The seventh meeting of the Antisemitism Commission will be held on Monday, May 5th at 1pm in the MA State House, Room A-2 and will be live streamed at this link. Please let us know how you will be joining so we can track our allies’ participation. RSVP for details. Please bookmark the Commission’s hearing page for changes to the livestream link or to the agenda.
In this email, we ask you to take two time-sensitive actions:
Action One: Attend the May 5th Commission meeting (State House or Livestream)
Action Two: Share resources with your legislators on ADL data’s lack of credibility
Let us know if you will be attending the May 5th meeting in person or by livestream
ACTION 1: Attend the May 5th Commission meeting (State House or Livestream)
The agenda will focus on hate crime data and Massachusetts hate crime laws featuring four presentations:
ADL Data: Trends and Tracking of Extremist Activity - Ben Popp, ADL Center on Extremism
Existing Massachusetts Hate Crimes Laws, David O’Sullivan, Essex County District Attorney’s Office
Federal, State, Local Law Enforcement Partnership in Combating Antisemitism and Incidents of Hate, Detective Lieutenant Ryan Czepiel, MA State Police Hate Crimes Unit
MA State Security Grants to Nonprofits, Jeremy Yamin, Combined Jewish Philanthropies and Lily Rabinoff-Goldman, JCC Greater Boston
Let us know if you will be attending the May 5th meeting in person or by livestream
ACTION 2: Share resources with your legislators on ADL data’s lack of credibility
The ADL recently released their 2024 antisemitism audit, which they will present at Monday’s Commission hearing. The ADL’s flawed methodology and redefinition of antisemitism to include “anti-Israel bias” has been criticized as unreliable and dangerous by experts, Massachusetts scholars and journalists. The ADL’s own staff decried the normalization of a new category of hate—“anti-Israel”as “both intellectually dishonest and damaging to our reputation as experts in extremism.” No other critique against a government, including the US, is considered religious hate. Review the ADL data for your city/town here and compare it to your own experience (choose “Massachusetts” under “Search City or State”).
Putting ADL data in context:
Antisemitism exists in Massachusetts, and it makes sense that it is increasing since all forms of racism are increasing, but we can not make effective public policy with flawed and inaccurate data.
The ADL data ranks Massachusetts fifth for total number of antisemitic incidents in the US. Massachusetts must address antisemitism, however, the data does not indicate disproportionate rates of antisemitism as Massachusetts has the 5th highest Jewish population in the US.
Boston, Cambridge and Newton are deemed “primary hot spots” in the ADL report. A public records request of 2024 Newton Police department data indicates that 45 out of 76 incidents labeled as antisemitic because they criticize Israel or Israeli actions, not hatred of Jewish people. This includes statements of “Free Palestine” or “End the Genocide” that are also labeled as antisemitic. Threats and harassment against Jewish Newtonians advocating for Palestinian human rights are also listed as antisemitism, not as anti-Palestinian racism. Most glaringly, the shooting of a pro-Palestine Jewish Newtonian by a Christian Zionist was not included in the hate crimes data.
The ADL data indicates that Massachusetts has the third highest rate of college incidents of antisemitism. However, the Crowd Counting Consortium, a joint project of Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Connecticut, collects publicly available data on political crowds reported in the United States, including marches, protests, strikes, demonstrations, riots and other actions. Their most recent study (pdf) analyzes data from nearly 12,400 pro-Palestine protests and over 2,000 pro-Israel protests in the United States during the period from October 7, 2023, to June 2, 2024, concluding that “the pro-Palestine movement has not been violent [and that] the rhetorical core of this pro-Palestine movement has not been a call for violence against Jews, but rather a call for freedom for Palestinians and an end to violence being inflicted upon them.” This was validated by a public letter by more than 750 students across 140 universities expressing solidarity with campus protests and encampments for Gaza.
Together or an Inclusive Massachusetts will publish a fact sheet with this information for you to share with your legislators. In the meantime, please call, email or meet with your legislators using any of the information above.
Did you contact your State Legislators? Share their feedback with TIM
In solidarity,
Together for an Inclusive Massachusetts
https://linktr.ee/TogetherForInclusiveMA
Together for an Inclusive Massachusetts is a group of Jewish, Muslim, labor, education, civil rights and other organizations and individuals advocating for justice and equity in the Commonwealth. Our alliance includes representatives from Boston Workers Circle, Mass Peace Action, Jewish Voice for Peace Boston, If Not Now Boston, National Lawyers Guild - MA, Council on American-Islamic Relations - MA, Sawa: Newton-Area Alliance for Peace and Justice, the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine, Arlington for Palestine, Worcester Havurah and many others.