ATLANTA — On Thursday, the Georgia Senate passed a bill adding anti-semitism language to the state’s hate crimes law. The bill had stalled in the Senate after it passed the House last year.
There were more than a hundred people queued up for seats in the senate gallery in anticipation of the vote on HB 30, the antisemitism bill that had stalled in the senate until now.
"The Jewish community is at a moment of heightened anxiety because of the increase in antisemitism in the United States and around the world, said Dov Wilker of the American Jewish Committee.
"On rare occasions, we get to protect the vulnerable from evil," state Sen. John Kennedy (R-Macon) told senators Thursday.
Backers of the bill said increased incidents targeting Georgia’s Jewish communities justify broadening the state’s hate crimes bill with specific language to include antisemitism. State Sen. Gloria Butler (D-Stone Mountain) says the Jewish community deserved her yes vote.
"I have been discriminated against my whole life, both as a Black person and as a woman. And at every moment, Black people or women asked for equality, the Jewish community stood hand in hand with us," Butler, the senate Democratic leader, told senators.
However, critics of the bill fretted that the bill would chill legitimate speech criticizing the state of Israel. Supporters said it would do no such thing.
And some wondered if this should open a door to other specific hate crime bills. "If we're going to define antisemitism in the law, then there are a lot of other groups that experience racism that they should also have definitions?" asked state Sen. Sally Harrell (D-Atlanta). "We should have a roadmap for Islamophobia. We should have definitions for people in the LGBTQ community. We should have definitions for our indigenous people."
In the end, Republicans passed the bill with most of the Senate’s Democrats joining them. And the galleries emptied with joyful embraces among those who were at the capitol to watch a bit of history.
State Rep. Esther Panitch (D-Sandy Springs) celebrated afterward. She is the only Jewish member of the legislature. "I’m one person, and there are 150,000 Jews in Georgia who feel they have been seen and heard and acknowledged and protected" with the passage of the bill, she said afterward.