I am proud to always support the critical work of the Anti-Defamation League – and am honored to have partnered on our recent SJSU event!
Now more than ever, it is imperative that young people get involved in the social issues facing our nation. That is why we were proud to partner with Silicon Valley Hillel for a special program with citizen activist and former candidate for Congress, Erin Schrode.
Erin is on a mission to inspire the millennial generation to take action on the pressing challenges confronting our nation and the world. And that is just what she did with a room full of students at San Jose State University who hear her rousing story of co-founding a non-profit as a teen, running an unprecedented Congressional campaign at twenty-five, aiding Syrian refugees coming ashore in Greece and in refugee camps in Jordan, and becoming a political analyst, commentator and one of the leading activist voices of her generation.
But being an outspoken Jewish woman in the public eye comes with a price. During her congressional bid, Erin became the target of an extensive and ongoing campaign of anti-Semitic harassment, daily death threats and holocaust-related vitriol. At the SJSU event, Erin reflected poignantly on her recent experience on an ADL trip to Germany that brought the issue of rising antisemitism into stark focus: “I was receiving message saying ‘Israel or the ovens. You choose. You have until January 20.’ But coming face to face with the very ovens where bodies of millions of Jews were incinerated brought it all home in a terrifying way. This was not hypothetical. This was real.”
But the evening concluded with a high note as Erin reminded the audience that each of us individually and all of us collectively can and must be agents of local and global change. “This is my country. I believe in America. I’m not going to leave. I’m going to fight.”
We are fortunate to have you fighting along side us, Erin.
Read this article on ADL.org