Blumenthal: ​“Virus Of Hatred Is Spreading”

When Richard Blumenthal was growing up, his father used to warn him about anti-Semitic violence.

His father had fled Nazi Germany in 1935 to come to the U.S. at the age of 17.

“My father always said, ​‘It can happen here,’” Blumenthal recalled Wednesday.

Now, as one of Connecticut’s U.S. senators, Blumenthal finds himself confronting a surge in anti-Semitic violence.

He has sponsored a bill, called the National Opposition to Hate, Assault, and Threats to Equality (NO HATE) Act, to bolster hate-crimes reporting and joint law enforcement-community responses.

Along with fellow U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, and other elected and community leaders, Blumenthal plans to hold a press conference Thursday at the Greater New Haven Jewish Community Center at 360 Amity Rd. to announce new federal grants available to Connecticut houses of worship for security measures.

Reported anti-Semitic incidents across the country leaped from 942 in 2015 to 1,879 in 2018, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

A string of almost-daily violent attacks on Jews coincided with the recently concluded eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, including the stabbing of five Jews participating in a menorah-lighting inside a rabbi’s home in Monsey, N.Y.

“When I celebrated the last night of Hanukkah, I put our menorah in the window, [and] my mind went to that family whose shock and horror can only be imagined,” Blumenthal said during a conversation at Hillhouse High School Wednesday following the inauguration of New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker.

“There’s been a surge in anti-Semitic violence — it’s indisputable — as well as against other religious minorities,” Blumenthal said.

“Racial discrimination is more common than ever …. The virus of hatred is spreading. We need to stop all of it, whoever the target is.”

He called for stepped-up enforcement of hate crimes as well as ​“unequivocal” communal condemnation of attacks on people based on their race or religion.

“There are not ​‘good people on both sides,’” Blumenthal stated, referencing President Donald Trump’s depiction of a white supremacist’s deadly 2017 attack on civil rights protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. ​“There is evil.”