The study examined about one thousand newsletters from Democratic and Republican lawmakers that included references to the Holocaust, drawn from a database operating since 2010 and containing over 200,000 such newsletters.
The analysis looked at the number of references to the Holocaust, the context in which each reference appeared, and included an AI-based examination using advanced tools that classified the statements into categories such as remembrance and commemoration, comparisons between the Holocaust and contemporary events, or mentions of the Holocaust in the context of combating antisemitism.
The study also compared members of Congress and the Senate identified with the Republican Party to their Democratic counterparts, in order to determine whether differences existed between the groups. The findings show that following October 7th, there was a significant increase in references to the Holocaust and public discourse about it. Before October 7th, the Holocaust appeared in fewer than half a percent of the newsletters analyzed, whereas from October 7th until March 2025, references to the Holocaust have tripled—and even more than that.
The events of October 7th have been imprinted in the consciousness of American lawmakers as being connected to the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe
An examination of October 2023 itself shows that the Holocaust was mentioned at much higher rates; in fact, about 5% of the newsletters and public statements issued by American lawmakers referenced it, following the severe events in southern Israel. This month recorded the highest number of Holocaust mentions in these newsletters. The study also shows that discourse surrounding the Holocaust in the rhetoric of members of Congress and the Senate changed not only in quantity but also in context, with Republicans mentioning the Holocaust far more than their Democratic counterparts, by a significant margin.
If before October 7th the Holocaust was mentioned mainly in contexts of commemoration and education (88.5% of Democratic newsletters and 90.2% of Republican ones), after October 7th there was a substantial rise in comparisons between the Holocaust and current events (in 52% of Republican newsletters and 38.6% of Democratic ones), as well as an increase in references to the Holocaust in the context of combating antisemitism (25% of Democratic newsletters and 22.2% of Republican ones). These data also support the study’s hypothesis that the events of October 7th became imprinted in the consciousness of American lawmakers as being connected to the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe.
*The newsletter database used for the study is the DCinbox archive, which includes publications (newsletters and similar materials) sent by members of Congress and the Senate to their supporters who signed up to receive updates beginning in 2009 (the database currently contains about 200,000 publications). The archive was founded by an American technological institute (Lindsey Cormack, Stevens Institute of Technology), and it enables researchers and academic institutions to conduct various studies based on its contents.
