JNS
Failure to approve the legislation, which the House overwhelming approved, could cost Democrats the election.
In response to antisemitism on college campuses, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act in May. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is blocking it in the upper chamber.
The bill would require the U.S. Department of Education to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism when investigating violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The definition includes language “targeting of the State of Israel” but excludes “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country.”
The United States is a member of IHRA, and the Department of Education has used its definition in Title VI cases since 2018. The Trump administration issued an executive order in 2019 expanding this policy to all federal agencies, and the Biden administration has kept the order in effect. Moreover, U.S. President Joe Biden’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism recognizes the IHRA definition as the “most prominent” definition of antisemitism. The Antisemitism Awareness Act would simply codify existing bipartisan policy into law.
I know a thing or two about campus antisemitism, having filed a discrimination charge against the Graduate Student Union at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The union actively works toward the eradication of the Jewish homeland and denied my request for a religious accommodation that would divert my dues to charity. As the IHRA definition makes clear: “Antisemitic discrimination is the denial to Jews of opportunities or services available to others and is illegal in many countries.”
When demonstrators erected an encampment in the middle of campus, Jewish students sued the university under Title VI, arguing that MIT’s “decision not to interfere with the encampment was a deliberate decision not to abide by MIT’s own policies and procedures, in spite of the fact that the space had also been properly reserved by other members of the MIT community,” namely, MIT Hillel. Yet a judge dismissed the suit, writing “the court cannot find that MIT acted with deliberate indifference.” I fully expect the students to appeal.
The Antisemitism Awareness Act is co-sponsored by 14 Democrats in the Senate, including the junior senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand. But New York’s senior senator, Senate Majority Leader Schumer, “the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in American history,” has not brought the bill to a vote. Schumer also has not held any hearings on antisemitism since Oct. 7. By contrast, the Republican-controlled House has held multiple hearings, one of which I participated in. “If the Democratic Party leaves the Jews,” I warned, “we will have no choice but to leave the party.”
Perhaps Schumer agrees with fellow New York Democrat, Rep. Jerry Nadler, who voted against the bill and explained his decision in The Washington Post, saying, “In addition to trampling the free-speech rights of students and professors, this bill was disingenuously designed to split the Democratic caucus and score cheap political points.” He’s right that the bill has divided the Democrats—133 voted in favor and 70 opposed—but this is because the far left is incapable of distinguishing between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitic discrimination. The former is constitutionally protected speech; the latter is decidedly not.
The Democratic Party’s toleration of the far left is not just disappointing, it is dangerous. According to the National World War II Museum, “The worldwide economic depression and the rising power of labor unions and communists convinced increasing numbers of Germans to turn to the Nazi Party.” If the Democrats continue to appease the far left, they will drive voters into the arms of the far right.
Now there is a multimillion-dollar ad campaign running in New York and several battleground states, attacking Sen. Schumer for blocking the bill. But it’s not too late. The Senate will be back in session for three weeks this month. Schumer must reject the far left and bring the Antisemitism Awareness Act to a vote. Failure to do so may well cost Democrats the election.
