The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism has already been adopted and endorsed by a growing number of governments and organizations (including HonestReporting).

(Read the IHRA definition here.)

But beyond the governmental level, there’s another sector that needs to adopt the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism: The media.

By choosing what to cover and how to cover it, news services set the agenda for public discourse. Guided by the IHRA, journalists would make better-informed decisions in covering hate crimes. Coverage of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), especially on local campuses, would be better nuanced. With a consistent standard, editors would be able to better judge op-eds and letters while moderators could keep website comments more civilized.

And in a time when public figures on the right and left engage in varying degrees of antisemitic rhetoric, the press will be better poised to fulfill its role of holding leaders accountable.

IHRA acknowledges that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”