Overview

• Rep. Josh Gottheimer led House colleagues in unveiling a package that includes a Congressional Gold Medal for American victims and hostages, a resolution condemning Hamas and affirming Israel’s self‑defense, and an Oct. 7 Remembrance Education Act tasking the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum with a model curriculum.
• Supporters from major Jewish and national‑security organizations endorsed the effort, and Gottheimer said he expects quick House action once members return to session; in the Senate, Joni Ernst and John Fetterman joined every Senate Republican on a parallel resolution.
• The curriculum plan would offer a voluntary model for states and schools covering the attacks, the history of antisemitism, and denial, while CAIR New Jersey criticized the proposal as a political effort.
• Survivor testimony underscored urgency for hostage returns, with freed hostage Ilana Gritzewsky detailing abuse in captivity and families of victims urging bipartisan focus on bringing captives home.
• Roughly 48 hostages, including two Americans, are still held as indirect talks continue in Sharm el‑Sheikh under U.S., Egyptian, and Qatari mediation on President Trump’s 20‑point framework, which Israel largely backs and Hamas has only conditionally engaged on, with disarmament unresolved.