Open Letter from Progressive Jewish Leaders to the Biden Administration about the appointment of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism

Dear Mr. President and Secretary Blinken:

As Jewish leaders, we write to you at a moment of both fear and hope. We are deeply concerned about the antisemitic violence and rhetoric we have witnessed worldwide over the last few years. We are hopeful because your administration has an opportunity to choose a new approach in response to the urgency of contemporary antisemitism.

We are advocates, organizers, and policy experts who work on the most urgent challenges in our society. We have dedicated our lives to addressing the climate crisis, to fighting economic inequality, to undoing systemic racism and building a multiracial American democracy for all of us. Some of our organizations worked hard to ensure President Biden won the 2020 election, or to enable as many people as possible to participate, or to make sure the results of the election would be respected.

Many of us are not the type of people who normally speak out as “Jewish leaders,” though we are leaders and we are Jews. We come from a variety of communities and experiences. At this pivotal moment, our society is reckoning with centuries of white supremacy and with new, globally networked right-wing extremist movements — problems we will only be able to face if we understand antisemitism’s role in white supremacist and ethnonationalist ideologies. We feel compelled to raise our voices because we see our fights at stake, too, in the question of how the U.S. government will define and pursue the fight against antisemitism in America and around the world.

• Antisemitism is a racial justice issue. We have seen antisemitic conspiracy theories used to undermine Black-led movements for justice: false and dehumanizing claims that posit Jewish responsibility for Black brilliance and in so doing endanger us all. Too often, the same people deploying those anti-Jewish conspiracy theories then wield accusations of antisemitism as a weapon against progressives, especially Black and Palestinian progressives who criticize the Israeli government. All the while, Jews of color and their experiences of antisemitism and racism at the intersections are ignored. We need an envoy who understands how antisemitism and white supremacy reinforce one another.
• Antisemitism is an economic justice issue. The U.S. economy is in crisis. Conspiracy theories that blame economic suffering on Jewish financial control are being used to obscure the structural inequities that plague our society. To tackle economic inequality head on, we need leadership that is clear-eyed about how antisemitism is used to scapegoat Jews for the failings of our financial systems, weaken trust in government-led solutions, and undermine movements to build an economically just future. We need an envoy who is prepared to counter antisemitism as part of the fight for a more just, inclusive economy.
• Antisemitism is a climate issue and a migration issue. Antisemitic theories wrongly cast climate crisis-induced migration as a Jewish plot to replace the white race — an idea that the gunman who killed 11 Jews at prayer at Tree of Life in 2018 used to justify his violence. As we prepare for humane and just responses to climate migration, we need an envoy who understands the threat of eco-fascism and the role antisemitism often plays in eco-fascist ideology.
• Antisemitism is a feminist issue. Antisemitic ideas are almost always intertwined with toxic, hateful ideas about sex, gender, and sexuality. Over and over, we have seen violence carried out by men who have been radicalized to hate both women and Jews — but the connections between antisemitism and misogyny are under-emphasized, to all of our detriment. We need an envoy who is committed to dismantling antisemitism and misogyny together.

For all of these reasons and many more, we demand that the Biden administration choose a Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism who will commit to treating the fight against antisemitism as part of the fight for just, multiracial democracy. We need an envoy who is willing to confront antisemitism wherever it occurs, transcending the shallow framing of “left and right” and understanding both the disproportionate threat of organized, violent white nationalist antisemitism and the complexities of antisemitism across communities. For too long, antisemitism has been used as a justification for Islamophobic policies and for the targeting of advocates for Palestinian rights, here in the U.S. and around the world. We need a new approach, carried out by an envoy who has the integrity to build bridges between communities and movements.

With appreciation for the steps that you have taken to date to meet the challenges of our time, sincerely:

(affiliations for identification purposes only)

Ginna Green, Columbia, SC, Uprise

Leah Greenberg, Austin, TX, Indivisible Project

Ezra Levin, Austin, TX, Indivisible Project

Dove Kent, Durham, NC, Bend the Arc

Dan Kalik, Washington D.C., MoveOn

Ilya Sheyman, Evanston, IL Former Executive Director, MoveOn Political Action

Evan Weber, Washington D.C., Sunrise Movement

Ady Barkan
Santa Barbara, CA,
Be A Hero Action

Ajay Singh Chaudhary
Jackson Heights, NY
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

Rabbi Alana Alpert
Detroit, MI
Detroit Jews for Justice

Alexis Goldstein
Washington D.C.

Alyssa Rubin
Jamaica Plain, MA
Never Again Action

Amy Traub
New York, NY

Anat Shenker-Osorio
Emeryville, CA
ASO Communications

Andrew Slack
Washington D.C.

Annie Weinberg
Washington D.C.

Audrey Sasson
New York, NY
Jews for Racial & Economic Justice

Ben Malley
Oakland, CA
Tides Advocacy

Bill Prady
North Hollywood, CA

Carin Mrotz
Saint Paul, MN
Jewish Community Action

Cynthia Greenberg
Brooklyn, NY

Dania Rajendra
Jackson Heights, NY
Athena

Gabe Tobias
Brooklyn, NY
Our City

Ilana Berger
Kingston, NY

Ilana Glazer
Brooklyn, NY
Generator

Jacinta Gonzalez
Arizona
Mijente

Janice Fine
Princeton, NJ
Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations and Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO)

Joe Dinkin
Brooklyn, NY
Working Families Party

Katie Unger
Brooklyn, NY
The Jewish Vote

Lissy Romanow
North Haven, CT
Momentum

Marilyn Sneiderman
Washington D.C.
Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations and Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO)

Max Berger
Baltimore, MD

Mike Siegel
Austin, TX
2020 Democratic Nominee for Congress, TX-10

Pamela Shifman
Brooklyn, NY

Rafael Shimunov
New York, NY
Athena

Rosy Kalfus
Irvington, NY

Ryan Deitsch
Pompano Beach, FL

Rabbi Salem Pearce
Durham, NC
Carolina Jews for Justice

Sara Shor
Emeryville, CA
GreenFaith

Sarah Sophie Flicker
Brooklyn, NY

Sophie Ellman-Golan
New York, NY
Jews for Racial & Economic Justice

Susannah Dyen
Brooklyn, NY
Caring Across Generations

William Lipton
Brooklyn, NY

Yosi Sergant
Culver City, CA