We are rabbis, educators, philanthropist, and engaged Jewish citizens from across St. Louis. We urge our state legislators to reject HB 2061 and SB 1051—and we raise serious concerns about the effects of this legislation as well as the agendas of some who support it.

We know antisemitism. We have felt its sting in our congregations, our schools and our homes. We have comforted families targeted by hate. We have stood vigil after swastikas were spray-painted on our buildings. We take the safety of our community with the utmost seriousness.

It is precisely because we take antisemitism seriously that we oppose this legislation.

HB 2061 and SB 1051 would codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism into Missouri law, mandating its use in our schools and universities. This might sound like common sense. It is not. The IHRA definition—particularly its examples conflating criticism of Israeli government policies with hatred of Jews—has been widely criticized by civil liberties organizations, legal scholars and Jewish groups across the religious spectrum. Even Kenneth Stern, the lead drafter of the original definition, has spent years warning against exactly this kind of legislative codification, calling it an attack on free speech and academic freedom that was never the definition’s intended purpose.

While we do not ascribe the same motivations to all Jewish and other groups supporting the Missouri bills, we note that among the proponents of such legislation are right-wing groups such as the Heritage Foundation (creator of Project 2025) and its Project Esther, which promotes equating anti-Zionism and criticism of Israeli government policy with support for terrorism, as well as attacks on free speech and academic freedom.

We are watching such attacks play out in real time. Universities are being defunded. Students are being deported, scholars are being silenced and none of it is making Jews safer. It is generating precisely the resentment that antisemitism feeds upon. When Jews are perceived as the reason other people lose their scholarships, their protections, their voices—that is not safety. That is dangerous, and it plays directly into the oldest antisemitic tropes about Jewish power and conspiracy.

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Jewish safety has never come from special protections that single us out. It has come from living in societies committed to liberal democracy, constitutional rights and equal protection for all. If Missouri legislators truly wanted to combat antisemitism, they would fund security for vulnerable religious institutions. They would strengthen protections for all minorities, not strip them away. They would combat Christian nationalism, which researchers consistently identify as the ideological home of the most dangerous antisemitic movements in America. They would invest in education about how hate operates, how it spreads, and how diverse communities can build coalitions to resist it together.

Instead, a law is being presented that will chill speech, alienate potential allies and provide cover for the very forces that threaten us most. We represent many people in the St. Louis Jewish community who do not support this legislation.

Antisemitism is real. It is dangerous. And this legislation will not stop it. It will make it worse.

We urge Missouri legislators to vote no on HB 2061 and SB 1051. And we urge our communal organizations to listen to and represent the full spectrum of thought within the Jewish community when it comes to this issue. Until then, we will continue to speak out. We cannot stand idly by while others claim to speak in our names.

Sally J. Altman

Gerald Axelbaum

Rabbi Jim Bennett

Shira Berkowitz

Ret. Judge Susan E. Block

Rabbi Daniel Bogard

Rabbi Karen Kriger Bogard

Hillary Anger Elfenbein

Rabbi Randy Fleisher

Leonard Frankel

Rabbi Andrea Goldstein

Sheila Greenbaum

Gerry Greiman

Terri Grossman

Amy Kuo Hammerman

Karen Handelman

Laura Horwitz

Neil Jaffe

Rabbi Howard Kaplansky

Diane Levine

Susan S. Matlof

Lisa Orden

Joe Pereles

Norman Pressman

Wendi Alper-Pressman

Sen. Jill Schupp

Anna Shabsin

Vicki Singer

Rose-Lynn Sokol

Spencer Toder

Henry S. Webber

Sheldon Weisgrau

Howard Weissman

Susan Weissman