Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, Jewish Community Action, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Detroit Jews for Justice, and Carolina Jews for Justice released the following statement in response to the Biden Administration's historic announcement of a national strategy to combat antisemitism:
"As organizations representing progressive Jews across the United States, who are on the frontlines of the fight against antisemitism, racism, and white nationalism, we celebrate the Biden administration’s release of its National Strategy Document on antisemitism. We call on our Jewish communities to seize this historic moment and build on this new strategy to ensure that the fight for Jewish safety is a fight for a better and safer America for all."
"We applaud the administration for adopting many of our recommendations, from understanding antisemitism in the context of Islamophobia and other forms of oppression to emphasizing the need to build coalitions across communities and protect freedom of speech and expression. We appreciate that they are clear-eyed about the threats to Jewish communities from white nationalists and violent extremists — and about the urgency of bringing communities together instead of pitting us against each other. We remain deeply concerned about approaches to protect our communities that rely on increased policing, surveillance, and other carceral approaches that grant false promises of safety to some at the expense of others."
"No matter where we live, Jews are safer in democratic societies that strive to extend equal rights and protections to everyone. We know the administration shares this view and we appreciate that they consulted with a wide range of groups, including academics, civil rights groups, faith leaders and civil society organizations, Jewish and not, to inform this process. We are encouraged that they took the time to understand the wide range of perspectives on taking on antisemitism in America — and we were proud to be able to contribute our insights and policy recommendations and to see them reflected in this document."
"We are grateful that the administration took note of the diversity of opinion across our communities and heeded our warnings about the potential dangers of adopting the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism — which is a tool of censorship and not of safety. We consider the battle over definitions to be an unhelpful distraction and diversion of resources. Conflating criticism of the State of Israel or Zionism with antisemitism hurts Jews, Arabs, and Muslims alike. Efforts to include IHRA in policy drive a wedge both within the Jewish community and between Jews and other groups experiencing bigotry and discrimination — and make our work of fighting antisemitism harder. This strategy is a powerful rebuke to forces within and outside our community that seek to keep Jews isolated, divided and afraid."
"We know that there are constructive, proactive policy models available to prevent and counter antisemitism. Grassroots community organizations like ours are key partners in this work, because we are already building the kinds of relationships across lines of difference that are needed to deepen understanding and keep Jewish people and our neighbors of all backgrounds safe. Community organizations can lead projects that improve neighborhoods and help neighbors see one another in their humanity and build safety on a local level. They can host reporting services for incidents of antisemitism and other forms of bigotry that Jews of color, and members of many other targeted communities, will feel comfortable using. When our government invests in approaches that fight antisemitism and other forms of oppression together – rather than isolating Jewish communities from our neighbors – we will all live more safely. We will continue building towards this vision on the ground in our communities and we are encouraged that the federal government will lend its power towards more efforts like ours."
Signatories:
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), NYC
Media contact: Sophie Ellman-Golan, Director of Strategic Communications sophie@jfrej.org
Boston Workers Circle
Media contact: Rebecca Zimmerman Hornstein, Executive Director rebecca@circleboston.org
Carolina Jews for Justice, NC
Media contact: Abby Lublin, Executive Director
abby@carolinajewsforjustice.org
Detroit Jews for Justice
Media contact: Eleanor Gamalski, Deputy Director
eleanor@detroitjewsforjustice.org
Jewish Community Action (MN)
Media contact: Beth Gendler, Executive Director
beth@jewishcommunityaction.org
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (Chicago)
Media contact: Jonathan Elbaz
jonathan@jcua.org
