Only one member of San Diego’s congressional delegation voted against a bill requiring all schools getting federal funding to follow a disputed definition of antisemitism.
In a rare break with fellow Democrats, Rep. Sara Jacobs voted no Wednesday on the Antisemitism Awareness Act.
Republican Darrell Issa joined with county Democrats Mike Levin, Scott Peters and Juan Vargas in voting yes. The House bill passed 320-91.
The bill requires the Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which includes criticism of Israel.
The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s “working definition” in 2010 but calls it “nonlegally binding.”
Amid pro-Palestinian protests at campuses nationwide, including at San Diego State University and UC San Diego, the House vote was seen as politically tinged.
Jacobs, at 35 the youngest Jewish member of Congress, said the bill would stifle and restrict free speech.
“As a Jewish woman, I’ve experienced antisemitism all my life,” she said in a statement, citing specific slurs and “jokes.”
“I know the hatred and ignorance that lie behind all these comments, and how they can quickly escalate into violence — and I’m deeply concerned about the rise of antisemitism in San Diego and across the country,” she said.
Jacobs, a Qualcomm heir whose family has been active in many Jewish charities and causes, said she didn’t believe that anti-Zionism is inherently antisemitic.
“I support Israel’s right to exist,” she said, “but I also know many people who question whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state who are deeply connected to their Judaism.”
She said she voted against H.R. 6090 “because it fails to effectively address the very real rise of antisemitism, all while defunding colleges and universities across the country and punishing many, if not all, of the nonviolent protestors speaking out against the Israeli military’s conduct.”
She said conflating free speech and hate crimes would not make Jewish students any safer.
“This bill would stifle First Amendment rights to free speech and free assembly,” she said. “And it would distract from real antisemitism and our efforts to address it.”
Peters also released a statement on the vote, calling the recent rise in antisemitism the worst he’s seen in his lifetime.
“This bill clearly defines antisemitism as ‘a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,’” he said. “No one should object to this definition.”
He said the bill doesn’t limit the right to criticize Israel’s actions.
“I have stated my own concerns about how Israel has carried out its offensive in Gaza and fully support people exercising their First Amendment rights,” he said.
But he added: “While I voted for this legislation, I wish the process to get here was more collaborative. At a time when we should be unified against antisemitism, some are leveraging the moment to further a partisan agenda and polarize our country.”
Peters called for increasing funding for the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, “so that the Department can expeditiously investigate and address allegations of antisemitism on college campuses.”
Thursday morning, Issa said in a statement:
“The Congress came together yesterday and spoke with a clear and strong voice that told the truth about the recent and widespread rise of antisemitism — history’s oldest hate. But this was more than words; our vote is the setting of a standard that many justifiably thought might not be necessary in the times of today. But after witnessing for more than six months a widespread and growing tide of antisemitism in America — much of it centered on the campuses of our colleges and universities — a bipartisan supermajority of the Congress took appropriate action.”
Levin, whose father and grandparents were Jewish, didn’t comment directly on his vote.
But he posted a video on X Wednesday hailing Jewish Heritage Month and recalling how his immigrant grandfather Ted Levin couldn’t use his name in his carpet and drapery business (using “Dean” instead) because of antisemitism.
Issa also has addressed the subject on social media and in interviews.
Last November, he told the Washington Free Beacon: “You can draw a straight line from the Democrat Party’s public hostility towards Israel and the attacks on Jews on college campuses and elsewhere over the last month.”
His remarks came days after the House censured Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan for what was seen as repeated promotion of antisemitic tropes.
“The House doesn’t just have a Rashida Tlaib problem,” Issa said. “The Democrats have an antisemitism problem. … What you have is a massive, anti-Jewish, anti-Israel coalition that includes essentially all of the intellectual elite of our country. That, to me, that’s scarier.”
The IHRA website link to its “working definition of antisemitism” was not working Wednesday night. (Clicking on the link yielded: “Error establishing a database connection.”) It was restored Thursday morning.
Updated at 8:10 a.m. May 2, 2024