors, including 14 Democratic Senators. I am particularly grateful to Senator Kaine for his leadership, which has been pivotal in bringing us together to speak united with one clear voice, and I am hopeful that just moments from now the Senate will come together and pass a clear denunciation of anti-Semitism, 100 to 0, so that we are clearly understood and clearly heard.

With that, I yield to my friend Senator Kaine.

Mr. President, I thank my friend from Virginia for his powerful and eloquent remarks decrying anti-Semitism and implore all of us to stand united with one clear bipartisan voice, Democrats and Republicans all on the same page, 100 to 0, saying that anti-Semitism has no place in the United States of America.

With that, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 189.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Thank you.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.