Global adoptions of IHRA Jew-hatred definition surged 97% in 2025, report finds

Sixty-seven entities worldwide adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in 2025, a 97.1% increase from the 34 adoptions recorded the previous year, according to a new report from the Combat Antisemitism Movement.

The report, released on Tuesday, stated that 1,331 governments, municipalities, universities and organizations had adopted the definition as of Dec. 31, 2025.

“The continued momentum driving IHRA adoptions is fueled by a growing recognition of the definition, and its 11 contemporary examples, as the global gold standard for understanding how antisemitism manifests in today’s world,” Barney Breen-Portnoy, CAM’s editor-in-chief, told JNS.

Among the entities that adopted the definition last year were Ireland, Costa Rica, Harvard University, Columbia University, Yale University, Mount Laurel, N.J., and Chula Vista, Calif., according to the report.

Twenty-five municipalities worldwide adopted the definition in 2025, including 14 in the United States. Thirty-three educational institutions also adopted the framework, compared with one (Ben-Gurion University) in 2024, according to CAM.

The report recommended that entities that have adopted the definition move toward formally codifying and implementing it. It also called on advocates to focus on encouraging the 18 remaining U.S. states that have not adopted the definition to do so.

“While no definition alone can eliminate antisemitism, the IHRA framework has proven itself over the past decade as an indispensable tool for exposing, preventing and fighting this ever-evolving form of hatred,” Breen-Portnoy told JNS.

“Serving as a common and authoritative benchmark, the IHRA definition has helped governments and other institutions develop and implement more consistent and effective policies to counter antisemitism, while strengthening accountability for perpetrators of antisemitic acts and crimes,” he said.

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