HARRISBURG, Pa. (VINnews) – Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has named Andrea J. Martin, an assistant professor of law at Penn State Dickinson Law, to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, according to a recent report.​

Martin, 57, who is Black and Jewish and co-founded the independent Center for Jewish Legal Studies, said the surge in antisemitism after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel led her to focus more of her work on protecting Jewish civil rights. Her sons Max and Sid were in college at the time.

“I never knew America would turn on Jews this way, and that antisemitism would reach these levels,” Martin said. She added that she previously worried more that her sons, who are Black Jews, would face racism than antisemitism. “I never thought when I sent my kids away to college that Max would have to worry about hot coffee being poured on him in a library.”

Max encountered severe antisemitism at New York University, she said. Sid attended Penn State. The family raised the boys in Carlisle, Pa., and attended Temple Ohev Shalom, a Reform synagogue in Harrisburg. Martin, whose own Jewish upbringing was largely cultural, wanted her sons involved in synagogue and religious school.

Martin grew up in Washington, D.C., attended the University of Rhode Island and earned her law degree at Howard University. She began her career as a prosecutor in the Rhode Island attorney general’s office, where she helped draft hate crimes legislation and served on a governor’s commission on prejudice and bias.

At Penn State she teaches law and the Holocaust and focuses her scholarship on antisemitism and anti-discrimination law. She has spoken at conferences about what she describes as the “genocide” libel against Israel and the origins of false “settler colonialism” narratives. Martin argues that contemporary anti-Zionism functions as a proxy for Jew-hatred rather than a political critique of a movement, noting that Israel already exists as a state.

She supports statewide adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism through an executive order by Shapiro. The commission already uses the definition, which includes examples such as comparing Israeli policy to that of the Nazis or denying the Jewish people the right to self-determination. Martin said it is the only widely used definition that effectively addresses modern antisemitism rooted in anti-Zionism.

The Human Relations Commission seeks to help residents of the commonwealth work, live and take part in public life free from discrimination. “All Pennsylvanians should feel that they can come to this commission and be represented,” Martin said. “We need to enforce the law, not politics.”

She attended her first commission meeting in September. Training for new members is expected in late October or early November. The panel is designed for 11 members and currently has 10. Martin said she hopes to help develop antisemitism training for institutions that seek the commission’s help and that families facing discrimination in public schools know they can turn to the panel.

Last week she testified before a Pennsylvania legislative hearing on antisemitism in schools. Reports citing FBI data noted 395 hate crime offenses tied to 325 incidents in Pennsylvania since Jan. 1, 2025. Of those incidents, about 26% were religion-based, with Jews targeted in roughly 65% of the religion-based cases despite comprising about 2.7% of the state’s population. The Anti-Defamation League recorded 281 antisemitic incidents in Pennsylvania in 2025, down 40% from the prior year, with significant numbers at colleges and K-12 schools.

Martin said many people who experience discrimination do not want to pursue costly, time-consuming lawsuits; they simply want fair treatment. “I hope I make a difference. I hope I make the Jewish community proud,” she said.