The Roeland Park City Council on Monday joined five other Johnson County cities and adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.
This comes after a Kansas Islamic group urged the city council to reject adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, because the group sees this specific definition as expanding antisemitism to include criticisms of the state of Israel, particularly the Israeli government’s handling of Palestinian rights.
Jewish community members on Monday spoke in support of adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism and said it has nothing to do with the current Israeli government or its policies.
Below is a video recording of the meeting. Discussion begins at 22:17. The Post’s recap of the discussion is below the video.
Opposition centered on criticisms of Israel
Out of more than a dozen public commenters, only four urged the city council to reject the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
All four voiced concerns about the IHRA definition conflating antisemitism with criticisms of Israel — which was also the Kansas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ main hiccup with the definition.
“I know in my heart that the people who created the IHRA definition were genuinely trying to commemorate the Holocaust and empower the struggle against antisemitism, but that being said, there are two main dangers to the IHRA definition,” said Joyce Jackson, who identified herself as an American Jew. Jackson noted her concern that those “two main dangers” are that it “is used as a tool to silence all criticism of Israel” and that it “weaponizes the idea of antisemitism.”
Eric Jacobson, one of several who spoke in spoke in support of adopting the definition, said the definition “explicitly” states that criticisms of Israel cannot be considered antisemitic.
Jacobson said he recently spent a month in Israel and protested alongside “hundreds of thousands of Israelis who detest the government” and who oppose the government’s policies. He said he “can assure you they (the protesters) are not antisemitic, and attacking the Israeli government’s policy does not make them so.”
Additionally, Jacobson said the definition is legally non-binding and is used as an educational tool for law enforcement to understand if anti-Jewish bias was a factor in a crime.
“No one is getting arrested for saying that Israel has no right to exist, but if someone attacks a Jewish person and has a history of saying that, then yes that is definitely relevant information for the police to have in considering whether there may have been bias at play,” Jacobson said.
Public commenters, local Jewish org dig into antisemitism
Others who spoke in support of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, many of whom were Jewish, pleaded with the city council to listen to the Jewish community, citing recent examples of antisemitism presenting itself in Roeland Park.
Several public commenters shared similar sentiments to that of Lisa Bernard, who said antisemitism evolves generationally and that Jewish people become “the representation of what is disliked or feared by society.”
Sarah Markowitz, the director of education and programs at Jewish Community Relations Bureau | American Jewish Committee, said 89% of the 83 local Jewish students surveyed at the beginning of the last school year indicated they had encountered at least one form of antisemitism at school.
Markowitz said the antisemitic Snapchats sent by a Bishop Miege student in Roeland Park earlier this year were not made public. The antisemitic Snapchat “was one of the most blatantly hateful images I have seen coming from a student in the three years I have been in this role,” she said.
Barry Kaseff, a supporter of the resolution, said that while many types of oppression, such as racism, paint the marginalized group as inferior, antisemitism exaggerates the power and influence of Jewish peoples.
“Antisemitism, on the other hand, punches up, it paints us as having too much” said Kaseff, treasurer of JCRB | AJC. “Too much power, too much money, too much influence. While these stereotypes may seem innocuous, they’ve been used to justify violence against our community for centuries.”
Kansas Islamic group stands by its original position
Moussa Elbayoumy, the chair of CAIR-Kansas, on Monday stood by the group’s original position and urged the city council to reject the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
Elbayoumy said that while antisemitism is “an ugly problem,” adopting the IHRA definition would “make antisemitism worse.”
“On face value, it looks very safe and claims it has no reference to Israel, but as we always say, the devil is in the details,” Elbayoumy said, in reference to the examples of antisemitism following the two-sentence definition on IHRA’s website.
- “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
- “Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”
- “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
Later on in the meeting, Elbayoumy said it is false to say the definition is not chilling speech. He said suppressing free speech starts with someone being afraid or concerned of being ostracized for speaking out.
Elbayoumy went on to say the IHRA definition of antisemitism has been used to shut down college campus observances or protests supporting Palestinian rights.
He also noted how U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, blocked the 2023 Nakba Day celebration — which commemorates the 1948 displacement of Palestinians from the newly established state of Israel — from taking place at the Capitol Visitor Center space in Washington, D.C., in May.
The New York Times reports that McCarthy said Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat, “was trafficking in ‘antisemitic tropes.’”
Gavriela Geller, the executive director of JCRB | AJC, noted in her presentation to the city council following Elbayoumy’s original public comment that stereotypes of Jewish people as “inherently sneaky and deceitful” are examples of antisemitism.
Geller also said she hopes everyone noted “the currents underlying that conviction” of people “claiming we are not telling the truth… that behind the ‘face value’ of our efforts the ‘devil is in the details.’”
Below is a copy of the letter of support for adoption of the definition by the Jewish Community Relations Bureau | American Jewish Committee.
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Open in new tab Roeland Park adopted the definition in a 6-2 vote
Most councilmembers voiced support for the IHRA definition of antisemitism, including councilmembers Tom Madigan, Kate Raglow and Trisha Brauer.
Prior to adoption, Mayor Michael Poppa said whether the council adopted the definition has nothing to do with criticism of Israel.
“This is not about the Israeli government or the actions of the Israeli government,” Poppa said. “This is about protecting our community members, our friends, in the Jewish community.”
Councilmembers Miel Castagna-Herrera and Michael Rebne both said they supported standing against antisemitism but wanted to see Roeland Park take a different approach.
Rebne attempted to get the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism adopted instead. That amendment failed, with only Castagna-Herrera and Rebne voting in favor of it.
Castagna-Herrera and Rebne were the dissenting votes on the motion that adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, as well.
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