State of Ohio adopts the International Definition of Antisemitism
The State of Ohio has reportedly adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism.
Executive Order 2022-06D, called “Defining and Combating Antisemitism”, describes anti-Jewish hatred and prejudice as a “persistent, pervasive, and disturbing problem in American society, including…in Ohio.”
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has ordered all state agencies, departments, boards, and commissions, including public colleges and universities, to adopt the Definition, and encouraged “all federal and local governments and governmental agencies and entities to adopt it as well.”
There has been a steadily growing Jewish presence in Ohio since 1817. According to a 2020 study, the Jewish population was 151,615, making up 1.3 percent of a total state population of nearly twelve million.
The Executive Order points out, however, that Ohio’s Jewish population has been the target of several examples of antisemitic terrorism plots. These include an attempted attack on two synagogues in Toledo in December 2018, and another incident in white a white nationalist was arrested for threatening to attack a Jewish community centre in Youngstown with firearms in August 2019. The perpetrators behind these incidents are now serving prison sentences.
More recently, a professor at Ohio State University avoided long-term disciplinary consequences after using the term “Jew down” in one of her classes while referring to haggling about prices in a market. There have also been instances of antisemitic graffiti on the side of a Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), a zoombombing during an online careers fair at Ohio’s Miami University, and one example where a Jewish couple received antisemitic abuse and threats, and had rocks thrown at their home.
Britain was the first country in the world to adopt the International Definition, something for which Campaign Against Antisemitism and Lord Pickles worked hard over many meetings with officials at Downing Street. Since then, numerous local councils, universities and sport associations in the United Kingdom have adopted the Definition, as have several national governments and myriad municipalities and associations around the world.
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