Israel hosts lawmakers from seven US states for grand tour of holy sites and Jewish democracy

The delegation additionally spent a day in southern Israel near the Gaza border, visiting Kibbutz Nir Oz and the site of the Nova music festival, where they heard from a massacre survivor and met a freed hostage.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

A delegation of American state lawmakers has toured Israel this week on an educational mission organized by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), aimed at deepening US-Israel ties and equipping legislators to counter rising antisemitism back home.

Lawmakers from seven states — Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, and Utah — took part, CAM said.

“These leaders will return to their states equipped with the knowledge and tools to translate what they’ve witnessed into meaningful advocacy and policy,” said CAM Director of State Engagement David Soffer, who described the aim as giving participants an “unfiltered, on-the-ground perspective on what Israel and the Jewish people have endured since October 7th.”

Each of the participating states has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism as part of a broader push to strengthen the government response to a wave of assaults, harassment, and discrimination.

Over the course of the week, the delegation toured the Knesset, Israel’s parliament; attended a briefing by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS); met with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee; and honored the victims of the Holocaust at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial, in western Jerusalem.

Huckabee pushed back on how Israel is portrayed abroad, telling the group that “most of what you hear from the American media about Israel is untrue” and calling Israelis the most resilient people he had ever seen.

In Jerusalem, the lawmakers also toured the city’s major religious sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected—and the Western Wall, a surviving remnant of the Second Temple compound and the holiest site at which Jews are permitted to pray.

The delegation additionally spent a day in southern Israel near the Gaza border, visiting Kibbutz Nir Oz and the site of the Nova music festival, where they heard from a massacre survivor and met a freed hostage who had been held in Gaza for eight months.

“Israelis have a profound historical, cultural, and religious connection to the Land of Israel,” Missouri Senate Majority Leader Tony Luetkemeyer (R) said in a statement shared by CAM.

“It has been home to the Jewish people for thousands of years and remains central to Jewish identity and faith.”

Other delegates echoed that impression of resilience under fire.

“Despite the trauma of war and the constant threat of violence, Israelis continue to rebuild, raise their families, defend their homeland, and preserve a vibrant democratic society,” said Arkansas State Rep. Aaron Pilkington (R).

The mission continued CAM’s broader effort to engage lawmakers in substantive discussions with members of the Jewish community.

Earlier this month, the organization hosted former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) for an online briefing, where he laid out the model he built to counter antisemitism under then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who served from 2022 to 2026.

The briefing followed a CAM study finding that 57 percent of Jewish Americans experienced antisemitism over the past year.

Miyares stressed that the fight against antisemitism is a fight for civilization.

“You can’t be neutral or silent,” he said. “This is one of the defining moments of our time. Every civilization that has ever embraced antisemitism falters and fails—it is a sign of a rot. And if you don’t stamp it out, it would affect your entire society.”

CAM President of US Affairs Alyza Lewin praised Miyares’ commitment to Jewish safety. “We’re asking to be protected when we’re targeted on the basis of our shared history and heritage rooted in the Land of Israel,” she told him.

“When Jews are targeted by people who are hostile to the very notion that we are a people indigenous to Judea, that has to be understood as antisemitism.”

Beyond adopting the IHRA definition, Virginia established an antisemitism task force, adopted new history-curriculum standards on the Holocaust and Nazism, and declared May as Jewish Heritage Month.

A separate bill barring public universities from boycotting Israel, SB 1375, did not pass.