Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz said recent anti-semitic attacks is one of the reasons he is running for re-election
Congressman Jared Moskowitz cited the wave of recent anti-semitic attacks that he and other members of Congress have faced in recent months as one of the reasons why he decided to run for re-election.
"My grandmother was part of the Kindertransport out of Berlin as a child, her parents were killed in Auschwitz. Her and her sister survived because good people shipped her on a train and got her out of Berlin," Moskowitz told CBS News Miami. "And the language I'm seeing today is the same language she told me about and how it all started in the Thirties. So, it's very concerning. It's really the reason [I'm running]. I decided that now's not the time to walk away, now's the time to continue my service in Congress."
Moskowitz provided CBS News Miami with copies of virulent, antisemitic voicemails his office has received, threatening to kill him and arguing for the deaths of all Jews. He has received so many threats, he said, he has a police officer assigned to sit out in front of his house. And he noted, that one of his constituents was arrested and convicted after investigators uncovered a plot to assassinate Moskowitz. That person is now currently serving a 25-year prison sentence.
"I've got two boys, my boys are not going to be hiding in attics, they're not going to hide their Jewish stars. We're not going to stop going to delis and stop going the synagogues because people are trying to scare us. And that's what Jews in this country have to do. We have to go on the offense. They want us to be scared. They want to be quiet. And I'm not willing to do that."
Moskowitz announced last week that he was running in the newly redrawn Congressional District 25. This district was created by Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature to favor a Republican candidate. Donald Trump won the district by ten points in 2024, but Moskowitz expressed confidence that he would win in November.
"District 25 has 50% of my current district in it," Moskowitz said on Sunday's Facing South Florida. "It's where the majority of my district currently is, all they did was take a pen and draw my house out [out of the district]. I mean literally my house is touching District 25. It was clearly done intentionally because they didn't want me to run there. But District 25 fits my political background – it's a third Democrat, a third Republican and a third independent. This is the pinkest district in the state and it's a district that I have long ties to."