Adding antisemitism definition to state's anti-discrimination laws brings emotional debate to floor

Free speech concerns among legal minds in House not enough to stop passage of Noem-Deutsch bill

(Austin Goss/The Dakota Scout)

PIERRE — First Amendment concerns among some of the legislature’s lawyers and other skeptical lawmakers in the South Dakota House weren’t enough to quash Gov. Kristi Noem’s hopes of adding acts of antisemitism to the state’s anti-discrimination laws.

The House of Representatives voted 53-14 Tuesday in support of House Bill 1076, which would define antisemitism in state law and require the Department of Labor’s Division of Human Rights to consider the definition when investigating allegations of discrimination.

The definition would be drawn from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the “gold standard” for defining antisemitism, according to Rep. Fred Deutsch. Deutsch teamed up with the Noem administration to bring the bill to the Legislature amid the ongoing conflict between the Jewish state of Israel and the Islamic resistance group Hamas.

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“Those of you who know me, know that I am the son of a Holocaust survivor,” an emotional Deutsch told his colleagues on the House floor. “My grandparents and other family were killed in concentration camps in World War II.” 

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance currently 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.”

Though the legislation earned a super-majority of support among House lawmakers, that wasn’t the case last week when it was first introduced during a House Judiciary hearing. There, five lawmakers on the committee — and all of its attorneys — opposed the measure, citing concerns about free speech and creating a single protected class.

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