The San Diego City Council voted 8-1 on Tuesday evening in favor of a resolution adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred. The vote came after about six hours of public comment and discussion.
Liat Cohen-Reeis, director of the antisemitism task force at StandWithUs San Diego, told JNS that “the Jewish community feels heard and justified after tonight’s IHRA vote.”
“Today we saw the very best of the democratic process,” Sara Brown, the American Jewish Committee’s San Diego regional director, told JNS. “We saw an open and, at times, very hard-to-hear discussion, a very robust discussion, with those speaking for and those speaking against the resolution.”
“I’m a San Diegan,” she said. “This is America’s Finest City saying, ‘We’re not going to take any antisemitic hatred in our city,’ and I am inspired by that.”
Stephen Whitburn, the council member who proposed the resolution, said during the meeting that “for far too many Jewish families, including thousands who live right here in San Diego, antisemitism is not an abstract concept.”
“It is something they live with every single day,” Whitburn said at the meeting.
He added that he appreciated those who spoke out in support of free speech, and the council should protect that right. But he believes that the resolution protects free speech. “This definition makes a point for allowing for criticism and allowing for context,” he said.
Critics of the IHRA definition often say that it curbs criticism of the Israeli government, although the definition says that legitimate criticism of the Jewish state isn’t antisemitic.
Whitburn added that the council must send a message that it stands with the Jewish community against antisemitism.
Raul Campillo, a city council member, said that he supports the resolution, because it’s “the right thing to do.”
“A society that can’t protect its Jewish citizens cannot protect democracy,” he said.
He added that the IHRA definition “is about defining antisemitism where it shows up here, in our communities.”
Sean Elo-Rivera, who is Jewish, was the lone council member who voted against the resolution.
Elo-Rivera said that he found some parts of the IHRA definition to be vague and problematic, including that double standards against Israel are antisemitic.
He has asked proponents of the definition what it means for him, as a Jew, to hold Israel to a higher standard and hasn’t gotten any clear answers, he said.
‘Usual vitriol’
Cohen-Reeis, of StandWithUs, told JNS that “the opposition attended with their usual vitriol.”
“One speaker openly said, ‘Look at all the well-dressed Jews here with money in their pockets,’” she said. “At least two people were asked to be removed for their hateful outcries, with one of them causing an altercation with our incredible San Diego Police Department officers who attended to keep the peace.”
Cohen-Reeis added that one person who spoke virtually stated that Jewish children deserve to be spat upon.
Multiple speakers, who expressed opposition to the resolution, accused Israel of apartheid, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Brown, of the AJC, who spoke during public comment, told JNS that the amount of vitriol and hatred from speakers during public comment was “disheartening.”
Such comments highlighted the reason why the San Diego Human Relations Commission, upon which Brown sits, unanimously recommended that the council adopt the IHRA definition, she said.
“We can do better, and we should do better,” Brown said.
Cohen-Reeis told JNS that those opposed to the resolution “only helped make the case for the Jewish community.”
“City Council members got to witness firsthand the kind of behavior, harassment and antisemitism Jews in San Diego deal with on a daily basis,” she said.
Brown told JNS that she thought “there was a balance” between those who spoke in favor of the resolution and those against it.
“I really felt and appreciated those in the Jewish community, and in the non-Jewish community, who came out,” she said. “This was not an easy day. When you factor in arriving early and making the time in your day, this was an eight-hour experience.”
With the resolution’s passage, “the real work begins,” Brown said.
“We have identified the problem. Now we need to work to effectively utilize that definition to improve how we respond to instances of antisemitism, and also policies, mechanisms, training, education, efforts that can effectively and proactively prevent antisemitism,” she said.
Cohen-Reeis told JNS that “there is still more work to be done but we have built the framework which is an incredible beginning towards fighting antisemitism in America’s Finest City.”
“The antisemitism task force at StandWithUs San Diego is spearheading bringing IHRA to the city and county of San Diego with three unanimous wins in El Cajon, Chula Vista and the Human Relations Commission of San Diego and now an almost unanimous vote in one of America’s largest cities,” she said.
‘Landmark moment’
“Today’s vote by the San Diego City Council to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism is a landmark moment, not just for the Jewish community of San Diego but for the entire city,” stated Lisa Katz, chief government affairs officer at the Combat Antisemitism Movement.
Katz said that adoption of the IHRA definition was a “direct result” of the movement’s Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism, which included Todd Gloria, the San Diego mayor.
“San Diego is now sending a powerful message that antisemitism has no place here,” Katz said. “We thank the City Council for their courage, their clarity and their commitment to building a city where every resident feels safe and valued.”
