Rabbi tells Senate hearing it's 'not enough' to be 'not anti-Semitic' - 'one must be anti-anti-Semitic'
By newseditors // 2025-04-01
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Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Levi Shemtov, who has been dubbed "the rabbi of Capitol Hill," told Senators at a hearing on anti-Semitism that it's "not enough" for "individuals and institutions" to be "not anti-Semitic" -- "one must be anti-anti-Semitic." (Article by Chris Menahan republished from InformationLiberation.com) "Anti-Semitism is not just an age-old prejudice, it is a contemporary crisis manifesting on campuses across the nation," Shemtov said at the Senate hearing on Thursday. "It is not enough for individuals or institutions to merely claim they are not anti-Semitic. As my father once taught me, it is not enough for people especially public figures to be neutral or not be anti-Semitic one must be anti-anti-Semitic." "We must demand the same of our universities and government institutions," he added. "This hearing in my opinion is an attempt to be just that -- anti-anti-Semitic." Shemtov's comments triggered a firestorm on X after being clipped and shared by yours truly. "This is a page right out of the BLM playbook," Matt Walsh said. "The same rhetoric almost word for word." "Does Trump support this?" Candace Owens asked. "When BLM advocated that it was 'not enough to simply not be racist' what came afterwards were demands for racial supremacy under the guise of fighting racism," she added. "I'm not new to this logic." "How about we start with anti-anti-American," Ian Carroll commented. "The founding fathers did not put a hate speech clause in the first amendment for a reason. It is okay to criticize our own government. It is okay to criticize Israel’s government. As long as you’re not harming person or property, it’s okay to say whatever you want. And hearings like this only lead to more antisemitism as everyone asks- 'huh... who's really in charge around here?'" "This witness was introduced by Republican Senator Bill Cassidy who has openly decried critical race theory but apparently sees no contradiction here," Breaking Points co-host Saagar Enjeti noted. "How about anti- Christianism? or is that not a thing..." asked the Hodge Twins. "Does this settle the who’s woke debate?" quipped Dave Smith. Shemtov went on during his same opening statement to call for censorship of anti-Semitism through the anti-free speech "Antisemitism Awareness Act" and institutional adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of "anti-Semitism." Shemtov's call for cracking down on anti-Semitism comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an international conference on anti-Semitism in Jerusalem praised President Trump's ADL-backed crackdown on anti-Semitism and insisted "we must pressure other governments to do the same." While speaking at the same conference in Israel, Trump's former US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, praised Trump for jailing critics of Israel. "There's no reason to think we're ever going to convince [anti-Semites] but we can deport them, we can put them in jail, we can make their lives miserable," Friedman said. "We can cut off their funding and that's what the Trump administration is doing for the first time." As it were, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt was also in Israel earlier this year when he told the Knesset that the kind of "genius" behind the pager attack on Lebanon is now needed to fight "anti-Semitism." Incidentally, I've noticed throughout these endless discussions on ending anti-Semitism one solution that never comes up is ending the genocide in Gaza. Trump during the 2024 campaign at one point blurted out that the Jewish state's decision to bomb civilian buildings is the cause of rising anti-Semitism but he changed his tune after being rebuked by proxies of megadonor Miriam Adelson for making the comment. Read more at: InformationLiberation.com
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