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127 Penn St. L. Rev. 405 (2022-2023)
Codifying Antisemitism

handle is hein.journals/dlr127 and id is 423 raw text is: Codifying Antisemitism Mark Goldfeder* ABSTRACT Antisemitic harassment and discrimination are unlawful in many contexts, but without a standard definition of what 'antisemitism' includes, that idea is almost meaningless. This has led to an equal protection problem for members of the Jewish community, which is why states across the country have started to pass laws adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition of antisemitism for use in clarifying the application of existing legal protections for Jewish people from crime and discrimination. Thus far, the bills that have passed have for the most part been overwhelmingly bipartisan, but there have been minor pockets of pushback in a number of states. While a handful of the questions raised reflect honest concerns that deserve to be fully addressed for the benefit of legislators, unfortunately, the majority of the 'opposition' has been led by a small corps of disingenuous lobbying groups that as a matter of self-interest continue to purposefully lie about what these bills actually do-and by the same token could never do-in an apparent attempt to give greater cover to antisemitism and antisemites. This Article will answer some of the most common questions that lawmakers, citizens, and other interested stakeholders might have about statutes that utilize the IHRA Definition for the narrow purpose of assessing motivation when analyzing discriminatory conduct claims, so that critics can no longer hide behind the vague and erroneous assertion that such policies are somehow unfair to other groups or would in any way offend the First Amendment. * Dr. Mark Goldfeder, Esq. is the Director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, a Member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, counsel for Hillels of Georgia, and served as the founding Editor of the Cambridge University Press Series on Law and Judaism. The author would like to thank Danielle Park, Gadi Dotz, Marc Greendorfer, Jordan Cope, Yael Lerman, Carly Gammill, Jake Bennett, Joanne Bregman, Miles Terry, Kenneth Marcus, Alyza Lewin, Lesley Klaff, Harry Hutchison, and Wayne Keil for their thoughtful comments and review. Special thanks to Joseph Sabag for his edits on this piece and for his continued leadership in working with members of the legislatures in both parties, in each state, to try and help protect the Jewish people. 405

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