April 30, 2025 — Washington, DC
American Jewish Committee (AJC) CEO Ted Deutch today testified at the Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing “Never Again: Addressing the Rise of Antisemitism and Supporting Older Americans.” Deutch was previously a Member of Congress from Florida. During his tenure in the House, he served as the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and a founding co-chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism.
During his opening statement, Deutch said, “It doesn’t matter who is targeting Jews, whether it is the far-left or the far-right. For us, the hatred and the fear are the same. Anytime a Jewish person is under threat, it affects every Jew, because we are all interconnected. But rising antisemitism isn’t just a Jewish problem. It’s a crisis for our democracy and our society. Antisemitism divides us, it weakens our social cohesion, it impedes our ability to solve the challenges that we face. This moment demands bold actions from our leaders.”
Citing AJC’s State of Antisemitism in America 2024 Report, Deutch shared that 73% of American Jews feel less secure than they did a year ago and that 56% have changed their behavior because of fear of antisemitism. He also noted that of the 1.6 million American Jewish seniors – including more than 30,000 Holocaust survivors – 43% are worried they'll be victims of antisemitism, and 53% are worried their loved ones will be.
To fight antisemitism, Deutch pointed to the need to pass key bipartisan legislation, including the HEAL Act to help stamp out misinformation about the Jewish community, the Antisemitism Awareness Act, and the Protecting Students on Campus Act to help identify antisemitism and empower students to report Title VI violations. He also called on Congress to codify into federal statute May as Jewish American Heritage Month.
Deutch urged Congress to work with the Trump Administration to support and fund the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and to consider targeted and narrow reform of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to tackle online antisemitism and make platforms safer for all users. He also called for the unfreezing of the vital funding associated with the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
On Sunday, at AJC Global Forum, Deutch announced a new partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation to document and map contemporary antisemitism. Harnessing AJC’s global reach and the USC Shoah Foundation’s expertise in testimony collection, AJC will contribute to the USC Shoah Foundation’s ambitious and visionary goal of collecting 10,000 testimonies from across the United States and around the world to document incidents of antisemitism post-1945, and bring voice to the worldwide persistence of antisemitism and its many manifestations. This multi-year, international testimony collection is part of the USC Shoah Foundation’s Contemporary Antisemitism Collection.
Other witnesses included David Schaecter, Holocaust Survivor and Founder, Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach; Rabbi Mark Rosenberg, Senior Advisor and Chief Chaplain to Miami-Dade Sheriff, Chief Chaplain to FHP and FDLE, Director of the Chesed Shel Emes Florida; and Rebecca Federman, Senior Director, Community Security Initiative (CSI) Intelligence Desk.
AJC is the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people. With headquarters in New York, 25 regional offices across the United States, 15 overseas posts, as well as partnerships with 38 Jewish community organizations worldwide, AJC’s mission is to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. For more, please visit www.ajc.org.
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