The World Jewish Congress has amended the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism to include “conflating the assassination of JFK with Jews and/or Israel”.
Both the World Jewish Congress and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance have confirmed that this is false. There is no mention of John F Kennedy in the IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism.
A screenshot resembling the World Jewish Congress’s website (WJC) appears to announce an amendment to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. But this is fake—there has been no such change.
The screenshot includes the WJC logo in the top left corner and a button to donate in the other. Text on the page says: “Amendment to the IHRA working definition of antisemitism to include: Conflating the assassination of JFK with Jews and/or Israel”. One post sharing the image on X (formerly Twitter) has more than 3,000 shares.
But a spokesperson for the the IHRA—an intergovernmental group founded to address issues related to the Holocaust and Roma genocide, whose working definition of antisemitism has been adopted or endorsed by 43 countries—confirmed to Full Fact that this claim is false. There is no mention of John F Kennedy or his 1963 assassination in the definition for antisemitism on the IHRA website, which has been adopted since May 2016.
The IHRA told Full Fact this claim about the definition changing were false, and the organisation’s Secretary General, Michaela Kuchler, said: “At a time when we are experiencing an unprecedented rise in antisemitism and Holocaust distortion, we urge individuals and organizations to rely on verified sources and factual information when discussing these critical issues.”
Moreover, a spokesperson for the WJC confirmed to us that the screenshot is “purely fictitious and clear misinformation”, and that the congress is unable to amend the IHRA definition.
This claim was shared on social media after thousands of pages of digital documents relating to John F Kennedy’s assassination were released on 18 March following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on 23 January.
Fake screenshots are a common type of misinformation we see online. We’ve previously written about a fake screenshot that circulated on social media claiming a cement truck had been classed as an antisemitic hate symbol by the Anti-Defammation League, following similarly false claims that a tunnel under a New York synagogue connected to a children’s museum.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the IHRA and WJC have confirmed that there has been no such amendment.
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