The following amended statement was sent to the sponsor of Bill A3558, Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter, in advance of the discussion taking place on June 23, 2025 in Trenton.

The Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union strongly opposes New Jersey Assembly Bill A3558, just as we opposed New Jersey Senate Bills 1292 and 2937 last year. This bill would embed in state law the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) “Working Definition of Antisemitism” document, which falsely conflates criticism of or opposition to Israel and Zionism with anti-Jewish racism. If adopted, the distorted IHRA definition, in the words of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), “would likely silence a range of protected speech including criticism of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians,” and would also disallow the “sharing (of) differing beliefs about the right to a Jewish state.” This would violate both the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, Section 6, of the New Jersey State Constitution.

Antisemitism—overwhelmingly driven by white supremacists—is, of course, a legitimate concern, and reports of harassment, intimidation, and similar actions must be properly addressed. However, by stipulating the IHRA definition as the basis for determining antisemitism, the bills make clear that the priority is silencing Israel’s critics–including Jews–and not protecting the safety of Jewish New Jerseyans. This is further supported by the fact that, as the ACLU points out, actions of hate or bias against Jews are already covered by existing anti-discrimination laws. 

As faculty unions, we are greatly concerned with the profound impact this bill would have on the academic freedom and the exercise of our First Amendment rights to free speech, assembly, and the press on the state’s college and university campuses. By enshrining the IHRA definition of antisemitism and its included examples, educators and students could be vulnerable to the threat of administrative and legal discipline in the normal course of assigning readings, discussing current events, and publishing scholarship. 

Of course, that is already happening–and worse, too: pro-Palestinian students are being doxxed, expelled, kidnapped by ICE, jailed without due process, and even deported. The academic freedom of faculty is being curtailed: faculty are self-censoring, being silenced, blacklisted, fired, threatened with violence, and stopped at the border.

Our effort here aligns with our national unions’ important stand in 2018, when the Trump administration, referencing the IHRA definition, peddled fraudulent charges of antisemitism against organizers of a Palestine solidarity event at Rutgers featuring a Jewish anti-Zionist Holocaust survivor. In response, the American Federation of Teachers, American Association of University Professors, and Rutgers AAUP-AFT leadership issued a joint statement condemning this attempt “to equate advocacy for Palestinians with anti-Semitism,” and defending “the free expression of ideas.”

Our unions and all concerned New Jerseyans must respond similarly to the IHRA threat in 2025.