David Bernstein | 5.3.2024 2:33 PM
I have a piece up at National Review Online about the Antisemitism Awareness Act. As described in my article, the most important feature of the act is that it codifies administrative guidance that began in the Bush Administration holding that Jews are protecting from ethnic discrimination by Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Before 2003, the Department of Education treated Jews an exclusively religious group not covered by the Act.
The controversial part of the Act is that it codifies the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism in the context of determining discriminatory intent for related allegedly discriminatory actions in Title VI enforcement. That definition gives examples of statements that, depending on the context, could be antisemitic. Some of those examples relate to Israel, and one of those discusses the use of........