Dear Candidates for Mayor of Boston,

It has come to our attention that you will be participating in a Mayoral Candidates Forum sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and the Anti Defamation League (ADL). As progressive activists and organizations committed to justice for all of Boston’s residents, we are writing to alert you to deeply problematic positions taken by the JCRC and the ADL. We hope that this information will be useful as you prepare for the forum. Specifically, we want to be sure that you know that agreeing to certain positions put forward by the ADL and JCRC may alienate progressive voters in Boston.

As you may know, more than 150 progressive organizations signed on to the DROP THE ADL campaign in 2020 because of its activities undermining the rights of Black, immigrant, queer, Muslim, Arab, and other marginalized communities. The campaign website details these activities. It explains that:

Even though the ADL is integrated into community work on a range of issues, it has a history and ongoing pattern of attacking social justice movements led by communities of color, queer people, immigrants, Muslims, Arabs, and other marginalized groups, while aligning itself with police, right-wing leaders, and perpetrators of state violence. More disturbing, it has often conducted those attacks under the banner of “civil rights.” This largely unpublicized history has come increasingly to light as activists work to make sense of the ADL’s role in condemning the Movement for Black Lives, Palestinian rights organizing, and Congressional Representative Ilhan Omar, among others.

Many of the 150 progressive organizations that signed on to DROP THE ADL have large membership bases among the Boston electorate. These include: the Movement for Black Lives, Democratic Socialists of America, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), The Red Nation, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), BDS Boston, Veterans for Peace, Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Muslim Justice League, Peace Action (Massachusetts Peace Action), Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine at UMass Boston as well as Jewish organizations like Jews Against Anti-Muslim Racism, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, If Not Now, The Jewish Vote, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Kavod Boston.

The JCRC too likes to call itself a progressive organization and, indeed, has taken progressive stands on a variety of local issues. But it often promotes positions and organizations that undermine free speech, racial justice, and marginalized voices. It supports Israeli aggression against Palestinians, opposes positions of the Movement for Black Lives, and uses charges of antisemitism to silence critiques of Israeli violations of international law and human rights. Although the JCRC claims to represent Jews in the Boston area, we can assure you it does not speak for anti-racist Jews.

Some of its problematic stances include the following:

1. Tolerance for white supremacy: The JCRC mouths opposition to white supremacy but, under the guise of calling itself a big tent organization, it has recently voted not to rescind the membership of the white supremacist Zionists of America, despite a petition by Jewish organizations calling for its removal. The petition—filed by representatives from the Workmen’s Circle, J Street, Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, Jewish Labor Committee, Keshet, New Israel Fund and Women of Reform Judaism—called for the removal of ZOA because of xenophobic and racist rhetoric, including labeling BLM a “hate group.” An internal JCRC report found that despite the fact that ZOA “elevated white supremacist voices” it should not be expelled.

2. Opposition to free speech on Israel: The JCRC supports and promotes a definition of antisemitism that insidiously includes criticisms of Israel as examples of hate-speech. This definition, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism, has been disputed and discredited by more than 200 of the world’s most eminent scholars of Judaism, antisemitism, Holocaust studies and discrimination in the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. They, along with scores of Jewish organizations in the U.S., have asked elected officials not to adopt the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism. The list of civil liberties organizations that oppose adoption of the IHRA definition includes the American Civil Liberties Union, the Centre for Constitutional Rights, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the National Lawyers Guild, and Palestine Legal. Both the JCRC and the ADL are aggressive advocates of the discredited IHRA definition of antisemitism.

3. Condemnation of the right to boycott: The JCRC has taken a lead role in mobilizing opposition to the Palestinian led Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) initiatives in Massachusetts. It testified in support of the (failed) anti-BDS legislation at the State House in 2017, and went all out this spring to oppose a policy order that called for Cambridge to “review corporate contracts and identify any companies that are in violation of Cambridge’s policy on discrimination, including (but not limited to) Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Hewlett Packard Incorporated over their role in abetting apartheid in the Middle East.” The right to boycott is enshrined in the Constitution and the JCRC’s aggressive attempts to shut it down belie its claim to be “progressive.”

JCRC’s aggressions against those who stand against injustice are alive and well. Just within the past few weeks, the JCRC called out Rep. Ayanna Pressley for criticizing the billions of dollars in U.S. aid to Israel “that is used to demolish Palestinian homes, imprison Palestinian children, and displace Palestinian families.” On June 11, JCRC’s Deputy Director Nahma Nadich criticized a member of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation for “[feeling] the need to call out in one message both antisemitism and Islamophobia, condemning ‘all forms of bigotry and hate’”. This, according to Nadich, is a subtle form of antisemitism.

We, of course, condemn antisemitism in the strongest possible terms, but vilifying those who support solidarity with Palestinians as antisemitic does nothing to fight true Jew hatred. And centering antisemism without also opposing all forms of racism and Islamophobia divides us rather than uniting us. We oppose attempts by the ADL and JCRC to equate protection of Israel and the fight against anti-Semitism, and to center them as more important than other forms of oppression.

We urge you to tread carefully in the upcoming Candidates Forum before committing to any asks made by Forum moderators, and to resist any attempts to pull you into a false narrative that vilifies those who support justice for Palestinians, the right to boycott, and the fight against white supremacy.

We hope you will voice your support for the communities harmed by the JCRC and ADL as well as for justice for Palestinians.

We would love to meet with you to discuss the tricky terrain of fighting antisemitism without vilifying those who challenge Israeli apartheid.

We wish you all the best,

Jewish Voice for Peace Action Boston If Not Now Boston Democratic Socialists of America Boston Internationalism Working Group CAIR Massachusetts Muslim Justice League Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East Boston Community Church