12/13/2024
Proposed Ohio Law Would Define Working Definition of Antisemitism
ABIGAIL PREISZIG | CJN
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News
Rather than attending his final day of classes for the semester, Ethan Dobres, a third-year student at The Ohio State University in Columbus from Solon, spoke before the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of a bill to codify a working definition of antisemitism into state law.
“As much as I value my education, I think continuing this long path of Jewish advocacy is more important than that, even during a stressful finals week,” Dobres, who is majoring in finance and public policy, told the Cleveland Jewish News on Dec. 9. “… There are many classes in a year, but there are limited opportunities to do something like this. So, I felt it was necessary to go.”
Dobres was one of more than 30 Jewish and non-Jewish proponents of Senate Bill 297 to speak on Dec. 4 at its second hearing at the statehouse in Columbus.
The bill passed on Dec. 11 in the Senate with a majority vote of 28 to 4, Howie Beigelman, president and CEO of Ohio Jewish Communities, told the CJN on Dec. 11. It now moves to the Ohio House of Representatives for consideration.
If the House makes any changes to the bill, the Senate may vote on whether to concur with the changes. Once the revised bill is approved by the Senate and the House, it becomes an “act” and is sent to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine who can sign the act into law or reject it by issuing a veto.
Senate Bill 297, introduced in June, expands the offense of ethnic intimidation to include the offenses of riot and aggravated riot committed by reason of race, color, religion or national origin of another person or group of persons and defines antisemitism for the purpose of investigations and proceedings by state agencies, according to the bill analysis from the Ohio Legislative Service Commission.
Under the bill, sponsored by Sen. Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, when a state agency reviews, investigates or decides whether there has been a violation of any relevant policy, law or regulation prohibiting discriminatory acts, the agency must consider the working definition of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance on
May 26, 2016, to determine whether an alleged act was motivated by discriminatory antisemitic intent, stated the analysis.
“The definition along with its examples are fundamentally important to combating antisemitism because in order to combat something you need to be able to define it, you need to know what it is,” William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and a former Shaker Heights resident, told the CJN on Dec. 9.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance defines antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
The bill also adopts 11 contemporary examples of antisemitism identified by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance including:
- Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.
- Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
- Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
- Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor.
- Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
The bill and its examples will make it “very clear” what conduct is and is not antisemitic to those with the responsibility to protect Jewish students and keep the Jewish community safe, Jason Wuliger, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s government relations committee chair, told the CJN on Dec. 9.
“In terms of the First Amendment, no one’s speech is being restricted in any way whatsoever, but it enables us to understand when people break the law or when they violate the civil rights of the Jewish community that we know the difference between something that is hate directed at us and something else,” Wuliger, a Cleveland resident, said.
The legislation builds on an executive order signed in April 2022 by DeWine that called antisemitism a “persistent, pervasive, and disturbing problem in American society, including in Ohio.” It required all state agencies, departments, boards, commissions and public colleges and universities to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition.
Even though the executive order has the force of law, some organizations are confused about what it means or how to use the definition, Beigelman, a Columbus resident, said. The bill will simplify its use.
“It’s already relevant in Ohio law because of the governor’s executive order, but this would codify it into law and make it permanent,” he said.
Another bill adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition, House Bill 618, had its first hearing on Dec. 10 at the Statehouse.
Introduced in June and sponsored by Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, it will amend section 4112.01 and enact sections 124.92, 2701.21, and 4112.20 of the Ohio Revised Code to define antisemitism for the purpose of investigations and proceedings in courts and state agencies and for state employee anti-bias training.
The bill will keep moving through the house, likely having its second hearing next week, Beigelman said.
A historic rise in antisemitism has been a major catalyst toward the integration of the working definition of antisemitism into Ohio law, Andrea Britcher, chair of the Jewish Community Relations Committee at JewishColumbus, told the CJN.
“Over the past few years and especially since Oct. 7, the rise in antisemitism that we’re seeing, the amount of hate and violence directed at the Jewish community, it truly is just unacceptable,” Britcher, a resident of Worthington, a suburb outside of Columbus, said. “One way that we can combat that is by adopting the (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition. It really leaves no ambiguity as to what antisemitism is and how to curb threats.”
There were more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in the year after the Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack on Israel by Hamas, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s preliminary data. This is the highest number of incidents ever recorded in any single year period since ADL started tracking in 1979.
“The request is for people to contact their Ohio Senators and Ohio House of Representatives members to encourage them to encourage the leadership to bring about a vote and then to vote in favor of this definition, which is a widely accepted definition that has been adopted by over a third of the United States, it has been adopted by over 35 countries and literally hundreds of universities and corporations and multilateral organizations and non-government organizations across the world,” Daroff said.
Dobres was the final proponent to speak in the Senate and was grateful to have witnessed so many other strong Jewish advocates and hopes to one day follow in their footsteps, he said.
“I feel like it’s really the Jewish story to have governments opposing the Jewish experience and right now, I feel like we’re in a really lucky position where Ohio state government, Democrats and Republicans are both really supportive of the Jewish community,” he said. “They’ve expressed this in a lot of ways, and I really believe we have to fight to keep that up and make sure that Ohio remains a safe place for the Jewish community.”
Having a clear definition of what constitutes antisemitism will give administrators on campuses throughout the state “a really good guideline explaining what does and doesn’t cross the line,” Dobres said.
“If the state were to pass this law, to make it clear that the IHRA working definition were supported by the state, that would be very big and it would send a really strong signal that Ohio’s public universities are a safe place for Jewish students,” he said.
