The Cost of Complacency: Why Jewish Institutions Must Cut Ties with JVP

Jewish institutions must stand firm—no more excuses for those who align with groups that glorify terror against our people.

Last week, author Shane Burley published a new article, U.S. Jewish Institutions are Purging Their Staff of Anti-Zionists, which investigated a string of firings from Jewish institutions  for what Burley described as “criticizing Israel.”

In a subsequent tweet, Burley specified that of the (now) ex-employees he interviewed, most were fired for partnering with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP);  an organization that has consistently celebrated terrorist attacks against Israelis, distributed antisemitic blood libel, and just last week shared a post saying “‘death to Israel’ is a moral imperative.” 

Burley’s piece came to a riveting conclusion: if you work in Jewish institutional life and want to keep your job, you probably shouldn’t align yourself with an organization that openly calls for the death of Jews. It seems simple enough, but responsibility to our fellow Jews abroad has long divided the Jewish community. Around the turn of the 20th century, amidst a wave of violent pogroms, esteemed Jewish poet Emma Lazarus penned a scathing piece titled Epistle to the Hebrews, vilifying “free” Jews in America who turned a blind eye to the suffering of their fellow Jews in Eastern Europe.

“We have not sufficient solidarity to perceive that when the life and property of a Jew in the uttermost provinces of the Caucuses are attacked, the dignity of a Jew in free America is humiliated. 

We who are prosperous and independent have not sufficient homogeneity to champion…the rights of the lowest and poorest Jew-peddler who flees, for life and liberty of thought, from Slavonic mobs. Until we are all free, we are none of us free.

But lest we should justify the taunts of our opponents, lest we should become ‘tribal’ and narrow and Judaic rather than humane and cosmopolitan like the anti-Semites of Germany and Jew-baiters of Russia, we ignore and repudiate our unhappy brethren as having no part or share in their misfortunes- until the cup of anguish is held also to our own lips.”

Geography aside, Lazarus’ message is timeless; it strongly resembles the attitude of anti-Zionist diaspora organizations like JVP,  which, until October 7th, celebrated terrorists like Supermarket bomber Rasmea Odeh, Lod Massacre mastermind Ghassan Kanafani, hijacker Leila Khaled, murderer Marwan Barghouti, and more. However, on the 7th, JVP released a statement that somewhat acknowledged the brutality of the massacre. 

I asked myself how it was possible that an organization that previously posted that every Israeli civilian was a legitimate target was suddenly able to condemn the slaughter of Jews. Was this attack uniquely barbaric? Contrary to popular belief, the answer is no. Even the most heinous, the most brutal, the most headline-worthy acts, like decapitating infants, mutilating bodies, and taunting victims’ families, were not invented on October 7th. In fact, they’ve long been a feature of Palestinian terrorism.

In 2011, two Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) affiliated teenagers slaughtered five members of the Fogel family. The youngest, three-month-old Hadas Fogel, was decapitated. Still, JVP proudly waved the PFLP flag at their events and regularly collaborated with PFLP affiliate Samidoun. The PFLP’s war against Israeli infants continues as they are believed to be holding two of the youngest hostages, Ariel and Kfir Bibas.

On October 7th, Mor Bayder opened her Facebook account to the most horrific sight she could imagine: her beloved grandmother laying in a pool of her own blood. 74-year-old Bracha Levinson’s killers live-streamed her execution on Facebook for all her family and friends to see. This psychological torture eerily echoed that of the 2000 Ramallah Lynching, where a terrorist answered his victim’s phone, telling his wife, “I just killed your husband.” The Israeli victims, Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz, were stabbed, their eyes were gouged out, and their bodies were beaten to a pulp, torn “from limb to limb”, and dragged to a nearby public square, where their lifeless bodies were met with celebrations in the street. Nasser Abu Hamid, who was photographed desecrating Avrahami and Nurzhitz’s bodies during the lynching, was commemorated in a post shared by JVP. 

So, what was different about October 7th? Was it Shani Louk’s lifeless body being paraded in the streets? Was it Naama Levy’s blood-soaked sweatpants? The mutilations? No. It was that we watched it happen. Emma Lazuras recognized that “we ignore and repudiate our unhappy brethren as having no part or share in their misfortunes until the cup of anguish is held also to our own lips.” 

Why did we need to see Shani Louk face down in the back of a truck to know that terrorism is evil? Why did we need to see children being kidnapped and elderly people being gunned down to understand that killing innocent civilians is morally repugnant? When did we become so desensitized to such violent atrocities?

Lazarus recognized that an attack on one Jew is an attack on all Jews, “when [a] Jew in the uttermost provinces of the Caucuses are attacked, the dignity of Jew in free America is humiliated.” Yet, despite repeatedly misappropriating Lazarus’ work, anti-Zionist Jews cannot seem to grasp that just like an attack on a Jew in Russia humiliates the dignity of Jews in America, so too do attacks on  Jews in Israel. A terrorist attack in the Jewish state – whether a suicide bombing, hijacking, mass shooting, car ramming, stabbing, rockets, lynchings, October 7th, or something else – humiliates the dignity of Jews everywhere. 

In 1969, Rasmea Odeh planted two bombs in a Jerusalem supermarket; the resulting explosion killed two people and injured nine. 48 years later, JVP honored Odeh at their national membership meeting, where Rabbi Alissa Wise of JVP (and also, ironically enough, a lead organizer for Rabbis for Ceasefire) was pictured in an embrace with Odeh. 

I recently spoke with Terry, whose uncle, Edward Joffe, was killed in Supersol that day. Terry noted that coming face to face with Odeh was one of the most challenging moments of her life; watching fellow Jews support her uncle’s killer was a close second. At one point, she attempted to confront Rabbi Wise via Instagram, who ignored her and closed her comment section.

Lazarus’ words once again ring prophetic, “we ignore and repudiate our unhappy brethren as having no part or share in their misfortunes.” 

Perhaps the murder of those like  Edward Joffe was too long ago to matter to the likes of JVP. For it occurred at a time when victims’ faces were only captured in grainy black and white photographs that are too distant of a memory to ‘truly’ matter. Ignoring Edward Joffee or his family members was, for Rabbi Wise, as easy as pressing “delete”.

Fast forward to October 7th, when grown men live-streamed themselves going from house to house, mercilessly slaughtering, torturing, raping, abducting, and mutilating Israelis. We watched a pogrom–the likes of which we no longer thought possible–on our phones. In Lazarus’ words, “the cup of anguish [was] held to our own lips” that day.  Lives were being shattered and families torn apart before our eyes, so we could no longer pretend that we had no part in the misfortune of our fellow Jews.

What is the difference between Edward Joffe and Hersh Goldberg Polin? 

What is the difference between the Fogel family and the Bibas family?

A better question: what is the statute of limitations on terrorism? And why have we implemented one? The Chutzpah of it all is astounding.

Once upon a time, celebrating the murder of Jews was unthinkable in Jewish spaces. Today, it barely raises an eyebrow. Glorifying terrorists should have been a red line, but it wasn’t. And while it’s easy to blame JVP, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the leftist diaspora organizations who emboldened them.

How can anti-Zionist Jews rejoice in our death, celebrate our murderers, and then expect to be welcomed into the Jewish community with open arms? It’s very simple: JVP has faced virtually no pushback on this so far, so why start now?

Since at least 2017, JVP has openly celebrated terrorism. This means that every organization or outlet that platformed, partnered with, or otherwise associated themselves with JVP since 2017 had a decision to make–and they decided that glorifying people who murdered Jews wasn’t a dealbreaker. 

Be it Jewish publications like  Jewish Currents or The Forward. or regular mainstream outlets like CNN, MSNBC, or Time, your favorite politicians who follow JVP, or your weird cousin who runs the local chapter – every individual who has collaborated with JVP since 2017 has sent a clear message: glorifying anti-Jewush violence is no big deal. So, it’s no wonder that anti-Zionist Jews feel that they are owed community by those whose deaths they revel in. 

Burley’s article quoted Rabbi May Ye, who says she was “forced” to leave her dream job because “being the rabbi of an anti-Zionist synagogue [did] not provide a living wage.” This was, in fact, the same JVP Rabbi May Ye who told the Jewish Women’s Archive that while her Chinese heritage “felt familiar”, acknowledging her Jewish ancestry “meant recognizing that there was blood on [her] hands.” A bizarre statement, especially considering China’s genocide of the Uyghur people and general barbaric treatment of its citizens under its authoritarian regime–but I digress. 

Whether it’s a JVP Rabbi meeting with the President of the Islamic Regime, hugging a terrorist, or associating Jewish heritage with having blood on your hands, or it’s a JVP campus chapter sharing a post glorifying “armed resistance”, this has gone on for far too long. 

Burley’s article isn’t an exposé—it’s a mirror. Anti-Zionist Jews continue to act like they’re owed a seat at the table, even as they cozy up to groups that openly glorify violence against us. And honestly, who can blame them? For years, we’ve looked the other way, letting this rot fester. We’ve set the bar so low that organizations like JVP think they can L’chayim to dead Jews and still crack an invite to Shabbat.

Not celebrating Jewish deaths shouldn’t be a big ask—it’s literally the bare minimum.

Jewish organizations have every right to cut ties with terrorist apologists, especially when their victims are our own. If we want to preserve our dignity, it’s time to hold ourselves accountable. We can’t keep coddling those who revel in our pain.