Utah Governor Signs Resolution Condemning Antisemitism
Utah State Capitol Building in Salt Lake City. Photo: Mangoman88/Wikimedia Commons.
Utah Governor Spencer J. Cox on Monday signed a resolution pledging to combat antisemitism, months after a prominent tech executive in the state resigned for a disturbing antisemitic email rant.
“It’s not enough to condemn antisemitism and racism,” Cox tweeted after a ceremony in which several other bills became law. “We need to teach our children about our history so we don’t repeat it. HCR15 condemns antisemitic acts and hate speech, while also highlighting Utah’s Jewish history and culture.”
The resolution pointed to Fanny and Julius Brooks, Utah’s first Jewish family, who settled there in 1853; and Simon Bamberger, the state’s Jewish governor elected in 1917.
“The state of Utah wishes to affirm its commitment to the well-being and safety of its Jewish community members and ensure they know they are not alone and that the state of Utah is committed to ending the spread of all forms of hate and bigotry,” HCR15 says.
The measure was prompted by revelations in January that David Bateman — founder of the software firm Entrata and a prominent Republican Party donor in Utah — sent an email from his company account accusing of Jews of conspiring to use the COVID-19 vaccine as an agent of mass genocide.
“For 300 years the Jews have been trying to infiltrate the Catholic Church and places a Jew covertly at the top,” Bateman wrote in the email. “It happened in 2013 with Pope Francis. I believe the pandemic and the systematic extermination of billions of people will lead to an effort to consolidate all the countries in the world under a single flag with totalitarian rule.”
Jewish leaders and lawmakers in Utah swiftly condemned Bateman’s hateful comments, and he was forced to resign and divest from Entrata.