This Moment is Critical

On Jewish Federations funding Canary Mission, the 10-day detention of Lara Alqasem, and what action is needed right now.

While the country has rightfully been in an uproar, the past two weeks have brought a deluge of articles — many going unnoticed — exposing a damning truth: the Jewish establishment has been brokering deep ties with racist hate groups, chief among them Canary Mission.

Every so often in our work, we recognize a clear moment of reckoning: is this the kind of Jewish community we want to be part of? That we want for our children? This is, undoubtedly, one of those times.

And we believe the Jewish community can and must do better.

The Jewish Establishment is Funding Canary Mission — and Worse

Canary Mission is a shadowy website, founded in 2015 to intimidate students from speaking out against Israeli policies by threatening their careers and reputations. The website, started to intimidate Palestinian and Muslim students and later expanded to include others, including American Jews, now has profiles of over 1,000 people on its McCarthyist blacklist.

Last week, The Forward reported on a $100,000 donation from the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco to Canary Mission made through the Helen Diller Family Foundation, which the Federation controls. Then, a follow-up story released yesterday revealed that the Los Angeles Jewish Federation made a donation twice as large ($250,000) to Canary Mission through a similar donor-advised fund.

Further reports show that Federations have approved funding not just for Canary Mission, but also a slew of other inexcusable organizations, such as Pam Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative (deemed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center) and the Tea Party Patriot’s Foundation (institutionalizing the ideology of the alt-right).

The Connection to Lara Alqasem

In the same time period that these infuriating connections continue to be uncovered, Lara Alqasem sits in Israeli detention. For ten days, the 22-year-old Palestinian-American graduate student has been unable to enter Israel to enroll in the Human Rights and Transitional Justice Master’s program at Hebrew University — even after being accepted and receiving a visa — because the state deemed her a threat due to her involvement in an eight-person Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. Her latest appeal has once been rejected again, leaving an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court as her only option left.

Here’s the kicker: The main source of evidence against Lara has been her profile on Canary Mission.

It’s not the first time this has happened at Israeli border crossings, and it will surely not be the last.

When American Jews like Simone Zimmerman and Peter Beinart were held at border crossings — for hours, not days — the American Jewish community erupted. But when it comes to the political detention of Palestinians, outside of a small number of Jewish groups, our community’s silence exposes the fallacy of its moral leadership.

The Federations Go to Israel in 10 Days

Soon, thousands of American Jewish leaders will fly into Israel for the Jewish Federations General Assembly.

Many of their Federations have approved funding for hate-groups and Canary Mission. These are the same Federations that refuse to allow donors to move money to organizations like the National Lawyers Guild and IfNotNow.

These actions — not BDS activists — are the true threats not only to the future of the American Jewish community, but also to Palestinians and Israelis. So far, none of these funders have been held accountable. The leaders of these institutions have not yet been forced to resign.

There should be no hand-wringing in this moment. Canary Mission and the other extremist organizations are far beyond the pale of acceptability in our community, and we must come together to challenge those who support their missions.

The theme of this year’s General Assembly is “Let’s Talk.” But the time has come to move beyond talk. Our community’s support for the Occupation has gone unchecked for far too long.

The Glimmers of Hope

We were glad to see the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco and the Los Angeles Jewish Federation quickly and publicly pledge to stop funding Canary Mission — but there is more work to do. The damage has already been done to the lives of hundreds of people by those donations.

There are other glimmers of leadership from within the Jewish establishment. This op-ed by Hillel student leaders at the University of Michigan and their Hillel Director who said that Canary Mission’s tactics are troubling “from a moral standpoint”. And yesterday, the Union of Reform Judaism put out a statement calling for the release of Lara.

But our community needs more of this leadership if we are to be able to answer the question — Is this the kind of Jewish community we want to be part of? — with a definitive no.

The Action That is Needed

It is simple.

Every single Federation CEO must commit to terminating relationships with donors who support Canary Mission and other hate groups. They must work to retrieve the funds already in the hands of Canary Mission and other hate-groups. They must fire anyone who approved these funding choices. And they must publicly apologize to the hundreds of people who have been blacklisted.

This moment is critical.

The Jewish establishment is waging war on our generation. For the future of our community, we’re fighting back.

If you want to help us fight back, you can donate to our grassroots movement here.