The New York state Senate Republican Conference Antisemitism Working Group unveiled a report and recommendations Wednesday to Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democratic lawmakers to address and combat antisemitism in communities.

The group, formed last year, held multiple meetings and roundtable hearings in Rockland and Nassau counties. They are urging for the Legislature to act on five bills to be a part of the state budget, which include:

• placing a definition of antisemitism within the state human rights law and providing that antisemitism that incites, causes or results in any act of violence, or injury to a person, or the damage to or destruction of real or personal property, shall be deemed to constitute a hate crime
• prohibiting students from receiving TAP if engaging in antisemitic behavior
• creating the “Dismantling Student Antisemitism (DSA) Act,” which implements antisemitism awareness and prevention sensitivity training in colleges with threat of loss of funding
• enacting the “New York State Antisemitism Vandalism Act” which establishes the crime of vandalism of pro-Israel print with a class A misdemeanor
• expanding the prohibition of harassing conduct involving Nazi symbols

“This report is just the beginning of our attempt to address this hate-crime in meaningful, and thoughtful ways. If this report has proven anything it is that New York must do more to combat antisemitism,” said state Sen. Jack Martins, chair of the Antisemitism Working Group, in a statement. “We all have a role to play. We must address higher educational institutions weeding out hate speech, the media reporting these crimes and our elected officials, in all levels of government, should put partisanship aside and pass laws to end this crime. It is essential that we do our part. Our fight starts today.”

Antisemitism has been a heighted issue since the spark of the Israel-Hamas war back in October.