White House lays out first US national strategy to combat antisemitism

Holocaust education, improved community security, reversing the normalisation of antisemitism and countering discrimination are the key planks of the new strategy.

US President Joe Biden unveiled his administration’s new “whole of society” plan to combat antisemitism on Thursday, which he called the “most ambitious and comprehensive US government-led effort to fight antisemitism in American history.”

“The past several years, hate has been given too much oxygen, fuelling a rapid rise in antisemitism,” Biden said in a pre-recorded message. “It’s simply wrong. It’s not only immoral, it’s unacceptable. It’s on all of us to stop it.”

Biden laid out the four-pronged strategy, starting with an effort to increase awareness and understanding of antisemitism and Jewish American heritage.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum would launch the first US-based Holocaust education research centre providing increased school-based education about antisemitism.

Domestic policy adviser Susan Rice referred to a study by the Anti-Defamation League in 2020 which found that 85% of Americans believe at least one antisemitic trope.

“A study found that more than three in five American millennials and Generation Z didn’t know that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. This is simply unacceptable,” Rice said.

The plan also calls for improving safety and security for Jewish communities, reversing the normalisation of antisemitism, and countering antisemitic discrimination.

Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said the administration’s efforts include, “10 separate calls to tech companies to establish a zero-tolerance policy for hate speech on their platforms to ensure that their algorithms do not pass along hate speech and extreme content to users, and to listen more closely to Jewish groups to better understand how antisemitism manifests itself on their platforms.”