Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Syracuse University students introduce bill to adopt anti-Semitism definition

A number of colleges have already adopted the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, including Arizona State University, the University of Georgia and Florida State University.

Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y. Credit: KpertC/Shutterstock.
Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y. Credit: KpertC/Shutterstock.

Syracuse University’s Student Association introduced a resolution on Monday to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism.

SA assembly member Noah Wagner introduced the bill, saying the association’s goal is to have the university adopt the IHRA definition “to have a stronger sense against anti-Semitism and to treat it similarly to how other hate crimes are treated on campus and across the country,” he told the university’s student-run publication The Daily Orange.

A number of colleges have already adopted the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, including Arizona State University, the University of Georgia and Florida State University.

The IHRA definition says: “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.”

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, of Park Avenue Synagogue, told JNS that he will address “Yizkor, memory and revelation,” rather than politics, during Shavuot morning services.
“The bill will continue to return our intelligence agencies back to their core mission: the collection of clandestine foreign intelligence to protect our homeland,” said Sen. Tom Cotton.
“There’s much that goes into a security-layered approach, and as far as I’m concerned, you can never have too many layers,” the village’s police chief told JNS.
Removing sanctions on the anti-Israel United Nations adviser “will undermine important national security and foreign policy interests of the United States,” the Justice Department said.
“Reconstruction financing will not follow where weapons have not been laid down,” warned Nickolay Mladenov, amid a stalled peace process he largely blamed on the Gazan terror group.
Regardless of the findings of a recent Democratic National Committee “autopsy” report, a “majority of Americans, including Democrats, support the U.S.-Israel relationship,” Brian Romick, of Democratic Majority for Israel, told JNS.