Wiesenthal Center Praises UC President’s Personal Agreement With State Dept Definition of Anti-Semitism

May 21, 2015

Center officials say that State Department's definition should be “the litmus test to measure legitimate disagreement with Israel’s policies vs. poorly-veiled anti-Semitism” in the wake of numerous anti-Semitic incidents on California campuses.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center commends  University of California President Janet Napolitano for personally agreeing with the U.S. State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism, which says that denying Israel’s right to exist is anti-Semitic.

“Using the State Department’s definition of Antisemitism as the litmus test to measure legitimate disagreement with Israel's policies vs. poorly veiled anti-Semitism will  expose the haters,” said Rabbi Meyer H. May, Executive Director of the Wiesenthal Center and and Aron Hier, director of the Center’s Campus Outreach program.

Both May and Hier have attended meetings throughout the state urging UC Regents, chancellors and policy makers to adopt the State’s department’s definition in the wake of many recent anti-Semitic campus incidents. The issue of whether the University of California should adopt the State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism will be voted on by the Board of Regents in July. 

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400.000 members. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS and the Latin American Parliament.

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