On Sunday, communities in Norfolk awoke to find their lawns littered with antisemitic flyers from the Goyim Defense League (GDL), a small network of virulent antisemites. This antisemitic act occurred as the General Assembly debates if it should adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism and whether ethnicity should be added to hate crimes protections.

This is not the first time that the GDL has targeted neighborhoods in the Tidewater community, as well as other communities across the Commonwealth. As recently as this past summer, the GDL distributed flyers in Virginia Beach neighborhoods. We were not alone this weekend. Jews in Florida and in Tennessee were also the targets of the GDL hate.

The targeting of Jewish communities in Virginia is unacceptable, and the Commonwealth needs all the tools it can get to combat antisemitism effectively.

As of Monday, February 20, two bills that enshrine ethnicity-based hate crime protections for Jews, HB 2208 and SB 1184, have made their way to the Senate and House floors, respectively.

HB 1606, which adopts the non-legally binding IHRA definition, has passed unanimously in the Senate Committee on Rules. There is broad and meaningful consensus that identifying antisemitism with the IHRA definition will be a positive step in fighting hatred and protecting Jewish Virginians. The next step for the IHRA bill is a vote on the Senate floor.

As these bills head to the Senate and House floors for a vote, your voice matters.

URGE Virginia’s State Delegates and Senators to define antisemitism and enshrine ethnicity-based hate crime protections.