At the Holocaust Memorial, Biden will denounce antisemitism and celebrate free expression

US President Joe Biden will memorialize the six million Jews who were murdered eight decades ago by making an appearance at the US Capitol on Tuesday. His speech will focus equally on the present and the past.

Speaking about the existential risks to the Jewish people, Biden will also address the rise in anti-Semitism following the Israeli army’s armed offensive against the Palestinians. According to Biden, this is one of the deadliest anti-Semitic movements against Jews since the Holocaust.

His remarks coincide with reports that Israel’s reprisal has killed 35,000 people in Hamas-controlled Gaza, putting many of the region’s 2.3 million residents in danger of starvation and inciting protests in the US calling for universities and the Biden administration to stop supporting Israel. Israel pledged on Monday to continue its offensive on Rafah in the south, which poses a threat to cause the Palestinian people even more suffering.

In the nation with the largest Jewish population after Israel, Biden will attempt to defuse a heated and increasingly divided debate about Jewish security, Zionism, free speech, and support for Israel by giving the keynote address at the Capitol during the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual National Commemoration of the Days of Remembrance.

Numerous Jewish Americans have expressed disapproval of Israel’s Gaza operations, spearheading demonstrations against the policies of the government led by right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and denouncing Netanyahu in Congress.

Law enforcement and advocacy organizations, on the other hand, note a substantial increase in anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic incidents in the US after October 7. While some Americans believe that the prospect of attacks on Jews should be used as a deterrent to valid criticism of US support for Israel, others support zero-tolerance measures that define antisemitism broadly.

For months, Biden has been plagued by protests and rallies on college campuses because of his support for Israel. On Tuesday, he will address the issue for the second time in five days. According to his spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre, he will support free speech while denouncing the surge in antisemitism. This was stated to reporters on Monday.

“There is a lot of passion. There is a strong political bent to the issue. A great deal of tension exists. Thus, now is a critical time for the president to speak up,” stated Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal advocacy organization J Street, who has also provided advice to the White House.

For Biden, who is competing against Republican candidate Donald Trump in a close contest, it’s also a crucial political moment. Democrats claim that because of his support for Israel, Biden may be losing significant support from younger, liberal Democrats.

In his campaign speech, Biden vowed to bring the nation together and stated that Trump’s handling of the 2017 white supremacist event in Charlottesville, Virginia, when protestors yelled, “Jews will not replace us,” served as his inspiration. By most measures, Biden is in charge of a nation that is just as divided as it was when he first entered office in 2021.

In 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, the FBI recorded a 36% increase in cases of anti-Jewish hate crimes, along with a rise in attacks against Black Americans and gay males.

Referring more than 504 people to law police through March of this year—including threats at colleges—the Secure Community Network (SCN), an American Jewish security organization that keeps an eye out for hate incidents, has been operating at a faster pace than it did in previous years.

SCN CEO Michael Masters stated, “It’s critical for the president to rise to this challenge—this is a scary time to be Jewish.”

Politics of Campus Protest

In an attempt to strengthen the Republican brand among Jewish voters—who lean Democratic—Trump has tried to take advantage of Democratic disagreements on Israel’s response and the expansion of college demonstrations.

Police crackdowns on some campuses have provided credence to President Trump’s long-standing narrative that violent crime, illegal immigration, and unchecked leftist policies are besieging US cities.

Trump and the Republican Party have maintained that Biden has not done enough to shield Jewish students on campus from antisemitism, which is the driving force behind the protests.

According to the Pew Research Center, roughly three out of ten American Jews lean Republican, while seven out of ten prefer Democrats. Jewish voters, according to many political observers, seldom vote primarily on foreign policy matters, similar to other Americans.

A contemporary “working definition of antisemitism” was aided by Kenneth Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, who said the term is being abused to suppress free speech critical of Israel.

Last week, a bill that would implement the definition Stern assisted in developing to uphold federal anti-discrimination rules on college campuses was enacted by the U.S. House of Representatives. Stern doesn’t like the bill.

“I don’t think that you can combat hatred of any type effectively with weak democratic institutions,” Stern stated. “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.”