2 US Jewish groups rap heckling activists at anti-bigotry meeting

Two Boston-area Jewish organizations criticize Jewish activists for disrupting a meeting called to discuss prejudice, including anti-Semitism and racism.

By trying to make the April 7 meeting in Newton, Massachusetts, only about anti-Semitism, the Jewish activists shifted its focus to the conduct of the meeting itself, the American Jewish Committee Boston and the Jewish Community Relations Council says in a statement issued Monday. A group of Jewish students later stood and spoke in favor of addressing the many forms of prejudice, including anti-Semitism, racism and homophobia.

Setti Warren, the mayor of the suburban Boston city, hosted the meeting attended by students, parents and members of the community following a series of anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic incidents in local schools.

During the meeting, Jewish activists heckled an African-American woman who spoke of her son being slurred at school, the superintendent was booed and had to be escorted to his car by police, and a woman held a sign reading “It’s not prejudice, it’s anti-Semitism,” according to the Boston Globe.

The Jewish activists were led by Newton resident Charles Jacobs, who has campaigned for years against city school textbooks that he sees as pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic.

The two Jewish groups acknowledge in the statement that the uptick in global anti-Semitism as well as the local incidents of anti-Semitism are concerning, but adds they do “not justify conduct that was manifest at this meeting or the disrespect that was shown to neighbors, who also had difficult experiences of their own to discuss. These activities do not represent the broader sentiments of the Jewish community.”

The statement says that the Jewish community “cannot fight anti-Semitism by showing disrespect to those from whom we also need understanding and support,” calling it “ill-conceived activism.”

— JTA