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The Missouri House of Representatives Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee held a hearing on Wednesday where a new bill — HB 937 — to address and prohibit antisemitic discrimination in the state’s public K-12 schools and institutions of higher education was presented.
The legislation — filed and supported by State Representative George Hruza and House Speaker Jon Patterson — defines antisemitism using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, including its 11 contemporary examples, which was endorsed in an executive proclamation by then-Governor Michael Parson in 2023.
The bill mandates the integration of the definition into student, faculty, and employee codes of conduct, and gives teeth to Title VI of the U.S. Civil Rights Act by directing the Missouri State Board of Education and the Coordinating Board for Higher Education to designate a Title VI coordinator to monitor, review, and investigate antisemitic discrimination in public K-12 and post-secondary schools.
“We have to make sure that our Jewish students can feel safe and comfortable going to school, and they can have their education and not worry about what might happen when they go to class,” Rep. Hruza, the son of a Holocaust survivor, said.
The legislation is backed by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), and CAM Founder Adam Beren spoke before the committee at Wednesday’s hearing at the State Capitol in Jefferson City.
“While nowhere near the problems we have read about in New York, California, Massachusetts, or Washington, D.C, Missouri has unfortunately not been immune to antisemitism,” Beren noted in his testimony, detailing a spate of post-October 7th incidents at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Saint Louis University, Washington University, and Rockhurst University.
“Passage of HB 937 will demonstrate that legislators in Missouri are taking a proactive measure,” he emphasized.
Nikolay Remizov, a student at Saint Louis University, shared his personal experiences with on-campus antisemitism.
“After October 7th, I decided to run for Student Government President,” Remizov recalled. “Almost immediately, my campaign materials were defaced with antisemitic imagery, horns and tails drawn on my posters, while I received hateful comments, threats to my life, and relentless pressure simply for being who I am. This has become a daily reality for me.”
Additional speakers in favor of the legislation included Rabbi Ze’ev Smason of St. Louis, representing the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), as well as other members of Missouri’s Jewish community.
CAM is leading an organized effort to engage and educate state legislators across the United States on antisemitism-related issues and potential policy remedies, such as the bill now under consideration in Missouri.
Similar legislative initiatives have also been put forth in Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas in recent weeks.
