Arizona legislators from both sides of the aisle participated in a forum on ending antisemitism on Feb. 20 at the University of Arizona Hillel, cosponsored by the nonpartisan international grassroots movement #EndJewHatred.
The panel included State Rep. Justin Wilmeth, a Republican representing north Phoenix, and the three Hernandez siblings, all Democrats from Tucson: Daniel, a former state representative, and State Reps. Alma and Consuelo.
Jew-hatred is a non-partisan issue, said Adar Rubin, director of mobilization for #EndJewHatred. He added that Arizona does a good job at fighting antisemitism “but there is always room for improvement.”
Rubin noted that it was a somber day for the Jewish community, with Hamas returning the bodies of hostages Kfir Bibas, age 9 months, Ariel Bibas, age 4, and Oded Lifshitz, 84, to Israel. A fourth coffin, which was expected to hold Shiri Bibas, the boys’ mother, instead contained an anonymous body.
“When will the world wake up to our outrage?” Carina Bien-Willner, director of the Center for Jewish Resilience at Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona, asked the crowd of about 30 people. She added that also on Feb. 20, three buses exploded near Tel Aviv, thankfully with no one aboard and no casualties.
Rabbi Stephanie Aaron of Congregation Chaverim led the assemblage in reciting the Mourner’s Kaddish for the murdered hostages.
Adam Fox, a Tucson community activist who helped organize the event, spoke of surviving a recent life-threatening accident, comparing his fight to that of the Jewish people.
“Every day we as Jews have to fight for normalcy,” he said, calling the forum a sign that antisemitism requires not a one-party solution but an American solution.
Lilly Fox (no relation), the UA’s #EndJewHatred campus fellow, moderated the panel.
In a video message, U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, a Republican from Tucson, called the surge of antisemitism on college campuses since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks “a scourge that must be loudly and unequivocally denounced.”
“I was proud to cosponsor the Antisemitism Awareness Act that makes it clear antisemitism and anti-Zionist harassment has no place in our schools or society,” he said. The act passed in the House of Representatives last year but was not considered in the Senate. It was reintroduced in the House this month.
Daniel Hernández, who serves on the Arizona attorney general’s task force on antisemitism, said he is also the first non-Jewish chair of A Wider Bridge, a U.S.-based nonprofit that fights antisemitism and supports the LGBTQ community in Israel. His sisters converted to Judaism after learning their maternal grandfather was Jewish.
After years of seeing a commonality between hatred directed at the LGBTQ and Jewish communities, he says, he was horrified to find since Oct. 7 that some people he considered friends were not standing with those who were murdered and taken hostage.
Wilmeth, a Protestant, said as a child in Sunday school he was always drawn to the Old Testament stories.
“Over the years I’ve developed a huge affinity for the Jewish culture and the Jewish people,” he said. “
“We’re from Abraham too,” he said. “My part is to be a strong ally and defender.”
Alma Hernandez pointed out that discrimination may start with the Jews but it never ends with just Jews.
Some of the legislation she’s sponsored in her seven years in the Arizona House of Representatives, she said, included a bill targeting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement on campus, and the Arizona Holocaust education mandate, which passed in 2021. But she lamented that the law passed didn’t contain funding to train teachers, making the quality of education provided uneven.
Wild West Security manager Michael Cox, who helped provide security for the Feb. 20 event, said he often works at the Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center, where he’s been impressed with tours for middle and high school students resulting from the state education mandate.
“I see the students come in. It makes a very big impact,” he said. “On the top of that, when the students go home, they come back with their families who learn more about the history” of the Holocaust and the survivors who settled in Southern Arizona.
Wilmeth, the grandson of a World War II veteran, said he’ll always be in favor of funding for Holocaust education, including a $7 million appropriation this fall for a Holocaust center that is expected to open in Phoenix in 2027. Speaking of Holocaust deniers who don’t know history, he said it is important to “combat this idiocy.”
Earlier this month, Alma Hernandez said, her bill to ban encampments on college campuses, which has bipartisan support, passed out of committee.
“Yes to protests, no to encampments,” she said, explaining that pro-Palestinian encampments last year infringed on the rights of students who felt threatened and had to find alternate routes to classes.
Consuelo Hernandez, who is also president of the Sunnyside Unified School District, urged attendees to run for local office and to take leadership positions at work or school.
“Relationships are how you get things done,” she said.
Daniel Hernández also emphasized the importance of data and definitions.
Until 2022, when Arizona passed a hate crimes law that redefines antisemitism, he said, “You couldn’t state that being called a dirty kike and punched was a hate crime.”
He also suggested the Jewish community in Tucson follow the lead of the Phoenix Jewish community in pointing out problems, instead of taking the stance that “we don’t want to make ourselves a bigger target.”
“I keep telling people,” he said, “that we can’t fix something if elected officials and policymakers don’t know about it.”
Alma Hernandez emphasized the point by underscoring the importance of reporting by community members. “If you don’t report an [antisemitic] incident to Hillel or to JPSA, then we won’t know there is a problem that we need to help fix.”
Other organizations supporting the #EndJewHatred event included the UA Chabad, Alpha Epsilon Pi, and the Center for Jewish Resilience at JPSA.
