The American Jewish Committee recently announced the individuals who will serve on the Disrupt Antisemitism awards committee.

"We are delighted that young Jewish leaders, and Jewish innovators, in the business, media and tech industries, have agreed to review and select the most innovative ideas to combat Jew-hatred," said Meggie Wyschogrod Fredman, Director of AJC's Alexander Young Leadership Department.

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Disrupt Antisemitism: AJC Invests in New Ideas to Fight Hate is the first-ever incubator for young American Jews who are passionate about fighting antisemitism. Shaped by the incubators of Silicon Valley, AJC is calling for bold ideas by and for young Jews to combat antisemitism locally, nationally, or virtually.

Committee members are: Jonathan Alden, vice president, BlackRock; Matt Coen, CEO, 142 Steps Ventures; Brian Cohen, Lavine Family executive director, Columbia/Barnard Hillel; Jordana Cutler, public policy director, Israel and the Jewish Diaspora, Facebook; Gabby Deutch, Washington correspondent, Jewish Insider; Archie Gottesman, founder, JewBelong; Sofia Gross, head of policy partnerships and social impact, Snap, Inc.; Anna Isaacson, senior vice president, social responsibility, NFL; Curtis Lane, founding partner, MTS Health Partners; Toby Milstein, community engagement manager, 1stdibs.com; Abby Pogrebin, author; Lisa Pruzan, AJC Board of Governors; Batya Ungar-Sargon, deputy opinion editor, Newsweek.

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Following the news the American Jewish Committee was set to open an office in Abu Dhabi, the organization hosted United Arab Emirates Foreign and International Cooperation Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan at its 2021 AJC Virtual Global Forum, Monday.

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Al Nahyan spoke about the Abraham Accords, relations with the United States, and extremism in the Middle East in a videotaped interview with Jason Isaacson, AJC chief policy and political affairs officer.

Al Nahyan noted that the coronavirus pandemic played a role in the normalization agreement, creating the opportunity for a breakthrough in negotiations.

"There is recognition that science will play a much bigger role in our thinking going forward. It is only possible when you have successful technological countries, like the UAE and Israel, in the region come together," he said. "Such a partnership was due, but COVID has made us move in that direction much faster."

For Al Nahyan, the accords could lead to greater peace in the region since they provide tangible evidence of Arab countries working with Israel in what he called a "people-to-people" relationship.

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He also spoke extensively about the threat of extremism from radical groups and ideologies in the Middle East and Europe, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Muslim Brotherhood.

"Our threshold in challenging extremism and radical ideas has not been appropriate," he said. "Extremism cannot be acceptable. Hate cannot be acceptable. Making excuses for violence cannot be acceptable."

He explained that countries, especially in Europe, divide terrorist groups into political and military wings when the organizations themselves do not make the same distinction.

Following the Al Nahyan interview, AJC announced it would expand Project Interchange – an AJC educational program to introduce Israel to leaders from around the world – to host delegations of policymakers and opinion influencers from countries that signed the Abraham Accords.

The first seminar in Israel for Arab Gulf leaders is slated to take place in November, with a second group set for January 2022. The new AJC office in Abu Dhabi will be involved in arranging the delegations.

"The groundbreaking expansion of AJC's Project Interchange to include visits from and to Arab countries is aimed at reinforcing regional collaboration and, as a consequence, the circle of peace," CEO David Harris said in a press release.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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Four months into his term, President Joe Biden appears to have the support of most US Jews, a new national survey conducted by the American Jewish Committee reveals.

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According to data published on Wednesday, 58% of American Jews say they approve of Biden's actions vis-a-vis Israel, while only 27% disapproved. Some 70% said they are happy with his overall performance as president, while only 26% said they do not.

This is not surprising, as the 46th president received overwhelming support among Jewish voters in the election in November.

When looking at support according to denominations, the survey indicates that 99% of Reconstructionists are satisfied with the president, 80% of Reform, 65% of Conservative and 19% of Orthodox Jews, as well as 72% who don't affiliate with any denomination.

Some 64% of American Jews think Biden's response to the rise of antisemitism in the country is correct, while 23% disagree.

On his handling of Iran's nuclear program, 55% said they supported his actions, while 32% disapproved.

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An updated, expanded edition of Translate Hate, the American Jewish Committee's widely-used glossary of common antisemitic terms and tropes, was released Tuesday.

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Release of the edition comes on the second anniversary of the fatal attack on the Chabad of Poway, California.

Translate Hate is a digital resource aimed at enabling Americans of all backgrounds to recognize and expose antisemitic language and images. It also recommends actions to take against hate speech. Since it was first issued in November 2019, the publication has been downloaded tens of thousands of times and shared by AJC staff experts with key political and civic leaders, including members of Congress and American law enforcement agencies.

"Given the proliferation of antisemitism online and offline, including the introduction of new terms and tropes during the pandemic, Translate Hate is increasingly recognized as an essential tool," said Holly Huffnagle, AJC's US Director for Combating Antisemitism.

Presented in the form of an illustrated glossary, the 2021 edition of Translate Hate lays out more than 40 terms and expressions that are examples of antisemitism, explains the antisemitic nature of certain words or phrases when used in specific contexts, and provides brief histories of their harmful usage. It offers tools and information for reporting hate speech, whether it is encountered online or in everyday settings.

The need for Translate Hate was reinforced by the AJC's 2020 State of Antisemitism in America report, which revealed a concerning lack of awareness among US adults about antisemitism. While 53% of US adults said they were familiar with the term antisemitism and know what it means, nearly half are not, with 21% saying they had never heard the word and 25% saying that, while they had heard it, they were unsure what it means.

Law enforcement agencies already are using Translate Hate as a vital resource to help identify incidents of antisemitism.

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More than 525 mayors across the United States, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, have joined the national effort to combat anti-Semitism, the American Jewish Committee and the US Conference of Mayors announced Tuesday.

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The two organizations have called on mayors across the country to sign a statement declaring anti-Semitism incompatible with fundamental democratic values.

"Anti-Semitism is a growing societal menace, it comes from multiple sources, and mayors are uniquely positioned to lead their cities in taking concerted steps to fight it," CEO of the American Jewish Committee David Harris said.

"In a world of global communications, where anti-Semitic ideas spread rapidly, a concerted and principled response is required to raise awareness, to educate, and to ensure decency prevails. As Mayors and municipal leaders, we have a unique responsibility to speak out against the growing menace of anti-Semitism," the Mayors United Against Anti-Semitism statement said.

The initiative comes as incidents of anti-Semitism continue to rise across the US, confirmed in FBI reports and AJC public opinion surveys.

According to the FBI 2019 Hate Crimes Statistics report, American Jews, who make up less than 2% of the American population, were the victims of 60.2% of anti-religious hate crimes.

AJC's 2020 State of Anti-Semitism in America report found that 88% of Jews considered anti-Semitism a problem in the US today, 35% had personally been victims of anti-Semaitism over the past five years, and 31% had taken measures to conceal their Jewishness in public.

Moreover, the AJC report revealed that nearly half of all Americans said they had either never heard the term "anti-Semitism" (21%) or are familiar with the word but not sure what it means (25%).

By signing the statement, municipal leaders across the nation pledge to condemn anti-Semitism in all its forms, support government efforts directed at eradicating it, reject that policies and actions, or existence of the State of Israel can ever justify or excuse anti-Semitic acts, and recognize the ever-present need to be vigilant about efforts to report acts of anti-Semitism and other hate crimes.

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A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that Arkansas' law requiring state contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel is unconstitutional.

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A three-judge panel of the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a federal judge's 2019 decision that dismissed the lawsuit by the Arkansas Times, challenging the requirement. The newspaper had asked the judge to block the law, which requires contractors with the state to reduce their fees by 20% if they do not sign the pledge.

The court said the law is written so broadly that it would also apply to vendors that support or promote a boycott.

"The Act prohibits the contractor from engaging in boycott activity outside the scope of the contractual relationship 'on its own time and dime,'" the court said in its 2-1 decision. "Such a restriction violates the First Amendment."

The Arkansas Times' lawsuit said the University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College refused to contract for advertising with the newspaper unless it signed the pledge. The newspaper is not engaged in a boycott against Israel.

The appeals panel sent the case back to US District Judge Brian Miller, who ruled in 2019 that refusing to purchase items was not protected speech by the First Amendment.

"Arkansas politicians had no business penalizing our clients for refusing to participate in this ideological litmus test," Holly Dickson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, which represented the Arkansas Times in the case, said. "Free speech isn't a privilege you pay for, it's a right guaranteed to every Arkansan."

Arkansas' law is similar to restrictions enacted in other states that have been challenged. The measures are aimed at a movement protesting Israel's policies toward Palestinians. Similar measures in Arizona, Kansas, and Texas that were blocked were later allowed to be enforced after lawmakers narrowed the requirement, so it only applied to larger contracts. Arkansas' law applies to contracts worth $1,000 or more.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's office said she was reviewing the opinion to determine the next step.

"The Attorney General is disappointed in the Eighth Circuit's decision, which interferes with Arkansas's law banning discrimination against Israel, an important American ally," spokesperson Amanda Priest said in a statement.

The American Jewish Committee expressed disappointment by the court's decision, as well. 

"The court chose to read the statute as prohibiting the state from contracting with people who are participating in a boycott of Israel even if that participation was wholly unrelated to their state contract," the organization said in a statement.

The AJC explained that it does not read the statute as reaching such unrelated conduct. Rather, the statutes only boycott "participation that does, or is likely to, adversely affect the state's interest in the contract in question."

"Arkansas can easily remedy the flaws in today's [Friday] decision both legislatively and administratively by limiting the statute and required contractor compliance certificate accordingly. AJC has already put into motion efforts to facilitate such changes," the statement said. 

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The American Jewish Committee (AJC) survey, released on Tuesday, was an attempt to gauge the perceptions of anti-Semitism in France, as well as the overall perceived sentiment.

In the survey, 70% of French Jews said that were victims of at least one anti-Semitic attack, whereas 64% said they experienced anti-Semitic verbal abuse at least on one occasion.

Moreover, according to the survey, 23% of French Jews have been targeted by violence at least once. Ten percent of Jews said they were attacked more than once.

"Anti-Semitism has become a concern for French society as a whole," Anne-Sophie Sebban-Bécache, Director of AJC Paris said. "It is not considered anymore as only the concern of Jews. We are not as alone as we could have felt in the past to fight this scourge."

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The educational seminar marks the first delegation under the auspices of a Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. Conference of Mayors and AJC, the highlight of which is an annual mayors' delegation to Israel.

The delegation is chaired by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

The seminar is intended to provide these policymakers with a firsthand understanding of Israel, dubbed the "Startup Nation" for its economic, technological and social innovation and entrepreneurship. The mayors will learn about Israel's democracy, diverse society and regional challenges.

They will meet with political and social figures, including President Reuven Rivlin, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, high-ranking government officials, leaders of Israel's minority communities, and Jewish and Arab civil society leaders.

Additionally, the mayors will meet with their Israeli counterparts to discuss best practices for their home communities on smart city development, economic growth technology start-ups, urban revitalization and city administration.

The delegation will also observe how Israel balances the preservation of its heritage with modern municipal management and the provision of social services.

"Los Angeles and Israel share so much – vibrant cultures, beautiful landscapes, diverse communities, ties of family and friends, our experiences as dreamers, and our common belief in democracy," said Garcetti.

"Our delegation is showing how cities lead on the world stage, how mayors get things done and how urban centers can tackle everything from innovation and climate change to immigration and economic growth."

"AJC has worked closely with mayors and municipal leaders for decades on issues of mutual concern," said Melanie Maron Pell, AJC Managing Director of Regional Offices, who is accompanying the delegation.

"The mayors will learn a great deal about hi-tech and economic development, immigration absorption, diversity, and emergency services that will assist them in their governance of their respective cities."

Finally, the delegation will meet with Palestinian civic and business leaders in the Palestinian Authority. Several sessions dealing with Israel's strategic environment, diversity and coexistence, and interreligious cooperation are also on the agenda.

This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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