EXCLUSIVE: Lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee met with stakeholders and law enforcement to address the rise of antisemitic violence in the U.S., during a closed-door congressional roundtable on July 22, Fox News Digital has learned.
The roundtable comes amid growing concerns about antisemitic violence months after recent attacks in Boulder, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., along with growing fears surrounding the potential election of Zohran Mamdani, who has espoused anti-Israel viewpoints, as New York City mayor.
"Jewish communities across the country are living in fear, and I am committed to standing with them. This roundtable comes at a critical moment: a far-left activist who has defended the phrase 'globalize the intifada' is inching closer to leading a city home to one of the world's largest Jewish populations," Rep. August Pfluger, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee's counterterrorism and intelligence subcommittee, said in his opening statement, obtained by Fox News Digital.
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"Antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric is becoming dangerously mainstream. We must act now to expose and combat this vile hatred wherever it is spread," Pfluger said.
The roundtable focused on improving interagency coordination, intelligence sharing, training, and enforcement to better prevent and respond to antisemitic violence, according to a House Homeland Security Committee aide.
In particular, the meeting addressed ways to bolster communication between the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, along with state and local law enforcement, according to Michael Masters, the CEO of the Secure Community Network, a non-profit organization focused on the safety of the Jewish community in North America.
This interagency coordination is absolutely paramount as the Secure Community Network has flagged 500 credible threats to life this year - which all have required immediate law enforcement intervention, according to Masters.
"Bad guys don't respect orders. Bad actors don't respect jurisdictions, and that means that our intelligence can't be siloed," Masters told Fox News Digital on Monday.
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Additionally, the roundtable's discussion highlighted how extremist rhetoric can spread, especially on college campuses and via social media, the aide said. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, student protests have erupted across college campuses in the U.S., including at Columbia University in New York.
Likewise, those participating in the roundtable addressed the prevalence of homegrown and foreign-influenced extremism, when one participant highlighted instances where anti-Israel terrorist organizations have disseminated tool kits and talking points aimed at promoting attacks in the U.S., the committee aide said.
The discussion is expected to inform legislative priorities centered around bolstering officer training, improving data collection, and ensuring "robust prosecution" of antisemitic offenses, the committee aide said.
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Those who participated in the roundtable included representatives from the Secure Community Networks; the Anti-Defamation League, an organization dedicated to stopping the defamation of the Jewish people; the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Intelligence & Analysis; and law enforcement officials.
Pfluger, a Republican from Texas, has spearheaded legislation that would bar any visa holders backing Hamas or other designated terror groups from staying in the U.S.
He also led a hearing last month on the rise of antisemitic violence in the U.S., following a May shooting that killed two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington and a terrorist attack in Colorado targeting a grassroots group advocating for the release of Israeli hostages.
Antisemitic violence reached a new high in 2024, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
The group recorded 9,354 antisemitic instances of harassment, assault, and vandalism in the U.S. in 2024 - a 5% increase from the 8,873 incidents recorded in 2023 and a 344% increase in the past five years. Likewise, the number of incidents is the highest the group has recorded since 1979, when the group first started tracking these cases.
Incidents of antisemitic violence in 2024 were highest in the state of New York, where Mamdani is currently a state assemblyman.
Mamdani has attracted scrutiny, including from Democrats, for initially failing to condemn the term "globalize the intifada," a phrase used to back Palestinian resistance against Israel. However, he has since said he will not use the term and will discourage others from using it as well.
Still, concerns remain over what his potential leadership as mayor could mean for the Jewish community in New York City. Roughly 1.4 million people in the Greater New York Area identified as Jewish in 2023, according to UJA-Federation of New York.
"There's a lot of fear in the Jewish community if this guy becomes mayor," New York City Republican councilwoman Inna Vernikov told Fox News Digital.
"This is a guy who wants to globalize the intifada," Vernikov said. "We've never seen anything close to this in New York City. We have the largest Jewish population in America, and I'll tell you Jews are telling me they're going to run away from New York City, and Jews have contributed a lot to the city and to this country, and the idea that they are now afraid to live here - it's unacceptable and unprecedented really, this has never happened here."
Fox News' Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
