May 25, 2023
Six years ago, Neo-Nazis marched from the shadows through Charlottesville, Virginia, chanting,
“Jews will not replace us.” With torches in hand, they spewed the same antisemitic bile and hate
that were heard across Europe in the 1930s. What happened in Charlottesville—the horror of that
moment, the violence that followed, and the threat it represented for American democracy—
drove me to run for President. The very soul of our Nation was hanging in the balance. It still is
today.
Repeated episodes of hate—including numerous attacks on Jewish Americans—have since
followed Charlottesville, shaking our moral conscience as Americans and challenging the values
for which we stand as a Nation. That is why I convened the first-ever United We Stand Summit
at the White House in September 2022: to bring communities from across the country together to
combat hate in all its forms—including the persistent scourge of antisemitism—that has long
plagued our Nation. We must stand united—regardless of our backgrounds and beliefs—to
affirm that an attack on any one group of us is an attack on us all and that hate can have no safe
harbor in America.
Together, we must acknowledge and confront the reality that antisemitism is rising, both at home
and abroad. Loud voices are normalizing this venom, but we must never allow it to become
normal. Antisemitism threatens not only the Jewish community, but all Americans. People who
peddle these antisemitic conspiracy theories and fuel racial, ethnic, and religious hatred against
Jews also target other communities—including Black and brown Americans; Asian Americans,
Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders; LGBTQI+ individuals; Muslim Americans; women and
girls; and so many others. Our intelligence agencies have determined that domestic terrorism
rooted in white supremacy—including antisemitism—is the greatest terrorist threat to our
Homeland today.
By seeking to turn the masses against the few, by scapegoating and dehumanizing others—and
most of all—by stoking violence, the perpetrators of hate aim to upend our most cherished values
and undermine our efforts to build a culture of respect, peace, and cooperation. Protecting the
Jewish community from antisemitism is essential to our broader fight against all forms of hate,
bigotry, and bias—and to our broader vision of a thriving, inclusive, and diverse democracy.
History teaches that hate never fully goes away; it only hides until it is given just a little oxygen.
That is why we must confront antisemitism early and aggressively whenever and wherever it
emerges from the darkness.
Toward that aim, my Administration has developed the first U.S. National Strategy to Counter
Antisemitism. It represents the most ambitious and comprehensive U.S. government-led effort to
fight antisemitism in American history. It also brings Americans together—regardless of our