The US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. Photo: Reuters / Jim Bourg.

JNS.org – Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) on Monday launched the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism.

The collaboration is the first of its kind in the US Senate, serving as a corollary to the House of Representative’s Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism, of which Rosen was a member when she served in that chamber.

This week’s launch coincided with the one-year anniversary of the 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 Jewish worshippers were shot and killed during Shabbat-morning services—the deadliest American Jewish history.

“In the United States, we’ve seen evidence that antisemitism and acts of hate are growing at an alarming rate,” wrote Rosen and Lankford in a joint opinion piece announcing the launch of the Task Force. “As Members of Congress, our responsibility to our neighbors, to our friends, to our community and to our children is to work together in a bipartisan way to prevent antisemitism before it starts—to educate, to explain and to empower.