Opinion: Our elected officials have to do more to prevent anti-Semitism in the U.S.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Boris Epshteyn formerly served as a Senior Advisor to the Trump Campaign and served in the White House as Special Assistant to The President and Assistant Communications Director for Surrogate Operations.
WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) - The apparent hate crime murder of a Holocaust survivor in France leaves me scared, shocked and wanting our country to do more to prevent the rise of anti-Semitism here, in America.
An 85-year-old woman, Mireille Knoll, was stabbed 11 times and set on fire in her apartment in Paris last week. It appears that she was killed because she was Jewish.
Two men have been charged with the murder. French police say the murder was motivated by anti-Semitism.
Mrs. Knoll was a loving mom and grandma. She survived the Holocaust, but did not survive the hate toward Jews that is again on the rise throughout the world.
Mireille Knoll reminds me of my grandmother. My grandma was also Jewish, kind, full of life and love.
In the United States, anti-Semitic incidents went up by almost 60 percent between 2016 and 2017, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League. That is the single largest rise on record.
Those incidents include bomb threats, vandalism and physical assaults.
What does it say about our country when sitting members of Congress have praised well-known anti–Semite Louis Farrakhan and have received very little political blowback.
Here is the bottom line: last week that murder happened in France and next week it could very well happen here, in America. We as a country and our elected officials specifically have to do everything possible to denounce and prevent anti-Semitism at every turn.
