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The Clearfield City Council in Utah voted unanimously last week to approve a measure adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism into municipal code.
Resolution 2025R-13 — which can be read in full HERE — denounces “antisemitic acts and statements as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values that define the people of Clearfield City” and “recognizes the growing problem of antisemitism in the U.S. and hereby adopts the non-binding IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, including the eleven (11) contemporary examples stated therein, as an important tool to address it.”
It goes on to direct municipal agencies to “ensure that the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism is available as an educational resource for the Department of Police and other departments and agencies responsible for addressing antisemitism and other forms of discrimination.”
Clearfield City “condemns antisemitism in all its forms, without exception, and encourages our elected officials, educators, community organizations, houses of worship and all citizens to work to understand and oppose antisemitism to ensure that Clearfield City, Utah, will live up to the principles of diversity, tolerance, religious freedom, and equal protection,” the resolution concludes.
“We are a welcoming city and we need to be a tolerant city,” Mayor Mark Shepherd said at a City Council meeting on Tuesday. “This goes into our policies to make sure that we understand what bigotry and hatred do to our society, and we don’t want that here in Clearfield.”
Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) Chief Government Affairs Officer Lisa Katz — who leads CAM’s municipal initiatives engaging mayors across the United States — praised the resolution’s passage, stating, “By adopting the IHRA definition into municipal code, the Clearfield City Council has taken a strong and actionable stand to guarantee antisemitism is clearly recognized and effectively addressed. We encourage other cities around the country to do the same.”
The IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism has been adopted or endorsed by more than 1,200 entities — including international, national, and local governing authorities, civic bodies, NGOs, educational institutions, athletic leagues and clubs, and corporations — worldwide since 2016.
Adoption and implementation of the IHRA definition was a core element of the Municipal Antisemitism Action Index, unveiled by CAM at the 2024 North American Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism in Beverly Hills, California, as a tool to measure and encourage meaningful local leadership in the fight against antisemitism.
Mayor Shepherd attended the Beverly Hills summit and is also among the approximately 300 city leaders expected to participate in the 2025 mayoral forum in New Orleans this December.
