Sen. Bob Casey and Rep. Adam Schiff address Israel and rising antisemitism during Pittsburgh visit
In final weeks of election season, attention called to U.S.-Israel relations, attacks on Jewish students and need to preserve democracy
With little more than a month until election day, Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California joined politicians, first responders and celebrities to discuss pressing issues. During a Sunday morning event in Wilkinsburg and subsequent gathering in East Liberty, Casey and Schiff mentioned attacks on Jewish students in Oakland, U.S.-Israel relations and the threat of antisemitism, while beseeching Pennsylvanians to preserve democracy.
“We’re all going to need to combat this together,” Schiff told the Chronicle regarding the increased violence against Jewish students. “It’s awful and it’s dangerous, and it’s repulsive that people are being targeted because of their faith. Jewish students need to feel safe and welcome at every university in the country and every community in the country. We have to push back against this terrible amplification of antisemitism and hate.”
Schiff, who is running for U.S. Senate in California against Steve Garvey, said universities must ensure that students not only have access to “every part” of a campus, but that students “feel welcome and supported.”
During the past month, Jewish University of Pittsburgh students have been attacked twice.
Casey mentioned his efforts to spearhead the Antisemitism Awareness Act.
Passed by the House, but still awaiting Senate approval, the legislation would require the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism when reviewing potentially discriminatory actions on campuses.
An example of antisemitism included in the IHRA definition is “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
Making the IHRA definition the standard is essential, Casey said, but so is increasing funding for the Office for Civil Rights. More money means that hundreds of additional investigators can be hired to determine “whether or not there’s a hostile environment” on a campus. “If you want to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses, as I want to do, we have to fund those who are doing the investigations. It’s not a lot of money — it’s in the few hundreds of millions of dollars — but we can make that office a viable investigative agency.”
When asked about students’ constitutional freedoms, Casey said, “We want to continue to protect someone’s First Amendment rights, but no protester has a right to disrupt a campus so that the other students can’t get to class or have the benefit of a full robust education. No student has a right to engage in violence. No student has a right to engage in antisemitic activity, or make antisemitic statements, or categorically condemn people that are different than them. No student has a right to engage in racist conduct.”
Law and order
Casey is running for reelection against Republican Dave McCormick. During a campaign event in East Liberty on Sunday, the incumbent was joined by Schiff, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, actor Michael Keaton, television producer Shonda Rhimes and former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who was a first responder on Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol.
Dunn, who received a Congressional Gold Medal in 2021 and a Presidential Citizens Medal in 2023, referenced the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting when talking about his former responsibilities.
“As a first responder, your job is to do your job, that oath of office, to serve, to protect your country, your community — just like the first responders did here six years ago,” he said. “They protected their community. It didn’t matter your race, your sexual orientation, your religious identity — it didn’t matter. You are a person, you are a human being. With regards to Jan. 6, our police officers there, we weren’t just protecting Republicans. We weren’t just protecting Democrats. We weren’t just protecting independents. We were protecting people. We’re protecting our institutions. We’re protecting democracy. It didn’t matter if you had a D or an R next to your name, we saw you as a person, as a human being; and not only the elected officials — the people who were attacking us, a lot of them got hurt that day and we were responsible for providing aid to them.”
Dunn said that during the nearly 15 years he worked at the Capitol, his political leanings didn’t matter.
“I had Republican friends, Democrat friends, but right now it’s clear that one side is adamant about protecting democracy and the other side is adamant about tearing it down,” he said.
Keep calm and carry on
Speaking with the Chronicle on Sunday, Schiff said he worries about the fissuring of bipartisanship.
“I certainly hope that Israel never becomes a wedge issue,” he said. “There have been actions taken by Republicans in Congress to try to make Israel a wedge issue, to even try and make antisemitism a wedge issue.”
Schiff accused House Republicans of including a “poison pill” in the initial post-Oct. 7 Israel aid package, and said that in lieu of simply issuing the measure, Republicans attempted to provide funding through Internal Revenue Service cuts.
“I have never seen aid to Israel conditioned on some completely irrelevant policy matter, and that’s got to stop,” he said. “There is enormous bipartisan support in Congress for Israel and it needs to be kept that way.”
U.S. legislators aren’t the only ones responsible for ensuring collective support for the Jewish state; Israel has a role as well, Schiff said. “There have been times when it appears that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is seeking to have an open public fight with the administration, which I don’t think is in Israel’s best interest. I think both countries, and both parties in the United States, and the multitude of parties in Israel, need to be united and depoliticize the U.S.-Israel relationship.”
One shared duty involves responding to the events of Oct. 7.
“Considering this was an attack on both Israelis and Americans, this is our common responsibility to bring those terrorists to justice,” Schiff said. “However difficult it is, however long it takes, people need to understand that you murder our citizens in cold blood, we will hunt you down. That we will never forget what you did to our citizens.”
The Californian, who celebrated his bar mitzvah at Temple Isaiah in the Bay Area in 1973, has long advocated for Israel.
What it means to support the Jewish state today is recognizing the “common interests we have,” he said. “As the former chair of the [House] Intelligence Committee, I saw how closely our two countries worked together to share information to keep both of our peoples safe. Blind spots that we had, sometimes Israel would see. Blind spots Israel would have, sometimes we would see. And of course there are the times where neither country saw the threat coming, but our security has improved through the partnership with Israel.”
That bond cannot wane, he said. “At a time when Israel has been the subject of the most horrific attack, we need to have the back of the people of Israel and help them defend themselves, help secure the release of Americans who are held hostage, as well as Israelis, people from other countries; make sure that Israel remains a safe refuge for Jewish people, and that we are in solidarity with fighting this global scourge of antisemitism that even today threatens Israel, but also threatens Jews in America and everywhere else.”
Making a case
Throughout Sunday, Schiff attended several Casey campaign events. He also met with Jewish voters in an effort to promote the Harris-Walz ticket.
When asked about Casey and the Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees, Schiff said, “I think these candidates have been rock solid in support of Israel, rock solid in combating antisemitism.”
Still, registered voters have concerns.
Last week, Jewish Insider reported McCormick’s growing appeal to some “disaffected Jewish Democrats.”
In August, Teach Coalition polling noted 53% of Pennsylvanians believe that Harris either “strongly or somewhat supports Israel,” while 39% believe she either “does not support Israel or is anti-Israel.”
Schiff called Casey a “champion” and lauded the senator’s efforts to not only “strengthen enforcement actions” at the Office for Civil Rights, but bringing $1 million in federal funding to Tree of Life for developing and implementing a K-12 curriculum to help educators and students identify and challenge antisemitism and identity-based hate.
“Kamala Harris as long as I have known her has been a steadfast supporter of Israel — Tim Walz the same,” Schiff said. “I think she understands the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship, that it’s based on shared values and shared national security interests.”
Schiff, who served as lead manager in Trump’s first impeachment trial, contrasted these approaches to Israel with Trump’s “transactional” methodology.
“He only has one interest at stake, and it’s not the national interest — it’s his own personal interest,” Schiff said. “Anyone who thinks that Donald Trump wouldn’t sell Israel down the road, should he see a monetary interest in the Gulf nations pushing him in the other direction, will be in for a rude awakening.”
Both sides of the aisle continue making their cases to voters.
Trump spoke in Erie on Sunday. Nine days earlier, during a “Fighting Antisemitism in America” event, he said the “Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss” should he lose the election.
Pennsylvania is the swing state with the largest Jewish population, and about 300,000 voting-age Jews. In 2020, President Joe Biden won the commonwealth by about 80,000 votes. PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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