The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to pass a bill aimed at curbing antisemitism amid a rash of demonstrations on college campuses nationwide protesting Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
The House passed the bill, known as the Antisemitism Awareness Act, in a bipartisan 320-91 vote, sending the measure to the Senate.
The measure, introduced by New York Rep. Mike Lawler, would mandate that the Department of Education use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism in enforcing anti-discrimination rules. Part of that definition includes “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,” “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” and “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.”
"It is absurd to oppose this that it somehow limits free speech," Lawler said on the House floor on Wednesday. "Calling for death to Jews isn't protected speech, it's antisemitic!"
Supporters of the bill say it will help to combat the scourge of anti-Jewish hatred, but opponents expressed concerns about free speech.
"Campus life has become a daily trial of intimidation and harassment for America's Jewish students," North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican who chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said Wednesday, saying the bill would provide "a needed tool to help better determine antisemitic intent, which in turn would help ensure the safety of Jewish students."
New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called the bill “misguided,” saying that while he agrees with several of the bill’s provisions, “its core provision would put a thumb on the scale in favor of one particular definition of antisemitism, to the exclusion of all others.”
Nadler said that the IHRA’s definition “includes ‘contemporary examples of antisemitism,’” which he contended “may include protected speech in some contexts, particularly with respect to criticism of the State of Israel.”
“To be clear, I vehemently disagree with the sentiments toward Israel expressed in those examples, and too often criticism of Israel does, in fact, take the form of virulent antisemitism,” Nadler, whose New York district encompasses Morningside Heights, home of recent high-profile demonstrations at Columbia University. “Many Jewish students no longer feel safe on campuses, and some colleges have not done nearly enough to protect them.”
But, he added, by “effectively codifying those examples into Title VI,” the measure “threatens to chill Constitutionally protected speech. Speech that is critical of Israel alone does not constitute wrongful discrimination.”
Despite defections from Nadler and several other high-profile Democratic lawmakers, the bill still passed with more than 100 votes in support from the minority party — including House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who backed the bill despite calling for a vote on a separate bipartisan antisemitism bill earlier this week.
That bill, known as the Bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act, would establish a National Coordinator to Counter Antisemitism within the White House in charge of coordinating federal efforts to counter anti-Jewish hate and serve as the president’s principal adviser on the issue. It was introduced earlier this month by a bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers.
“There is nothing scheduled on the floor this week that would accomplish the concrete, thoughtful strategies outlined by the Biden administration, set forth in the legislation and echoed by leading Jewish organizations across the country,” Jeffries, referencing the Antisemitism Awareness Act, wrote in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., earlier this week, urging him to take up the bipartisan bill.
Twenty-one Republicans, including far-right Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joined 70 Democrats in opposing the bill.