Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism

The Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism is an executive order announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on December 10, 2019, and signed the next day. The purpose of the order was said to be to prevent antisemitism by making it easier to use laws prohibiting institutional discrimination against people based on race, color or national origin to punish discrimination against Jewish people,^[1]^[2] including opposition to Israel uniquely as a Jewish nationstate (the right of a Jewish country to exist) without opposition to other nation-states.^[3]

CNN claimed that a White House official had indicated that the order would define Judaism as a nationality instead of a religion in the United States, though the order ultimately released did not state this.^[1]

The order set off a firestorm of criticism among many Jewish and Palestinian leaders.^[4] Some American Jews praised the order,^[3] while others objected to defining Judaism as a nationality (as the order was initially indicated to do, though it ultimately did not), claiming that "Trump's reclassification of Judaism mirrored sentiments used by white nationalists and Nazi Germany" and that "the move appears to question whether Jews are really American". Some decried the order as a political stunt, and called on Trump to more directly address the threat of white nationalism.^[3]^[1]^[5] Groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, the Republican Jewish Coalition, and the Orthodox Union were supportive of the order.^[3]