Executive Order 52

June 8, 2025

Download Executive Order 52

DEFINING ANTISEMITISM

WHEREAS, Executive Order No. 51, signed on May 13, 2025, created the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism to identify and develop efforts to eliminate antisemitism and anti-Jewish hate crime; and

WHEREAS, the City of New York has a long tradition honoring and upholding the rights of New Yorkers to free speech and peaceable assembly, as memorialized in Executive Order No. 6, signed February 7, 2022, which renewed the City’s commitment to the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech, the press, peaceable assembly, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances; and

WHEREAS, on May 26, 2016, the 31 member states of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (“IHRA”), of which the United States is a member, adopted a non-legally binding “working definition” of antisemitism; and

WHEREAS, the IHRA definition reads, “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities;” and

WHEREAS, in adopting this non-legally binding “working definition” of antisemitism, the member states of the IHRA invoked the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment’s Stockholm Declaration that states “With humanity still scarred by [] antisemitism and xenophobia the international community shares a solemn responsibility to fight those evils;” and

WHEREAS, the IHRA has published 11 contemporary examples of antisemitism to illustrate instances of antisemitism that may be encountered in daily life; and

WHEREAS, those contemporary examples include “calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion;” “accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust;” “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor;” and “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel;”

WHEREAS, in the United States, the IHRA non-legally binding “working definition” of antisemitism has been recognized by 35 states, the District of Columbia, over 80 localities, and federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education; and

WHEREAS, on June 12, 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul, as Governor of the State of New York, proclaimed the IHRA “working definition” of antisemitism “a vital resource in the struggle against antisemitism,” that “will facilitate constructive discourse, further understanding, and enable a more thoughtful response to this harmful behavior that impacts us all;” and

WHEREAS, the City of New York recognizes that a definition of antisemitism may be useful for identifying antisemitic behavior and rhetoric, and serve as a foundation to raise awareness and to effectively combat antisemitism;

NOW, THEREFORE, by the power vested in me as Mayor of the City of New York, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1.  The City of New York recognizes, and City agencies shall consider as appropriate, the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, as adopted on May 26, 2016, as well as the 11 contemporary examples.

§ 2.  City agencies are encouraged to use these materials as appropriate to facilitate constructive discourse, further understanding, and enable a more thoughtful response to harmful antisemitic behavior.

§ 3.  This order is not intended to restrict speech or conduct that is protected under the First Amendment.  Antisemitic acts are criminal only when they are so defined by law, and this order does not establish civil or criminal liability for any acts. 

§ 4.  This Order is not intended to create any private right of action.

§ 5.  This Order shall take effect immediately.

Eric Adams

Mayor