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The Executive Order on Anti-Semitism Is Not Perfect, but It's Still Good for the Jews
(JTA) Rabbi Andrew Baker - The presidential executive order had been known as the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which enjoyed broad, bipartisan support but fell victim to the hyperpartisan climate of Washington. It will make an important but modest contribution to addressing the problem of anti-Semitism on the nation's college campuses. It is not, as some critics have charged, some new step by the Trump administration to redefine Judaism as a nationality rather than a religion. It merely restates what has already been the standard practice since the Obama administration. We have seen examples where someone merely substitutes "Zionist" for "Jew" and thereby claims that the most obvious of anti-Semitic statements is a form of acceptable "political" speech. There is general agreement that these are forms of anti-Semitism and should be condemned. While many of us may have preferred congressional legislation to an executive order, the results are the same. The writer is Director of International Jewish Affairs at the American Jewish Committee.