Pennsylvania Jewish legislators and their allies are coming together to fight antisemitism and other forms of hate.
State Rep. Dan Frankel and Sen. Judy Schwank announced on March 21 the creation of the commonwealth’s first ever Jewish Legislative Caucus to address the concerns of Jewish communities. Fourteen of the 22 caucus members, all Democrats, represent Philadelphia’s five-county region, including Reps. Jared Solomon and Ben Waxman of Philadelphia.
“There’s an added sense of urgency today to do something on an organized basis with my colleagues,” Frankel, who represents Allegheny County, said.
“We continue as a neighborhood and community to experience incidents of antisemitism, physical attacks on people who you can easily identify as being Jewish, particularly in the Orthodox community,” he added.
Frankel represents the Squirrel Hill neighborhood where the Tree of Life synagogue shooting took place almost five years ago, but cited the Anti-Defamation League’s Audit on Antisemitism 2022 as need for growing vigilance to address anti-Jewish hate. The ADL’s audit found 3,697 cases of antisemitism last year, including 114 in Pennsylvania.
To address growing antisemitism, Frankel plans to introduce a series of bills to “modernize laws relating to hate crimes and ethnic intimidation in Pennsylvania,” according to a press release. These bills include an expansion of the Ethnic intimidation Statute; providing law enforcement training on identifying, investigating and addressing ethnic intimidation; and expanding programs for reporting discrimination in schools, among others.
On April 24, the caucus will host a rally and press conference in Harrisburg to introduce the four pieces of legislation.
Intentionally, each bill not only addresses antisemitism, but hate crimes and discrimination more broadly.
“We’re very concerned about the increase in hate crimes against the Jewish community but as well as other communities in the commonwealth too,” Schwank said. “That leads to the work on looking at hate-based violence against all groups, not just against Jewish communities.”
The caucus’ broad agenda is reflected in its makeup. A handful of non-Jewish legislators have joined the caucus, including Rep.Tarik Khan, whose Philadelphia district includes Mishkan Shalom, a synagogue he calls “one of the pillars” of the district.
A member of Circle of Friends, the Philadelphia chapter of the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, Khan grew up to a Muslim father and Catholic mother in a largely Jewish neighborhood. He has seen firsthand the ways in which different faith communities can come together to support each other.
“We have to stand together, and it can’t just be when your own group is affected,” he said. “You have to stand with your community.”
While caucuses provide symbolic shows of solidarity, they are also useful in gaining legislative support. Khan uses an example of a bill he introduced on increasing accessibility of playgrounds. He turned to the commonwealth’s Disability Caucus and Autism and Intellectual Disabilities Caucus to find support for the bill. Similarly, if other legislators were pushing legislation to address discrimination, they could know where to find co-sponsers.
The caucus will also be used to educate legislators on Jewish issues, Schwank said. In April for the group’s first meeting, ADL Philadelphia will share information about the Audit on Antisemitism 2022. She identified another goal of the caucus, to educate the general public about what the legislator is doing to address hate, such as the passage and growth of the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which Schwank introduced an earlier draft of.
Waxman, who represents Center City Philadelphia, sees the caucus as an opportunity to educate other legislators on Jewish culture.
“It’s good for people to be exposed to Jewish culture, and it’s good to have it coming from legislators,” he said.
In addition to pushing legislation, the caucus can also serve as the host for cultural events, such as a Chanukah party, to educate non-Jewish legislators on Jewish issues beyond antisemitism.
“The legislative perspective is really important, the work that outside advocates do, bringing people’s faiths and cultures and concerns to the legislature — but there’s something incredibly valuable about it happening at a peer-to-peer level, and a caucus allows us to do that,” Waxman said.