Friends,
Jewish communities are hurting right now. The horrific terror attack at Bondi Beach on the first night of Hanukkah is a painful reminder of how urgent it is to confront those fueling antisemitism – from all dark corners – in our country and around the world.
Children, students and parents are carrying a growing sense of fear. We shouldn’t need another deadly attack to recognize that antisemitism is a serious and escalating threat – and that failing to respond only emboldens those spreading the hatred.
That’s why J Street is mobilizing around a major new effort in Congress to make real, tangible progress in confronting antisemitism – and why we need your help.
The Antisemitism Response and Prevention Act (ARPA), introduced by Representatives Jerry Nadler, Rosa DeLauro, Becca Balint and Maxwell Frost, would provide security funding for places of worship, strengthen national hate crime tracking and responses, and ensure college students have on-campus support.
Importantly, the bill also preserves space for legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and prevents the Trump Administration from using DEI or disingenuous claims of antisemitism as a pretext for anti-democratic crackdowns or punishing communities it should be supporting.
As J Street has long maintained, diverting attention toward fighting ideological battles rather than actually fighting those fuelling antisemitism is counterproductive and makes everyone less safe.
We’re proud to be among the first to support this bill. Friend, will you join us?
Take Action Against Antisemitism! »
✍️ Add your name! ✍️
After signing, you’ll receive a confirmation message with a call script and your Member of Congress’s phone number so you can personally ask them to co-sponsor this critical bill.
The legislation is also designed to combat far-right forces who use Jewish fear as cover for Islamophobia, xenophobia and attacks on Palestinians. For them, it’s not about keeping Jews safe – it’s about advancing their own agendas.
At its core, ARPA is about meeting real needs: Protecting communities, supporting students, coordinating a serious national response and defending the democratic freedoms that have allowed Jewish life to flourish in this country. It confronts threats from both the far right and the fringe left while refusing to weaponize antisemitism for political gain.
✍️ Sign the petition now to make your voice heard ✍️
ARPA is a comprehensive progressive plan to address antisemitism, deeply rooted in our values and one that enshrines our civil rights and protections, and J Street is proud to support it. Now, we’re asking for your help.
In solidarity,
Bradley Freericks
Associate Director of Government Affairs, J Street
P.S. If you'd like to learn more about the bill, here's a summary of the legislation:
Supports the Biden Administration’s landmark US National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, including its approach to defining antisemitism;
Clearly states that it is against the policy of the United States to use antisemitism as grounds to pursue ulterior political agendas, including attacks on educational institutions, suppressing constitutionally-protected speech, or any other enforcement of ideological conformity;
Affirms that criticism of Israeli government policy is a form of political speech protected by the first amendment;
Fully funds the Office for Civil Rights of the Depart of Education, undoes the Trump closure of regional offices, prevents regional offices from being closed in the future, and creates greater Congressional oversight into the work of the office;
Mandates the designation of a Title VI coordinator on every college campus in order to provide students with additional resources in hopes of preventing antisemitism and other hate on campus, and, should they encounter it, also provides a place to turn locally to report any such incidents;
Creates a Hate Crime Reporting Center and provides additional resources in an effort to record, track, index, report, and publish data related to every hate crime committed in the United States;
Fully funds the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) to harden the security and protect religious communities and nonprofits, mandates the government provide additional resources to ensure these funds are more accessible to those in need, and ensures that the government cannot discriminate based on partisan political ideologies in the granting and distribution of these funds;
Creates a National Coordinator to Counter Antisemitism in order to coordinate a whole-of-government response to the antisemitism crisis in America and ensure comprehensive efforts at combatting and preventing antisemitism in the US;
Requires reports to Congress by the executive on extremist ideologies in the US and the domestic terror threats and their sources.
