Months after Holocaust comparison, KS House approves antisemitism awareness resolution
Nearly four months after a Kansas lawmaker compared COVID-19 mandates to the Holocaust, the Kansas House unanimously approved a resolution acknowledging that antisemitism is a growing problem in the United States.
The resolution, sponsored by 113 members, is part of a nationwide effort by the American Jewish Committee to have states acknowledge the problem and adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.
Kansas would be the first state to adopt the resolution if it is approved by the Senate.
Rep. Dan Osman, an Overland Park Democrat, said awareness is a essential to stopping antisemitism. He recalled the fatal 2014 shootings at the city’s Jewish Community Center and nearby Village Shalom retirement community as the most harrowing episode of antisemitic violence in the state’s recent history.
“We need to be open and honest about what’s happening. We need to acknowledge it, discuss it, and prevent it from happening,” Osman, who is Jewish, said.
In a 20-minute debate on the resolution, no lawmaker mentioned the October committee hearing when Rep. Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican, compared COVID-19 mandates to the Holocaust, or when conferees came to a special committee on vaccine mandates donning yellow stars.
House Speaker Ron Ryckman said those instances had nothing to do with his support for the resolution Wednesday.
“We’ve never wavered in our support for Israel,” Ryckman said. “I think those other issues have been addressed.”
Osman said discussions had already begun on the resolution when Landwehr’s comments were made last year but that it served as an example of why the resolution was needed.
He said he chose not to mention the incidents during debate because he wanted to ensure universal support of the resolution and because it was one instance in many.
“You can see it’s an ongoing issue and there are multiple problems happening continuously,” Osman said. “I didn’t need to pick one specific instance. There’s a lot of things to choose from to say this is a problem, we need to focus on it and we need to solve it.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 3:14 PM.
