IHRA
“This is especially essential at a time when acts of anti-Semitism and Jew-hatred are on the rise at home and abroad,” said the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
It was approved unanimously on Tuesday, one day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27.
“We cannot eliminate anti-Semitism without first defining what it is,” said Hadassah national president Rhoda Smolow in a statement.
One of them urges taking “short- and long-term action to ensure that the university is a just, fair and welcoming place for all students, but more specifically, for Arab and Muslim students.”
It comes on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day as a debate has emerged in the Jewish and pro-Israel community over whether the official IHRA definition should be adopted into law.
The IHRA’s definition on anti-Semitism has been adopted by countries and organizations across the world as the standard to help combat rising anti-Semitism. There is a push to have the Biden administration make it into law.
“I would urge college and university stakeholders to pay special attention to the way in which schools handle the harassment of Jewish and pro-Israel students, and whether it’s consistent with how they treat all other students on campus,” Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, co-founder and director of the AMCHA Initiative, told JNS.
The institution has historically promoted the study of the Holocaust and its lessons; as such, adopting the IHRA working definition is “a completely natural step.”
While they “respect the original creation of the IHRA Working Definition as an illustrative tool, and as part of a larger and ongoing conversation about the nature of anti-Semitism,” they expressed “concern with its adoption as a legal tool.”
“It is a necessary and valuable tool for all governments,” said Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, director of American Jewish Committee Europe.
University of Oxford adopts universal definition of anti-Semitism
The University of Sheffield also just adopted the definition.
“No one more qualified to lead the fight against it on Canada’s behalf on the international stage,” said Jeffrey Rosenthal of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
