PIERRE, South Dakota (Press Release)– In the face of skyrocketing antisemitism across the country, the South Dakota Legislature passed a bill Friday, Feb. 23, making the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism the state’s official definition of anti-Jewish bias and discrimination. The South Dakota House of Representatives and Senate passed the bipartisan bill HB 1076 with overwhelming margins.
This makes South Dakota the 12th state to codify the IHRA definition for use in assessing possible cases of antisemitic discrimination. An additional 23 states have endorsed the definition through legislative resolutions and executive proclamations.
The Israeli-American Council (IAC), and its legislative and policy-making sister organization, the Israeli-American Coalition for Action (IAC For Action), praised the South Dakota Legislature for adopting the IHRA definition by margins of 53 to 14 in the House and 31 to 3 in the Senate.
“We applaud the South Dakota Legislature for taking a bold stand against antisemitic and national origin discrimination,” said IAC For Action Board Chairman Shawn Evenhaim. “By acting today, South Dakota is not only protecting their citizens against anti-Jewish bias and hatred, which has been at crisis levels since Oct. 7th, but is also setting an example for other states around the country. IAC for Action was proud to work with Governor Noem’s office and bill sponsors Rep. Fred Deutsch and Sen. Jim Mehlhoff to resource this effort and is grateful for their leadership and heartfelt commitment.”
The IHRA definition of antisemitism has broad consensus throughout the United States, across the world, and among Jewish organizations. Over 1,100 national, state, and local governments and major public entities have endorsed the IHRA definition in recent years, among them eight federal agencies, including the Departments of State, Education, and Justice. It has also been endorsed by 51 of the 53 member organizations of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations.
Through the ‘contemporary examples’ of antisemitism included, the IHRA definition captures both traditional forms of Jew hatred and the form that targets Zionism and the State of Israel. While expressly stating that criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country is not antisemitic, the IHRA definition’s examples of antisemitism do capture that delegitimization, demonization, and the application of double standards to the Jewish state are antisemitic.
Since the massacre of Israelis by Hamas on Oct. 7, antisemitic incidents have tripled in America relative to the same period last year, and anti-Israel or anti-Zionist prejudice comprises an increasingly large portion of those acts. Between Oct. 7 and Dec. 7, 2023, there were 2,031 antisemitic incidents recorded in the U.S., including 250 incidents specifically targeting Jewish institutions such as synagogues, Hillels and Jewish fraternities.
IAC for Action’s executive director, Joe Sabag, said: “By passing HB 1076, South Dakota has sent an important message, not just within the state, but across the United States, that every form of antisemitism is unacceptable. Without the IHRA definition, our community has suffered a civil rights deficit, where perpetrators of antisemitic discrimination would target Jews and Jewish institutions and then hide behind the false pretense that they were motivated by anti-Israel politics and not anti-Jewish bigotry. South Dakota’s passage of HB 1076 is an important step forward in a national effort to deal with the current antisemitism crisis we are facing. IAC for Action is grateful to the South Dakota Legislature, and to bill sponsors Rep. Fred Deutsch and Sen. Jim Mehlhaff, as well as Governor Noem and her General Counsel Katie Hruska for their leadership. We are also grateful to attorney Dr. Mark Goldfeder of the National Jewish Advocacy Center for his integral role in helping draft and resource this bill, and to the South Dakota Jewish community for their strong advocacy: Stephen Alperowitz, Rabbi Mendel Alperowitz of the Chabad Jewish Center of South Dakota and Dan Lederman.”
Elan Carr, IAC’s CEO and former U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, stated: “Rising Jew-hatred is a threat to all Americans, and South Dakotans today should feel deeply proud of what their government is doing to confront this scourge. The great State of South Dakota has made the clearest possible statement that we’re going to identify, confront, and call out antisemitism, and when it rises to the level of discrimination, we’re going to use the full force of the law to rout it out.
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Preceding provided by the Israeli-American Council