(Ohio Capital Journal Photo) The Ohio Statehouse.

By Megan Henry

Special to The Times

The Ohio Senate passed a bill last week that would define antisemitism for state agency investigations, but not criminal investigations.

Ohio Senate Bill 87 passed 27-4 during last Wednesday’s Senate session. The bill now heads to the Ohio House for consideration.

Ohio Democratic Senators Catherine Ingram, Kent Smith, Paula Hicks-Hudson, and Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio voted against the bill after about 40 minutes of discussion on the Senate floor.

State Sen. Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, introduced the bill last year.

An amendment to the bill in Wednesday’s Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee meeting clarified the bill’s definition of antisemitism is only to be used in state agency civil or administrative investigations — not criminal investigations.

“(Following the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023) we witnessed a concerning wave of extremist demonstrations across several American college campuses,” Johnson said.

“Antisemitism, unfortunately, seemingly on the rise in these institutions of higher education, exacerbating tensions against Jewish students. These students have increasingly found themselves facing discrimination, harassment, and sometimes even violence. … It is essential for campuses, especially our state universities, to actively investigate and address antisemitism and other forms of ethnic intimidation.”

Ohio had 233 antisemitic incidents in 2024, compared to 237 in 2023, and 61 in 2022, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League.

“There are an awful lot of examples of growing antisemitism within the state of Ohio and across our country, and so we need to be mindful of that, and we need to be supportive of our friends in the Jewish community,” Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, said.

S.B. 87 would codify a definition of antisemitism that is taken from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance — the same definition used in a 2022 executive order by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

The bill defines antisemitism as a perception of Jewish people, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jewish people, directed toward Jewish individuals and non-Jewish individuals or their property or toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities in either rhetorical or physical form.

“Antisemitism remains a serious and evolving problem in our state and across the country,” Ohio state Sen. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, said.

“We’ve seen troubling incidents targeting Jewish individuals and institutions, as well as rhetoric that seeks to marginalize members of the Jewish community in civic and academic spaces. If we’re going to confront hatred effectively, we must define it clearly.”

The bill does not infringe on the First Amendment, restrict free speech, or prohibit criticism of Israel, Weinstein said.

“What this bill does do is provide clarity when that rhetoric crosses the line into anti-Jewish hate, including when conduct or speech fosters hostility or acts of violence against Jewish people,” Weinstein said.

The bill lists several contemporary examples of antisemitism including, among others:

– Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jewish people in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.

– Holding Jewish people collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.

– Accusing Jewish people, or the state of Israel, of inventing or exaggerating the genocide that occurred in Europe during World War II.

– Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jewish people worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.

– Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, including claims that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor.

Antonio is concerned about codifying the examples listed in the bill.

“I truly believe that’s a part that really needs to come out,” she said. “We should not codify that.”

Ohio Sen. Paula Hicks-Hudson, D-Toledo, voted against the bill.

“This bill elevates hate speech not to individuals, but to nations because within the language and within the definition, it clearly identifies the state of Israel,” she said.

Hicks-Hudson said the bill could chill discussions on college campuses.

“It will definitely cause professors and other instructors to determine whether or not they can even raise the issue that’s happening right now in this world between the war that’s going on with Israel, the U.S. and Iran, and that is what I’m most concerned about,” she said.

Ohio state Sen. Beth Liston, D-Dublin, supports the bill.

“I stand against hatred, the targeting of vulnerable groups, antisemitism, and the rising white supremacy movement we see poisoning the minds and hearts of too many,” she said. “I stand with the Jewish community.”

The bill would also expand charges of ethnic intimidation to include riot and aggravated riot committed by reason of the race, color, religion, or national origin of another person or group of persons, according to an analysis by the Legislative Service Commission.

“Ethnic intimidation is already against the law here in Ohio and can be added as an additional charge violation such as menacing, aggravated menacing, criminal damage, damaging or endangering and criminal mischief,” Johnson said.

If someone is charged with a riot offense, the charge of ethnic intimidation would be a fifth-degree felony.

A charge of aggravated riot would bring an ethnic intimidation charge considered second, third, or fourth-degree felony “depending on the circumstances of the offense,” according to a Legislative Service Commission analysis.

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Original story can be found at https://ohiocapitaljournal.com