OPINION:
The ongoing campaign to delegitimize Israel endangers the civil rights of Jews in the United States, but a new bill designed to ensure equal protection for Jews under American law seeks to push back.
The No Antisemitism in Education Act was recently passed by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and should receive a full House floor vote in the coming months.
Sponsored by Rep. Randy Fine, Florida Republican, the bill would require educational agencies and institutions of higher learning that receive federal funding to treat antisemitic discrimination as rigorously as they treat other forms of discrimination prohibited by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Who could be against safeguarding Jewish students, faculty and staff from discrimination and worse at educational institutions nationwide? Since Oct. 7, 2023, colleges have become breeding grounds for antisemitism. There were 531 antisemitic incidents on U.S. college and university campuses in 2025 alone, according to the Combat Antisemitism Movement’s Antisemitism Research Center.
Although two Democrats voted in favor of the bill, which advanced by a 20-12 margin, other Democrats on the committee expressed opposition.
Rep. Bobby Scott, the ranking member from Virginia, argued that Mr. Fine’s bill would “elevate the treatment of antisemitism” above other forms of religious discrimination and “position Jewish victims of discrimination differently than Christian, Muslim, Sikh or other religions who are victims of discrimination.”
That is a complete mischaracterization of the legislation. The No Antisemitism in Education Act does not treat Jewish victims of discrimination differently from other groups. On the contrary, the bill insists that Jews be treated the same.
The measure buttresses Title VI, which is designed to protect members of faith-based communities when they are targeted based on their shared ancestry and ethnicity — a protection Jews are frequently denied.
Title VI does not protect against religious discrimination. When members of religious communities are discriminated against because of their religious beliefs or practices, that is covered by the First Amendment, not by Title VI. Mr. Fine’s bill does not change that.
The No Antisemitism in Education Act merely clarifies what it means to target Jews because of their shared ancestry and ethnicity. The reason it is so difficult for Mr. Scott and many others to understand this is that there is a global campaign to deny and erase Jewish shared ancestry and ethnicity.
Why? Because Jewish history and heritage are rooted in the land of Israel.
Those who claim that Israel has no right to exist routinely dismiss this fact and define Jews solely on the basis of religious belief and practice. In this distorted outlook, antisemitism is understood very narrowly: only as hatred that targets Jews because of their Jewish faith or dress.
Yet the most prevalent form of antisemitism today targets Jews because of their connection with Israel.
Denying that Jews are a people with an ancient history in Israel also denies their right to self-determination. According to the working definition of antisemitism provided by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, refuting the Jewish people’s right to self-determination is a form of Jew-hatred.
The alliance’s definition has emerged over the past decade as the clear gold standard for defining antisemitism in America and abroad, with 47 countries adopting it and 18 U.S. states codifying it into law. It was incorporated into the 2019 Executive Order on Combating Antisemitism (Executive Order 13899) during Trump’s first term and later used by the Biden administration in addressing Title VI complaints.
Ironically, by opposing the No Antisemitism in Education Act’s use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition, Mr. Scott proved that the very definition he challenged is essential. The definition and its 11 examples enable educational institutions and all of American society to recognize when Jews are being targeted because of their common ancestry in Israel.
Jewish students, faculty and staff continue to face harassment, intimidation and exclusion in education settings in large measure because of a campaign that rejects the core elements of Jewish peoplehood.
It is high time that schools recognize this for what it is. The No Antisemitism in Education Act is a powerful tool that will not only help administrators recognize all forms of contemporary antisemitism but also hold them accountable if they fail to address it.
• Alyza D. Lewin is president of U.S. affairs for the Combat Antisemitism Movement.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.