August 13, 2025
This column originally appeared in USA Today Network newspapers in New Jersey.
By Dena Dubofsky-Blum
For years, the Jewish community in New Jersey looked to our leaders to take the rising threat of antisemitism seriously.
According to American Jewish Committee’s State of Antisemitism in America 2024 Report, 93% of American Jews believe antisemitism is a problem in the U.S. — with 91% saying the problem has worsened over the last five years — while one-third reported being the personal target of antisemitism at least once over the last year.
New Jersey Jews have experienced their share of hatred directed at them. Whether it be the deadly Kosher grocery store shooting in Jersey City, the attempted firebombing of Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield or protesters painting threatening antisemitic graffiti at Oheb Shalom in Maplewood, it is clear that violent antisemitism has taken root in the Garden State.
It is time — even if only for a moment — for U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli to put aside their differences and acknowledge that antisemitism is not just a problem for the Jewish community to address, but that the whole of society is responsible for combating this scourge.
Antisemitism should not be a political issue, yet some in Trenton have made it one. We know that antisemitism exists on both the left and right. Regardless of who wins in November, the fight against anti-Jewish hate should not be up to only one party to address. It may not be the instinct of politicians, but the fight against antisemitism can be immeasurably more effective when it is not a partisan wedge issue.
This is more than a pipedream. It has actually happened. We saw that in Washington, when the leaders of both parties in the U.S. House of Representatives, Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, held a vigil for Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, the two young Israeli embassy staffers gunned down outside of an American Jewish Committee event at the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21.
Similarly, politicians on both sides of the aisle roundly condemned the June 1 firebombing of marchers in Boulder, Colorado, demanding the return of the remaining hostages in Gaza. Partisanship played no role in reacting to this horrific incident that injured 15 people, including an 82-year-old woman who died of her wounds a month later.
Such tragedies should prompt Sherrill and Ciattarelli to commit to investing in Jewish community security and support adequate funding so synagogues, Jewish schools and Jewish cultural sites get the protection they need. Many Jewish institutions already resemble armed fortresses at great cost and sacrifice. But more needs to be done. Jews should be allowed to be Jews without fear or trepidation.
I know that feeling. I have been one of those Jews who chose to sit out of communal events with my toddler out of fear. I am not alone.
According to the AJC report, 56% of American Jews say they altered their behavior out of fear of antisemitism. That could mean not wearing a yarmulke in public, concealing a Star of David necklace or keeping pro-Israel views to yourself rather than posting them online, the source of so much of the antisemitism we see and hear today.
I should not have to live that way, nor should any of the other more than 600,000 Jews in New Jersey. That is something Sherrill and Ciattarelli should be able to agree on.
Dena Dubofsky-Blum is associate director of the American Jewish Committee New Jersey regional office.
