At an annual parliamentary assembly held this week in Minsk, Belarus, North American and European lawmakers overwhelmingly adopted an amendment, authored by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), to increase coordination and enhance international efforts to combat anti-Semitism.

     Smith is the Co-Chair of the US Helsinki Commission, which leads American participation in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE-PA), which tackles a wide range of international issues including security-related concerns, human rights, policing strategies and a number of other critical issues.

     “Attacks on Jewish communities have been rising in many OSCE countries, including the United States. A common definition of anti-Semitism will help identify, prevent and defeat these threats. It is critical that the governments of the OSCE now act to adopt and operationalize the Working Definition,” said Smith.

     The Working Definition of Anti-Semitism provides: “Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

    Smith is a long-time congressional leader in the fight against anti-Semitism. He authored the provisions of the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004 that created the Special Envoy and Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism within the U.S. State Department and this May introduced the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Act (H.R. 1911) to elevate and strengthen the position of the Envoy. As of July, 2017, Smith has chaired nine hearings on the scourge of anti-Semitism.

     At the most recent hearing on anti-Semitism, held this past March and entitled “Anti-Semitism Across Borders,” Rabbi Andrew Baker, Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in Office on Combating Anti-Semitism and Director of International Jewish Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, testified that the working definition is, “a useful tool is critical in helping police recognize anti-Semitic hate crimes and in assisting prosecutors and judges in their work. Without its guidance, we have seen how real attacks on Jewish targets are still dismissed as politically-motivated incidents.”

     Following Smith’s 2002 landmark hearing on combating the escalation of anti-Semitic violence in Europe, “Escalating Anti-Semitic Violence in Europe,” he led a Congressional drive to place the issue of combating anti-Semitism at the top of the OSCE-PA agenda, including major resolutions passed by the OSCE-PA in 2002, 2003 and 2004. The result was the OSCE-PA adopting new norms for its participating States on fighting anti-Semitism. In 2009, he delivered the keynote address at the Interparliamentary Coalition Combating Anti-Semitism London conference.

     In the 1990s, Smith chaired Congress’s first hearings on anti-Semitism and, in the early 1980s, his first trip abroad as a member of Congress was to the former Soviet Union, where he fought for the release of Jewish “refuseniks.”

     In addition to Smith’s Amendment to combat anti-Semitism, he introduced and passed a Supplementary Item to fight against human trafficking, as well as participating as a keynote speaker in a conference on stopping human trafficking. Smith, along with Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to discuss human rights improvements for the people of Belarus.

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