Wisconsin Assembly Bill 446/Senate Bill 445 requires that state agencies, including the Universities of Wisconsin, adopt a definition of antisemitism promulgated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
While the framers of the IHRA working definition themselves have called it non-binding, the current legislation would make it legally binding. Moreover, the IHRA definition has been criticized by organizations including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the American Civil Liberties Union, among others, as having a potential chilling effect on non-violent protests, activism, and constitutionally-protected speech under the First Amendment.
PROFS strongly condemns antisemitism and hate in all of its forms. With equal strength, PROFS also affirms the right to free speech; trampling First Amendment rights will not end the scourge of antisemitism.
