AJC Dispatch

Advocacy Anywhere

Advocacy Anywhere, Powered by AJC, is our online platform bringing you top-quality content during the pandemic. Tune in Monday, July 20, for a conversation with Daniel Gordis, Senior Vice President and Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College, on why he believes a two-state solution is still worth pursuing and what leads some American Jews to grow distant from Israel. View the Advocacy Anywhere page for information on past and future programs.

On Air

Rep. Deutch on Annexation; Daniel Gordis on Two-State Solution; Rabbi Horvilleur on Antisemitism
People of the Pod / 47-minute listen
This week, we speak to Representative Ted Deutch (D-FL) about the letter he and fellow representatives wrote in opposition to unilateral annexation, and what the future holds for the U.S.-Israel relationship. Then, we’re joined by Daniel Gordis, Senior Vice President and Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College, on why the two-state solution is still worth pursuing. We close out with Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur, France’s foremost female rabbi, speaking about how to have conversations around antisemitism, racism, and interfaith relations in a secular society. Listen now

Must-reads

AJC Marks 26th Anniversary of AMIA attack with Argentine President Alberto Fernández
AJC.org / 1-hour video
On the 26th anniversary of Hezbollah’s terrorist attack on the AMIA Jewish Center, the single deadliest antisemitic incident since World War II, Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández joined AJC for a historic conversation to pay tribute to the 85 victims. Over the past several years, after a turbulent investigative journey, Argentina has identified Iran as responsible for the terrorist attack, designated all of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, and adopted the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism. Fernandez discussed his efforts to strengthen ties with the U.S. and Israel, and with the Jewish community in Argentina and around the world. Read AJC’s retrospective on the AMIA attack based on first-person accounts from people on the ground that day and in the days immediately following the tragic event. Watch now

The Antisemitism We Didn’t See
The Atlantic / 3-minute read
The antisemitic tweet by Philadelphia Eagles star DeSean Jackson and the rebuke that followed has spurred some prominent African-Americans in sports and Hollywood to call out a lack of awareness about anti-Jewish hatred in the Black community. NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul Jabar wrote in Hollywood Reporter that a lack of outrage over discrimination against one group signals a coming “Apatholypse: apathy to all forms of social justice.” Meanwhile, journalist Jemele Hill recounted her own misstep 20 years ago to illustrate how some Black Americans have shown “a certain cultural blindspot about Jews.” AJC tweeted: “Thank you, @jemelehill, for writing this poignant and important piece about how experiencing one type of prejudice doesn’t automatically sensitize people to other forms of bigotry.” Read more

Columnist Bari Weiss Resigns, Says Colleagues Called Her Nazi, Racist
The Times of Israel / 2-minute read
Columnist Bari Weiss, author of the book How to Fight Antisemitism, resigned from The New York Times this week, for reasons she outlined in a scathing public letter to Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger. She wrote that the newspaper had become a place where “intellectual curiosity — let alone risk-taking — is now a liability” and said she had been subjected to bullying from colleagues who disagreed with the perspectives she shared in her columns and on Twitter. “They have called me a Nazi and a racist,” she wrote. “I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m ‘writing about the Jews again.’” AJC CEO David Harris tweeted: “Her departure is a huge loss not only for the paper, but also, no less, for the spirit of open inquiry & civil debate that once characterized our media.” Read more

Good to Know

Jews Fight Back Against Antisemitic #JewishPrivilege Hashtag
The Forward / 2-minute read
Twitter users this week took on the antisemitic hashtag #JewishPrivilege, converting what was originally intended to be a jab at the way Jews control money and politics into an ironic reference to the “privilege” of losing relatives in Nazi death camps, fearing for their safety when they go to synagogues, or getting pelted with pennies on the school bus. Comedian Sarah Silverman, TV writer David Simon, and AJC CEO David Harris participated, with Harris tweeting about how both of his parents either escaped or fought the Nazis. “My #JewishPrivilege .... (they) came to the U.S. w/ nothing...except gratitude; went straight to work.” Read more

Hamas Admits Naval Officer Spied for Israel
The Jerusalem Post / 2-minute read
The Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas has confirmed that one of its naval commanders, responsible for training Hamas members in information gathering and anti-espionage techniques, fled to Israel after sharing intelligence with the Jewish state since 2009. According to reports, Israel’s Mossad spy agency secreted the officer and his brother out of Gaza with a laptop and surveillance equipment. Hamas initially denied the escape, first reported by a Saudi Arabian news outlet, calling it "fake news" that benefited both Israel and Saudi Arabia. But Hamas changed its story this week. Here’s all you need to know about Hamas and its deceit. Read more

We Must Define Antisemitism to Fight It
Miami Herald / 2-minute read
In a column published in the Miami Herald this week, Brian Siegal, Director of AJC Miami and Broward County, and Andreas Siegel, Consul General of Germany in Miami, called on city councils throughout Florida to endorse the Working Definition of Antisemitism developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The Working Definition is an important tool for educators, as well as for police, prosecutors and judges and for monitors and data collectors, making it easier to track and prosecute antisemitic crimes, they wrote. In addition to Germany, 25 other nations have adopted the Working Definition. But confronting antisemitism must also be addressed at the state and local levels, Siegal and Siegel said. Read more

25 Years After Srebrenica, What Happened to ‘Never Again’?
Religion News Service / 2-minute read
Ari Gordon, AJC Director of U.S. Muslim-Jewish Relations, and Suhail Khan, senior fellow at the Institute for Global Engagement, toured Auschwitz together in January, to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust. Together again in this RNS column, they mark the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, by pointing out that the world has continued to allow atrocities against civilians in Baathist Iraq, Cambodia, Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, and too many other places to list. Gordon and Khan call for the restoration of principled American leadership in multilateral institutions such as the United Nations and NATO to fulfill the post-Holocaust promise of “Never Again.” Read Gordon’s reflection on his and Khan’s trip to Auschwitz in Moment magazine. Read more

Tidings

Researchers Aim to Downgrade COVID to Common Cold (Israeli21c)
RBG: Cancer Has Returned (JTA)
Shooting Down Antisemitism (The Forward)

The articles featured here do not necessarily reflect AJC’s positions.

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