(Jewish Group) A Jewish Georgia legislator named Esther helped pass a law on antisemitism on Purim

A Jewish Georgia legislator named Esther helped pass a law on antisemitism on the eve of Purim

The Georgia House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill defining antisemitism and codifying acts against Jewish people as hate crimes.

The bill was co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Georgia’s only Jewish state legislator, Democrat Esther Panitch. It passed by a vote of 136-22 on Monday, shortly before Purim began.

“When my parents named me Esther, they did not imagine me walking the hall of the Georgia capital in the sandal steps of the first Esther,” she said. “But perhaps, like that first Esther, it is for this moment that I am here.”

Her statement echoed the famous line from the Book of Esther about Esther’s destiny as savior of her people, often quoted as: “And who knows but that you have come … for such a time as this.”

The bill calls for the state of Georgia to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which 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.”

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