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The Missouri Senate General Rules Committee held a hearing on Thursday where a proposed 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 — sponsored by State Representative George Hruza and advanced by the House of Representatives with a 108-10 vote on April 10 — 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.
The full text of the legislation is available HERE.
“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 at a House of Representatives Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee hearing in February.
The legislation is backed by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), and CAM Director of State Engagement David Soffer spoke before the Senate General Rules Committee at Thursday’s hearing at the State Capitol in Jefferson City.
In his testimony, Soffer detailed a spate of post-October 7th antisemitic incidents at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Saint Louis University, Washington University, and Rockhurst University.
“This bill is timely and critical, as it will prevent further antisemitic incidents in Missouri’s K-20 public schools,” Soffer said. “While antisemitism may not be as pervasive here as in other states, passing HB 937 will send a powerful message that Missouri is taking a proactive step to protect its 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 in Missouri.
Similar legislative initiatives have also been put forth in Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Tennessee in recent months.
