The Governing Body of the City of Leawood, Kansas, has unanimously passed a resolution recognizing increased levels of antisemitism and adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism.
This resolution was passed two weeks after the City Council of Kansas City, Missouri, passed a similar resolution.
Both cities’ resolutions recognize “the growing problem of antisemitism in the United States,” and call for the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of Antisemitism “as an important tool to address the problem.”
“We cannot fight what we cannot define, which is what makes this resolution so important," said Gavriela Geller, Jewish Community Relations Bureau|AJC (JCRB|AJC) executive director.
The Working Definition describes antisemitism as “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.”
Leawood Councilmember Andrew Osman introduced the motion to approve the resolution, which was seconded by Councilmember Debra Filla. It carried 8-0.
The resolution also recognizes Leawood's 20-year sister city relationship with the Regional Council of Gezer, Israel, and Gezer Park, which commemorated the relationship.
Osman told JCRB|AJC that “considering Leawood's history with the Jewish people – both the negative past and the thriving present — it was important for Leawood to take the lead and be the first city in Johnson County to pass this resolution. I am hopeful other cities will soon follow.”
Leawood’s history includes highly discriminatory practices towards Jews and other minorities. A Leawood Estates deed restriction filed by Kroh Brothers Development Company in 1945 stated that no lots “shall ever be sold, conveyed, transferred, devised, leased or rented to or used, owned or occupied by any person of Negro blood or by any person who is more than one-fourth of the Semitic race, blood, origin, or extraction, including without limitation in said designation, Armenians, Jews, Hebrews, Turks, Persians, Syrians, and Arabians, excluding, however, from the application of this paragraph partial occupancy by bona fide domestic servants employed thereon.”
The resolution passed in the wake of recent antisemitic and bigoted incidents in Greater Kansas City, including vandalism of the Blue Valley High School football stadium press box with antisemitic, homophobic and racial slurs on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and antisemitic and anti-Black remarks on social media and a gun threat at Bishop Miege High School on Jan. 23.
