Calling on Elected Officials and Civil Society Leaders to Counter Antisemitism and Educate the Public on the Contributions of the Jewish American Community

Floor Speech

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Mr. FINE. Mr. Speaker, I was not intending to speak. I had the privilege of just standing in the Speaker's rostrum a few minutes ago and witnessing this debate on an issue that has been important to me ever since I got into public service. I think it is no small coincidence as I was able to wear my kippah up there. I am not sure whether that has happened before as a debate like this happened.

I thank Representative Wasserman Schultz for bringing this forward and saying that we should stand together on anti-Semitism.

Mr. Speaker, I recognize that I am new, but a resolution like this that says that people should care about these issues is not the time for people to go and make partisan potshots about anti-Semitism. It is not productive. It is divisive. It is not helpful, particularly in a world where folks on our side could go through a long list and a litany of problems on the other side of the aisle, including the people who actually serve in this room.

This is a problem that, while I appreciate that Democrats want to work on and while I appreciate that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to help on it, I can say from personal experience that the folks who are on my side, from President Trump on down, are committed.

Mr. Speaker, are there bad people? Something I often say in Florida-- as my colleagues work with me, they will find this--anti-Semitism doesn't have a monopoly on either party. Both have it. My side does, too. Yet, where we fight together to take it on and not take shots, we actually begin to solve the problem.

Commentary like that about President Trump is just not helpful because I can say that I have seen it in my State where we don't have many of the problems that we find in other parts of the country because we have tackled these issues, largely in a bipartisan way, including with people who serve here in Congress on the Democratic side.

Mr. Speaker, I say, moving forward, while I am grateful for the desire and the belief to tackle anti-Semitism, there is a time and a place for those kinds of arguments. This was not one.

I thank my colleagues for the resolution and letting us focus on the importance of celebrating achievements that I was not aware of. I will now share with my family where the slow cooker came from. I didn't know. It makes sense given the kind of food that we eat at home.

Yet, I ask us as we tackle this issue to be focused on solving the problem and not making it worse by trying to come up with things that will divide us all.

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