The San Diego City Council is slated to vote yesterday on a closely watched resolution that would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism. Introduced by Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, the measure would make the IHRA definition and its contemporary examples available to city departments as an educational tool.
What the proposed resolution says
According to the city resolution, the City Attorney’s draft would formally adopt the IHRA working definition and its 11 contemporary examples. It would also direct the City Clerk and Mayor to distribute that language to all city departments, including the San Diego Police Department, for educational use. The document characterizes the move as an administrative, nonbinding step intended to support the monitoring and prevention of hate incidents, rather than a change to city law.
Supporters and critics
Supporters argue that adopting the IHRA definition would give San Diego a consistent standard for identifying antisemitic incidents and coordinating responses. Critics counter that some of the contemporary examples, many of which reference Israel and Zionism, are broad enough that they could chill legitimate political speech. That tension has surfaced in public comment and local debate, as covered by KPBS, while some academics point to the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism as a narrower alternative that aims to preserve space for criticism of Israel.
Academic context and speech concerns
The fight over definitions is also wrapped up in broader anxieties about campus speech. A Middle East Scholar Barometer survey co-directed by Marc Lynch and Shibley Telhami found that roughly 82% of U.S.-based respondents said they self-censor when speaking professionally about Israel-Palestine, a figure cited by both sides in the dispute over whether formal definitions help protect vulnerable communities or risk suppressing open debate. The University of Maryland’s write-up of the survey places those numbers in the context of escalating pressure on scholars and campus discourse.
Local precedent and what comes next
San Diego is not moving in a vacuum. Nearby cities Chula Vista and El Cajon both adopted the IHRA working definition in 2025, and those proceedings featured the same split between community safety advocates and civil-liberties groups that is now surfacing at City Hall. Coverage of those earlier decisions appears in San Diego Jewish World and East County Magazine. The San Diego draft resolution itself underscores that adoption would be advisory and is not intended to curtail constitutional free speech rights, according to the city resolution.
What to watch at the meeting
Yesterday’s meeting, councilmembers are expected to press city staff on how the IHRA definition would be used in practice and what guardrails, if any, are needed to protect political speech. Public testimony is likely to be intense, with advocates on both sides eager to frame the vote as either a step toward combating antisemitism or a risky move for civic debate. If the council approves the measure, it would guide administrative use of the IHRA language in training and reporting, but it would not itself alter existing city ordinances.
