Arkansas State Senate Approves Bill to Combat Antisemitism in State’s Public Schools

The Arkansas State Senate approved on Thursday SB 352, a Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM)-backed bill addressing and prohibiting antisemitic discrimination in the state’s public K-12 schools and institutions of higher education.

The legislation — the full text of which is available HERE — was passed by a 29-4 margin, with two senators voting present.

The bill — sponsored by Senator Matt Stone and supported by Senator Ben Gilmore, with companion legislation in the Arkansas House of Representatives sponsored by Representative Howard Beaty — defines antisemitism using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, including its 11 contemporary examples.

A total of 37 U.S. states have adopted the definition, according to a database compiled by the Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) by CAM.

SB 352 requires the integration of the definition into student and employee codes of conduct, and gives teeth to Title VI of the U.S. Civil Rights Act by directing the Arkansas Department of Education to designate a Title VI Coordinator to monitor, review, and investigate all complaints and incidents of discrimination, including antisemitism, in public K-12 and post-secondary schools.

On Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee had advanced the bill with a majority voice vote, following a hearing where CAM Senior Advisor Gabriel Groisman testified in its favor.

“There are only two ways to deal with an issue like antisemitism,” Groisman said. “We can either sit back and wait for it to happen in our communities or we can be active and try to squash it at the beginning. It’s clear that Arkansas has not been waiting, and I urge Arkansas not to wait. This is something that will send a message all across the country, that antisemitism and the scourge we’re seeing all over the country is not welcome here in Arkansas.”