Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday visited a replica of a cattle car used during the Holocaust by Nazi Germany.
The visit was part of an event held in light of recent anti-Semitic incidents in Florida, nonprofit Teach Florida said. The event, a Hate Ends Now tour, was hosted by Teach Florida, together with the Orthodox Union, Southern NCSY, and ShadowLight.
Teach Florida added that attendees included Sen. President Wilton Simpson, House Speaker Chris Sprowls, House Chairman Randy Fine, CFO Jimmy Patronis, NCSY Todd Cohn and Teach Coalition Mimi Jankovits, who spoke at a press conference on hate crimes and anti-Semitism in front of Tallahassee City Hall.
"On a smaller scale what they've done with the cattle car is to give people an idea, a first-hand idea, of what this really meant," DeSantis said at the event. "I think this is a way to better educate more people."
DeSantis added that his state has been "really leading the way fighting the BDS movement."
What the BDS movement is doing is "important, because what they're doing is a reflection really, I think, of an anti-Semitic viewpoint."
"When you target the one Jewish democracy in the entire country (sic) for disfavored treatment and you turn a blind eye to grotesque human rights abuses all across the globe, and yet you censure this one little country over and over again and you leave the rest to be able to do really bad things - why are you doing that? And they're doing it because that is the only Jewish democracy."
"And so when we see policies that specifically target Israel, it's not just because we have a good relationship with the country, because we see the motivation behind that and we have a responsibility to say, 'No, not here in Florida, not on our watch.' So we're going to continue to stand up for those."
According to DeSantis, Florida "probably has the strongest relationship with Israel of any state right now."
He emphasized that the Holocaust is "an unparalleled human tragedy," and said he is "happy to be with a bunch of people in the state capital, really across party lines, that say, 'We stand very strongly against anti-Semitism, we believe in robust Holocaust education, and we're going to continue to have a very strong relationship with our friends over in the State of Israel who are really fighting a good fight there, too.'"
In a Thursday night tweet, DeSantis said, "Today, I visited a replica cattle car used by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust to persecute and attempt to exterminate the Jewish people. Florida will continue to be a leader in Holocaust education and in fighting antisemitism. We will never forget."