Your Voice Matters.
URGE Virginia’s Delegates and Senators to SUPPORT defining antisemitism and adding ethnicity to hate crimes protections.
Dear Readers,
On Sunday, Feb. 19, 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.
The Virginia Senate and House will soon vote on bills to adopt the IHRA definition and enshrine ethnicity-based hate crime protections for all Virginians. We must urge our General Assembly members to support these bills!
We cannot expect Virginia’s leaders to address antisemitism unless they can clearly define it.
Your voice matters.
Call or email your representatives to Stand Up Against Hate in Virginia.
1. Email your State Senator and Delegate by going to
https://federation.jewishva.org/actionalert, urging them to Stand Up Against Hate in Virginia.
2. Call your representatives to tell them that these bills are important to you. Find your legislators and their phone numbers at whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov.
Whether you choose to do one or both of these things is up to you. We need you to act. Your voice matters.
Thank you,
Laura Gross
President
United Jewish Federation of Tidewater