Bill Defining Anti-semitism Pulled From Vote, Angering Jewish Supporters

By: Cora LeCates, Justus Wilhoit and Madison Miller

Jewish supporters of a bill to give anti-Semitism an official definition left a legislative committee hearing in protest on June 23 when lawmakers said they would delay voting on the measure.

A worldwide movement to codify such language is growing amid ongoing Arab-Israeli fighting in Gaza and spillover tensions and violence, a factor in the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear targets over the weekend. Backers say an anti-Semitism definition can be a tool to prosecute hate crimes, while opponents say language alone fails to stop bias and violates the First Amendment.

The U.S. government and about three dozen countries, including Israel, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, have agreed on a definition created in 2016 by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance: “Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

In New Jersey, A3558, which would adopt the alliance’s language, was introduced in February 2024. The Assembly Community Development and Women’s Affairs committee was scheduled to consider it until Shavonda Sumter, a Democrat from North Haledon who chairs the committee, said members would hear testimony only. 

The bill was rapidly amended during the weekend, she said, and studying the changes was “like getting water from a firehose.” 

The vote’s cancellation prompted Jason Shamas, chief executive and president of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, to leave the room in protest with about 20 supporters.

“This must be my third or fourth time coming down to Trenton on this issue,” Shamas told the panel. “We will return when there’s a vote. I find this process and the last-minute change is deeply, deeply hurtful, disturbing and disappointing to the over 600,000 Jews who live in the Garden State.” 

The bill would require the state to investigate whether hate crimes were motivated by anti-Semitism, and allocate $100,000 to promote the reporting of bias incidents to law enforcement. 

Another bill, A3684, which would define Islamophobia, also was scheduled, but Sumter said the committee would neither take testimony nor vote on that bill during the hearing. She declined to comment on either bill to the State House News Service.

Jewish people in 2021 and 2022 were the most common religious group targeted for bias in New Jersey, accounting for 20% of such incidents, while 3% involved Muslims, according to data from the state Attorney General’s Office.

Prior to the committee hearing, a demonstration opposing the anti-Semitism bill drew members of American Muslims for Palestine, the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Neturei Karta, an Orthodox Jewish anti-Zionist group. All who were interviewed said they came for the anti-Semitism bill, not the Islamophobia legislation.

“Protect free speech. Join us now,” the demonstrators chanted in 90-degree heat. Some held signs reading: “End the Siege on Gaza,” “Stop IHRA Protect Palestinians,”  “Support to ‘Israel’ is not supporting Jews or Judaism” and “Judaism condemns the State of Israel and its Atrocities.” 

Some noted that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism was created to help European nations track bias incidents. Its main author, Bard College scholar Kenneth Stern, has warned that the language,  if employed for legal purposes, potentially can quash constitutional rights and academic freedom.

“IHRA chills free speech,” Selaedin Maksut, 30, a demonstration organizer from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in an interview.  “Even the original author of the IHRA definition was afraid that it would be used in this way.”

Thirty-five U.S. states, via “proclamation, executive order or legislation,” are using the alliance’s anti-Semitic definition, according to the American Jewish Committee.

Testifying in Trenton, Basma Bsharat, the Palestinian education director of the Palestinian American Community Center, said the definition “conflates anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism.” She and others, she said, “could be labeled as anti-Semitic simply because we speak truthfully about our experiences as Palestinian.” 

Sadaf Jaffer, a Princeton University lecturer in South Asia studies and a former New Jersey Assembly member, told lawmakers that she was opposed.

“I testify before you today astounded that, while there are cuts to vital services, bombings, bloodshed, and genocide taking place, the New Jersey Assembly is taking time to consider legislation to silence those who object to Israeli governmental policy,” Jaffer said. “We do not have a definition of anti-Black racism, or anti-immigrant hate. This does not stop hate crimes from being prosecuted as they should be.” 
An identical bill, S1592, was reported out of the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation committee in June 2024.