At some point after Jan. 19, Yale University in New Haven, Conn., quietly added the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of Jew-hatred to a footnote on its website in its general procedures supporting its policy against discrimination and harassment, per an archived version of its site.
The page that is currently live, which states that it was updated on March 28, notes that when the school’s Office of Institutional Equity and Accessibility analyzes hostile environments “ of national and ethnic origin claims of antisemitism,” it “considers the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, among other resources.”
JNS sought comment from Yale about the addition of the IHRA definition, which the Yale Daily News, a student paper, reported.
Linda Maizels, the inaugural managing director of Yale’s new Program for the Study of Antisemitism, told the Daily News that “many Jews are uncomfortable” with the IHRA working definition “because they feel that some of these measures are coming out ‘in their name,’ and they don’t support broad-based attacks on removing money from universities.”
“I don’t think this is effective. In the end, it could result in exacerbating hostilities against Jews,” she said.
“I don’t think that an institution adopting the IHRA definition is necessarily going to solve the antisemitism problem,” she added. “On the other hand, I don’t think it is as dangerous as it’s made out to be.”
Some 43 countries have adopted or endorsed the IHRA definition, including the United States.
