WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When U.S. President Joe Biden arrives at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to honor the memory of the 6 million Jews who were killed eight decades ago, his message will focus on both the present and the past.
Biden's speech will address the existential threats faced by Jewish people, particularly poignant as it falls seven months to the day since the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 by Israeli counts, marking what Biden has described as the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. His remarks come amidst Israel's retaliatory strikes, which have claimed 35,000 lives in Gaza, under Hamas control, according to Gaza health authorities. The attacks have pushed many of the area's 2.3 million inhabitants to the brink of starvation and triggered protests in the U.S., calling for universities and the Biden administration to withdraw support for Israel. Israel has vowed to continue its offensive against Rafah in the south, raising concerns of further suffering for Palestinians.
Speaking at the Capitol for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's annual National Commemoration of the Days of Remembrance, Biden aims to address the increasingly divided U.S. debate on Jewish security, Zionism, free speech, and support for Israel, particularly in a country with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel.
Many Jewish Americans have criticized Israel's actions in Gaza, leading to protests against the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and condemnation of Netanyahu in Congress. Law enforcement and advocacy groups have reported a sharp rise in antisemitic attacks in the United States since Oct. 7, as well as anti-Muslim attacks. Some Americans advocate for zero-tolerance policies that broadly define antisemitism, while others argue that the threat of attacks against Jews is being used to limit legitimate criticism of U.S. support for Israel.
"Antisemitism is reaching crisis levels in our country," said Carol Ann Schwartz, national president of Hadassah, a women's Zionist organization that has been consulted by the White House. "Right now, we need our leaders to not only acknowledge the pain people are feeling but also to actively confront the anti-Israel and anti-Zionist misinformation and lies being propagated on college campuses and beyond, which have made Jews a target."
Biden, who has mostly avoided addressing campus demonstrations or protesters over his support for Israel that have dogged him for months, will speak about the subject for the second time in five days on Tuesday. He will condemn the rise in antisemitism while affirming support for free speech, his spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday.
"This is a very important moment for the president to step forward," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal advocacy group J Street, who has also been consulted by the White House. "The issue is being heavily politicized. There's a lot of tension."
It's also a key political moment for Biden, who is in a tight race with Republican rival Donald Trump. Biden may be losing crucial support from young and liberal Democrats over his support for Israel, Democrats say.
Biden pledged to unite the country and said he was inspired to run by Trump's response to the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, white nationalist rally, where marchers chanted "Jews will not replace us." However, the country remains as divided as when he took office in 2021, according to most statistics.
The FBI reported a 36% increase in anti-Jewish hate crime incidents between 2021 and 2022, the latest year for which data is available, as well as a rise in crimes against Black Americans and gay men. The Secure Community Network (SCN), an American Jewish security organization, has referred over 504 individuals to law enforcement through March this year, surpassing last year's pace, including threats at colleges.
"This is a scary time to be Jewish - it's important for the president to rise to this challenge," said SCN CEO Michael Masters.
Trump has sought to exploit Democratic divisions over Israel's response and widening college protests to improve Republicans' standing with Jewish voters, who traditionally vote Democratic. Police actions on some campuses have supported Trump's assertion that U.S. cities are under siege from violent crime, illegal migration, and leftist policies. Trump and the Republican Party argue that the protests are driven by antisemitism and that Biden has failed to protect Jewish students on campus.
"Jewish Americans are realizing that the Democrat Party has turned into a full-blown anti-Israel, antisemitic, pro-terrorist cabal, and that's why more and more Jewish Americans are supporting President Trump," said Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson.
About seven in 10 U.S. Jewish voters support Democrats, while three in 10 are Republican-aligned, according to the Pew Research Center. Many political analysts say Jewish voters, like other Americans, rarely vote primarily on foreign policy issues.
Kenneth Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, who helped craft a modern "working definition of antisemitism," said the word is being misused to stifle protected speech about Israel.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill last week that would apply the definition Stern helped develop to enforce federal anti-discrimination laws on college campuses. Stern opposes the bill.
"I don't think that you can combat hatred of any type effectively with weak democratic institutions," said Stern. "When we have a government that decides it's going to stop certain things from being said, that creates an opportunity for totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and that's never good for the Jews."