Simon Wiesenthal Center Commends President Trump’s Executive Order on Anti-Semitism

December 10, 2019

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights NGO commends President Trump's Executive Order on anti-Semitism.
“It will have an immediate impact on US campuses plagued with anti-Semitic and extreme anti-Israel acts, where many University officials complained that the lack of a working definition of anti-Semitism hampered efforts to deal with anti-Semitic incidents on campus. Now, through this Executive Order, necessitated by Congress’ failure to pass legislation, University officials and Jewish students will be better equipped to deal with hate attacks often associated with the anti-Israel BDS campaigns,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action, in a statement released in Washington, DC.

“More broadly, President Trump’s Executive Order sends a strong message domestically and around the world against history’s oldest hate at a time of surging anti-Semitism on both sides of the Atlantic,” Cooper added.
 
Rabbi Cooper testified at the House Judiciary Committee in support of a bill designed to provide University officials with a working definition on anti-Semitism. The bill sailed through the Senate but did not make it out of committee in the House. The SWC’s Director of Government Affairs, Mark Weitzman was deeply involved in the drafting of the (so-called) IHRA definition on anti-Semitism that has since been adopted by many European states and which explains when anti-Israel criticism crosses over into anti-Semitism.

Read related New York Times story:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/us/politics/trump-antisemitism-executive-order.html

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).