U.S. Sen. Bob Casey formally announced $1 million in funding to create educational programming designed to counter antisemitism, a curriculum that will be crafted at a center located at the site of the worst act of antisemitic violence in U.S. history.
“We will change the conversation about antisemitism … to uproot it completely from our world,” Casey said while speaking at the site of the Tree of Life synagogue on Friday morning. “And I have no doubt that's going to happen because of the efforts that are being undertaken here."
The federal money will underwrite the cost of staff and other resources needed to devise and teach the curriculum, which will be offered to students in grades K through 12. The goal, Tree of Life CEO Carole Zawatsky, said, was “to help educators and students across this nation identify and challenge anti-Semitism and identity-based hate.”
It’s part of a broader mission as Tree of Life rebuilds from the 2018 mass shooting that killed 11 people during religious services. The new Tree of Life will feature not just a new synagogue but a memorial to the shooting victims, as well as a museum and education center dedicated to commemorating the Jewish experience and to countering antisemitism.
Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers said that while addressing hatred often “starts at the kitchen table … it is unlikely that the kitchen tables that we need to sit at will be welcoming.” And so, he said, “the future Tree of Life will be a place with lots of kitchen tables, where students can learn the history of antisemitism, the attitudes that led to the Holocaust as well as 10/27.
“It is through elementary school children that attitudes can be transformed,” he added.
Casey first announced that the funding for the program had been secured in March, part of a $30 million funding package to benefit community initiatives statewide. But Friday’s event called attention to the initiative, at a time when Casey is up for reelection against a Republican challenger, David McCormick, who has accused the three-term senator of not doing enough to combat antisemitism.
Casey noted the funding was just one of his efforts on the issue, though others have encountered more resistance on Capitol Hill. Earlier this month Casey made an unsuccessful bid to use a procedure known as “unanimous consent” to quickly approve the Antisemitism Awareness Act after it passed in the House. Casey has cosponsored similar legislation in previous sessions of Congress.
The measure provides a definition of antisemitism and requires college campuses to include it in their anti-discrimination policies. But on Friday, Casey said his efforts to fast-track the bill had been waylaid by “some people in both parties who don’t like us using this definition” of antisemitism.
Some critics of the phrasing have said it blurs the line between antisemitism and criticisms of Israeli policy. “They want another definition, or they think the definition is too broad,” Casey said. “I think they’re wrong.”
Casey also said a key component of the measure is to provide more funding — $280 million — for the federal office charged with investigating allegations that a campus has become hostile.
“You ought to pay a price if you allow antisemitism or racism or other discriminatory practice to persist on your campus.”
