TAMPA, Fla. — President Joe Biden unveiled a national strategy to counter antisemitism Thursday. He said the focus will be on increasing awareness, improving safety, countering discrimination, and building solidarity. The president is also calling on Congress and all Americans to fight discrimination against people who are Jewish.

“It’s on all of us. It’s on all of us to stop it,” Biden said. “We must say clearly and forcefully that antisemitism and all forms of hate and violence have no place in America, and silence — silence is complicity. It cannot remain silent.”

Joe Probasco, the immediate past president of the Tampa Jewish Community Centers and Federation, said there’s never been anything quite like what’s laid out in the 60-page strategy.

“It is the first time that our government has issued anything of this sort. It shows that the federal government of the United States is taking antisemitism very seriously,” Probasco said. 

The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism includes four pillars:

• Increasing awareness and understanding of antisemitism
• Improving safety and security for Jewish communities
• Reversing the normalization of antisemitism
• Building cross-community solidarity

Probasco, who’s also a member of the Jewish Federations of North America’s board of trustees, said what stood out to him was tackling the normalization.

“You’re never going to eliminate antisemitism,” Probasco said. “I think the challenge we’ve seen over the last few years is it’s creeped into the normal discourse of society. So, really, what this is, is a strategy to push it back to the fringes, where it’s not acceptable and common discourse. That’s something that I think is a very challenging thing to do because a lot of this is now perpetuated online and through the various internet forums. So, it’s really trying to put a large genie back in a bottle.”

A report from the Anti-Defamation League shows antisemitic incidents were up 36% nationwide last year. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, while the Jewish community makes up 2.4% of the U.S. population, they are victims of 63% of reported religiously motivated hate crimes.

Florida is not immune. One example is the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg was vandalized with graffiti two years ago.

“Antisemitism is known as ‘the canary in the coal mine’,” said Florida Holocaust Museum Board Chair Michael Igel. “There’s no example of a society that has rampant antisemitism and then things have gone well.”

Igel said he appreciates that the strategy goes beyond words of support for the Jewish community.

“Seeing these actual acts taken — funding for education and funding for other kinds of programming, all designed to fight antisemitism — that’s where it’s at. That’s what’s necessary because education is what’s going to win this battle.”

One action item in the strategy states that the U.S. Dept. of Education will award $19 million in grants through the American History and Civics Education program meant to promote innovative teaching, learning, and professional development activities. Another listed under the pillar of improving safety and security said the Federal Emergency Management Administration will make it easier for interested nonprofits to access Nonprofit Security Grant Program funds.

Probasco said the fight against antisemitism is one that the Jewish community cannot win alone. 

“We’re absolutely reliant on the non-Jewish community to lock arms with us on this issue and say, ‘This is not something we will accept in our community,’” Probasco said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill last month meant to curb antisemitism in Florida. It bans distributing material meant to threaten or intimidate someone based on their religious or ethnic heritage. The law makes doing so a hate crime.