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Some Jewish Texans on Tuesday supported a measure to address a rise in antisemitism in schools, while others said it would not only stifle free speech but make them less safe.
They testified Tuesday evening on Senate Bill 326 in the Senate’s K-16 Education Committee.
The bill would require public school districts, open-enrollment charter schools and colleges and universities to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition and examples of antisemitism in student disciplinary proceedings.
The IHRA defines antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
A few examples the IHRA provides of antisemitism are “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” “applying double standards by requiring of it (Israel) a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation,” and “holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the state of Israel.”
Oli Hoffman, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, said the IHRA definition encourages “a dangerous conflation of the government of Israel and the Jewish people.”
“I am a proud Longhorn studying education,” Hoffman said, “and I can recall some respectful debates regarding Israel that I was a party to on campus that would be defined as antisemitic come Sept. 1 if this bill is passed.”
Students at UT Austin and universities throughout the country demonstrated support for Palestinians last spring, calling for their universities to divest from manufacturers supplying Israel with weapons in its strikes on Gaza.
UT officials called state police, who responded to the campus and arrested more than 100 people. While some have criticized the university for what they called a heavy-handed response, others have applauded it as necessary to combat protests they saw as antisemitic. Some point to the phrase some protesters chanted, “from the river to the sea,” as evidence of this.
“From the river to the sea” refers to a stretch of land between the Jordan River on the eastern flank of Israel and the occupied West Bank to the Mediterranean Sea to the west.
Pro-Palestinian activists have said this is a call for peace and equality in the Middle East, but SB 326’s author, Phil King, R-Weatherford, said he thinks that phrase calls for the killing of Jews.
Sandra Parker, vice chair of the Texas Holocaust, Genocide, and Antisemitism Advisory Commission and King’s invited witness, agreed and added that it also calls for the eradication of the Jewish state.
She stressed that the bill would allow school leaders to decide on their own if a student has violated their code of conduct and provides them a tool to determine whether the violation was motivated by antisemitism.
That could help the school determine what discipline is warranted, she said.
“Why is that necessary? Because you cannot defeat what you are unwilling to define,” Parker said. “We know the conduct is happening, but why? The answer can only be one of two things. Antisemitism is being tolerated and ignored or people don’t know what antisemitism is when they see it.”
Parker added that the bill could address incidents like one at a high school in San Antonio where she said a student who is not Jewish had an Israel flag stolen and destroyed by another student. The school then moved the student who owned the flag to another classroom rather than punish the students who destroyed the flag.
“This behavior was aimed to silence both Jewish students and those who support them,” Parker said.
But other Jewish Texans disagreed with King and Parker that the phrase “from the river to the sea” is antisemitic.
“Whatever the intentions of this bill, understand that it actually makes Jews in Texas less safe to formally associate us with a foreign government, evoking the longstanding antisemitic charge of dual loyalty that’s been leveled against Jewish people in the U.S. and Europe for decades, setting us apart from our neighbors and painting us as outsiders,” said Jennifer Margulies, who attends Congregation Beth Israel in Austin, which a man set on fire in 2022.
“I know what antisemitism looks like,” she said. “It looks like needing to reassure my child that it’s safe to attend Hebrew school when I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I drive by the burnt black sanctuary doors to drop her off, hoping that I am not lying.”
Since protests broke out last spring, lawmakers have heard about an uptick in antisemitic incidents in schools. They heard that again on Tuesday from Jackie Nirenberg, a regional director for the Anti-defamation League.
She said the ADF and Hillel International, a Jewish Campus organization, surveyed Jewish college students at 135 colleges and universities across the U.S. and found that 83% of them have experienced or witnessed antisemitism since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
SB 326 was left pending in committee.
State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, has filed identical legislation in the House.
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