You need to read the whole story. It was an insidious and sub-rosa attempt to put a specific religion’s protection into law. The law was cleverly designed to permit (eventually) specific protections for other religions, too. So Catholics could eventually be treated differently than Hindus, under the cover of this law.
It was a way of cleverly trying to mix church and state.
And to be clear, the republicans passed this in the senate, not because the liked it, but for political reasons to make the democrats look bad.
This bill was not really about semitism.