Antisemitic graffiti in Venezuela. Eight US lawmakers launched a new task force to combat global antisemitism. Photo: wiki commons.

JNS.org – A bipartisan group of eight US lawmakers launched a new task force aimed at combating the growing levels of antisemitism around the world.

The group includes US Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), who as forming members will serve as co-chairs of the task force.

In a joint statement, the lawmakers said the world is “witnessing an alarming rise of antisemitism” that is both “dangerous and complex.”

“Jewish populations are facing increased levels of hatred, frequently under the guise of political differences or other alibis, but in reality it is solely because of their faith,” they said. “It is the responsibility of everyone who believes in basic universal liberties and freedoms to condemn this trend and work together to root out the hatred which underlies antisemitism.”

Recent attacks on Jewish sites in the UK and Hungary followed February’s fatal shooting of a man guarding a Copenhagen synagogue and January’s killing of four Jewish shoppers at a kosher supermarket in France.