New Jersey Jewish leaders blasted state Assembly members who cancelled a vote, which would have enshrined a widely accepted definition of antisemitism into state law, at the last minute on Tuesday.
The groups walked out of an Assembly committee meeting Monday after being told by panel chair Shavonda Sumter, a Democrat, that there would not be a vote on the legislation to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred.
“To postpone an issue so critical to the safety and security of New Jerseyans is to turn a blind eye to and exacerbate the ongoing surge of antisemitism across our state, our nation and the world,” stated Jason Shames, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, on behalf of the CEOs of the four other New Jersey Federations.
Rabbi David Levy, the New Jersey regional director at the American Jewish Committee, told JNS Tuesday that the state’s Jewish organizations are trying to decide their next steps.
“Antisemitism is a critical problem and growing in New Jersey. It isn’t going to solve itself,” stated Avi Posnick, the Northeast executive director at StandWithUs.
“Unless N.J. legislators decide to take the first step to addressing antisemitism, defining it, they are not part of the solution,” Posnick stated. “Like all groups, Jews must be the ones who define their own experiences with oppression. Rather, through inaction and delay, the legislators will be part of the problem, abandoning the safety of large segments of New Jersey residents.”
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) called for a vote, noting that 70% of Assembly members co-sponsored the legislation.
“It’s outrageous and shameful that the New Jersey Assembly refuses to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism as hate surges across our state,” the congressman told JNS. “The Assembly needs to stop stalling and finally bring this bill to the floor for a vote.”
“No more delays,” Gottheimer said. “Our Jewish communities deserve better.”
New Jersey Jewish officials, and even the bill sponsors, said they didn’t know the vote had been postponed until they came to the state capital of Trenton on Monday. They expected a hearing and then a committee vote, which is necessary before the chamber can consider the bill. The Senate committee with jurisdiction over the legislation has already passed the measure.
“There was nothing today that was not known last week when the bill on antisemitism, for which I am a prime sponsor, was scheduled for a vote,” stated Mike Inganamort, a Republican in the Assembly. “To make the public and legislators travel to Trenton, and then cancel the vote in real time, is a slap in the face to everyone who worked on this issue, those who support it and even those who oppose it.”
Following the announcement that the bill would not come up for a vote, Shames led a walkout of the Jewish leaders and supporters, who had come to attend the hearing and watch the committee act.
“He expressed our shock and our dismay and the fact that we felt there was a sense of disrespect for those who had come to testify and were expecting a vote,” Levy told JNS.
“Given the surge in antisemitism that is happening in our state and our country and in the world, there was something very wrong with that,” Levy said. “We took umbrage at the fact they would postpone a critical event given everything going on with antisemitism. He basically said the Jewish community would not stand for this.”
Levy was scheduled to testify but joined the walkout without speaking. He said the bill was particularly timely given the recent murders of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington after they left an American Jewish Committee event.
“We just lived through watching the brutal murders of two of our leaders after an AJC event in Washington that alone should have amplified the need for a bill like this,” he said. “We live in a time where antisemitic speech in its most extreme form could be deadly.”
“We have a singular responsibility to call out that kind of hate speech by clearly defining it,” he said. “That’s what made this moment so important. That’s why postponing a vote was utterly unacceptable.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s annual audit reported 719 antisemitic incidents in New Jersey last year, behind only New York and California.
The reason for the postponement remains unknown. The New Jersey Globe, citing anonymous sources, reported that the office of Assembly speaker Craig Coughlin, a Democrat, delivered the message that the vote would not take place as scheduled.
The IHRA definition makes clear that there are ways to criticize the Israeli government and its decisions without being antisemitic. But some critics of Israel, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which blamed Israel for being attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, say that it curbs free speech.
Some 35 states have endorsed or recognized the working definition, which was part of U.S. President Joe Biden’s national strategy to counter Jew-hatred.
The American Jewish Committee has called the IHRA definition “the most clear, comprehensive and broadly accepted definition of antisemitism to date.”