YIR: Antisemitism Definition Debate to Resume in 2024
The legislation would have made the IHRA definition the standard for determining whether antisemitism was the motive for an act of discrimination or a criminal offense.
Dave Schechter is a veteran journalist whose career includes writing and producing reports from Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East.
When the Georgia General Assembly convenes in January for its 2024 session, proponents of legislation to define antisemitism will try for a third time, their efforts the two previous years having fallen short.
The goal — a 2023 legislative priority of Jewish Atlanta’s major communal organizations — was to place into Georgia’s legal code a reference to the “working definition” of antisemitism created in 2016 by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. An estimated 1,100-plus bodies worldwide — including more than two dozen U.S. states — have, in varying ways, adopted or endorsed the definition.
The IHRA definition reads: “Antisemitism is 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 debate came as antisemitic flyers were being thrown onto the driveways and lawns in several area counties — including the north Fulton County home of Jewish Democratic Rep. Esther Panitch, the bill’s leading proponent.
The legislation would have made the IHRA definition the standard for determining whether antisemitism was the motive for an act of discrimination or a criminal offense. Supporters said that the definition would aid prosecutors as they considered whether to apply Georgia’s hate crimes law, with its enhanced sentencing for bias-related offenses.
Opponents shared Jewish intramural arguments about defining antisemitism, and legislators heard concerns — rejected by the bill’s backers — that the measure could be used to curb free speech, particularly concerning Israel.
The House passed a bill that was amended by a Senate committee. The amended bill needed approval by the full Senate and then, per legislative procedure, by the full House. The measure died on the Senate floor without a vote.
The outcome peeved supporters, who claimed the backing of 90 percent of the state’s Jewish population.
“It was devastating to watch the Georgia Senate, for the second year in a row, ignore the cries of Georgia’s Jewish community for help amid escalating antisemitism,” Panitch, a co-sponsor, told the AJT.
The 2024 debate will be framed by public displays of antisemitism that followed Israel’s retaliation against Hamas in Gaza after the Oct. 7 terror attacks.
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