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The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) was honored to participate in the 51st Annual Meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Denver, Colorado, this week.
Board of Governors member Arie Lipnick and Director of Public Policy Eliana Goodman attended the conference on behalf of CAM, and Goodman joined a roundtable discussion on Wednesday on free speech policies.
In her remarks, Goodman talked about the surge of antisemitism Jewish American students have faced in the aftermath of October 7th.
“Since that horrific day, antisemitic hate, discrimination, targeting, and violence has exploded here in the United States,” Goodman said. “Throughout this past academic year, college and university campuses, as well as K-12 schools, have become hotbeds of antisemitic activity as students, faculty, administrators, and outside adult agitators participated in anti-Israel demonstrations, lock-ins, encampments, and ‘occupations.'”
She added, “Unfortunately, numerous ‘elite’ educational institutions across the country, such as Harvard and Columbia, have done nothing to properly protect Jewish students on campus. They have enabled mobs of people, mostly outside agitators, to infiltrate their campuses and scare, harm, and target Jewish students, faculty, and staff.”
Goodman also highlighted the effectiveness of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism as a tool in investigating and prosecuting hate crimes.
On Thursday, CAM sponsored a panel on antisemitism, with participants including recent Harvard graduate Shabbos Kestenbaum, Florida State Representative Randy Fine, and Texas State Senator Phil King. The moderator was Aryeh Lightstone, former advisor to U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
The main theme of the conversation was that antisemitism was not just a Jewish or Israel issue, but also an American one.
Kestenbaum shared his personal experiences with antisemitism at Harvard and urged state lawmakers to pressure school to take action to protect Jewish students.
Fine and King both recalled past visits to Israel, including Fine’s last month as part of a CAM-organized delegation, and also spoke to state-level initiatives that can be taken against antisemitism, including IHRA definition adoptions, anti-BDS laws, and the establishment of antisemitism and Holocaust education commissions.
Stellar @ALEC_states panel with @lightstonea, @PhilKingTX, @VoteRandyFine and @ShabbosK about university campuses and Israel.
The panel, sponsored by CAM, concluded that antisemitism is not just a Jewish or Israel issue, but an American issue.
#ALECINCO #ALECideas #ALEC24 pic.twitter.com/7kZgcCWVQw
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) July 26, 2024
Watch the panel discussion (beginning around the 1:37:30 mark) HERE:
ALEC describes itself as “America’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization of state legislators dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism.”
For more information on ALEC, please visit: alec.org
