CNN To Air Hour-Long Special, “Rising Hate: Antisemitism In America,” Hosted By Dana Bash

This coming Sunday at 9 p.m. EST, CNN will be airing an hour-long special named “Rising Hate: Antisemitism In America,” hosted by Dana Bash- a member of Temple Micah in Washington, D.C., and the great-granddaughter of Hungarian Jews who were murdered at Auschwitz.

“The bad news is there is antisemitism in America,” Bash said while talking about the show- which is a broad overview of the last few years of antisemitism in America, with a particular focus on how it has evolved in the digital age. “The good news is I work in a place that wants to shine a spotlight on it, and allow for an investigation into what is happening, why it’s happening, and what are the solutions,” she said.

Source: Times of Israel (CNN/HBO Max/via JTA)

Other topics on the show will include the Coleyville, Texas, synagogue hostage crisis that unfolded earlier this year; the role former President Donald Trump’s campaign played in fomenting antisemitic rhetoric; Jewish college students who have reported discrimination on campuses; and the operations of the Secure Community Network, a nonprofit that tracks and responds to antisemitic threats from Chicago.

Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy on antisemitism, is interviewed in the special and also discusses why she wears a Star of David as she works.

When asked in an interview about Bash’s recent essay on CNN’s website where she discusses her own recent apprehension when her preteen son asked her if he could wear a Star of David necklace in public- she said, “I asked why, and he said, because he feels a very strong Jewish identity and that kids in high school, who are Christian, are also very proud of their religion, and they wear crosses. So why shouldn’t he wear a symbol that shows who he is? So I said, “OK, sure,” But I was apprehensive about it. And I certainly didn’t say this to him, for all the reasons that made this special a necessity: Because I think he’s innocent, and he didn’t really realize the millennia that we have to look back on persecution against Jews. He just thought, “This is who I am, and it’s no big deal.” I just said, “OK. How can I argue with that?”