Congressman Cohen Condemns Antisemitism from the House Floor

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) spoke on the House floor Monday evening to condemn antisemitism and racism after returning from the commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the United Nations in New York.

In his remarks, Congressman Cohen described the stirring and emotional event in the General Assembly Hall on the 75^th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. He mentioned a Holocaust survivor who told the crowd that her family was proof that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis did not win.

Congressman Cohen also noted that antisemitism has grown in recent years to a higher level than any other time since the Holocaust, and that it must be condemned. He said passing the Never Again Education Act on Monday night, which will strengthen Holocaust education programs, was a good step but that the country needs "more than talk."

"When the Klan raises its ugly head, in Charlottesville, Virginia, and in other places, we have to condemn the Ku Klux Klan, whose whole basis is against African Americans and against Jews because of their race and religion," he said.

See Congressman Cohen's entire floor remarks here.

As a state senator, Steve Cohen sponsored legislation to create the Tennessee Holocaust Commission in 1984, one of the first in the country, and served as an ex-officio member of the Commission. The stated mission of the Tennessee Holocaust Commission is to educate Tennesseans about the history of the Holocaust, seeking to remind citizens that prejudice, hatred and violence, as manifested in the Holocaust and other genocides, leads to the destruction of a humane society.