Jewish social justice group resigns from Jewish council
‘It’s sad for us. As a founding member of the coalition, our voice no longer gets to be at the table.’ REBECCA HORNSTEIN, Boston Worker’s Circle executive director on resignation from Jewish Council of Greater Boston
Boston Worker’s Circle, a progressive Jewish group, resigned from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston last week following backlash from the council after attending an anti-Zionist rally on Oct. 18.
The conflict is the latest in a series of clashes locally amid rising tensions following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli air strikes and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The JCRC is a coalition of dozens of Jewish organizations across Greater Boston focusing on government affairs, community relations, Israel engagement, Holocaust awareness, and synagogue organizing.
After Boston Worker’s Circle participated in a rally last week outside Senator Elizabeth Warren’s office urging her to call for a cease-fire in Gaza, BWC executive director Rebecca Hornstein said she received a phone call from JCRC executive director Jeremy Burton. During that call, Hornstein said Burton told her that BWC would be subject to removal from the council as a result of its partnership with the anti-Zionist organization Jewish Voice for Peace, one of several groups BWC says helped organize the rally.
“It’s sad for us. As a founding member of the coalition, our voice no longer gets to be at the table. There’s definitely loss there, but we’re also proud to be able to act in line with our values,” Hornstein said in an interview. “It’s hard to understand why the community’s time would be well spent enforcing these redlines and litmus tests instead of bringing people together across our different perspectives.”
JCRC created a bylaw in 2019 banning members of its coalition from partnering with antiZionist groups after BWC held a “problematic” demonstration in 2018, partnering with JVP to hold a vigil against white supremacy following the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre earlier that year. The 2018 demonstration condemned white supremacy, including the shooting at the synagogue and Israel’s occupation of Gaza.
“They made the choice to say the only way they could gather in public was to also accuse Israel of being a white supremacist organization,” Burton said of BWC and JVP.
The 2018 demonstration, which Burton called harmful and traumatic, led to the 2019 bylaw.
The co-demonstration in mid-October violated the bylaw and resulted in BWC’s potential removal, Burton said. Hornstein said Burton told her the end of the process would “absolutely 100 percent be [BWC’s] removal.” BWC’s Israel-Palestine Committee released a statement following the rally and phone call, and BWC resigned from JCRC six days later.
Hornstein said BWC’s values “call us to value life above all else” and said last week’s rally was a way to take a stance during “a hard and tragic time for our community.” She said it was important for the group to act on its values and that BWC stands by its choice to call for peace.
“The last few weeks, as Jews around the world felt immense grief and rage in the wake of Hamas’s attacks, we also hold that Palestinian lives are equally as precious,” Hornstein told the Globe on Wednesday. “We are horrified by the collective punishment being faced by 2.3 million residents in Gaza.”
The Gaza Health Ministry reported Monday that more than 8,300 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have died and more than 1.4 million people in Gaza have fled their homes. Around 117,000 displaced people are staying in hospitals in northern Gaza alongside thousands of patients and staff, according to UN figures.
Israeli officials say more than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel and at least 5,400 have been injured since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. Israel launched a ground assault that pushed further into Gaza on Monday despite some pushback last week from President Biden.
BWC was one of 16 Jewish organizations that founded the JCRC in 1944. BWC has long held an anti-occupation stance and often sparred with far-right coalition members of JCRC, Hornstein said. Burton acknowledged this historic difference of opinion but said JCRC values its wide range of perspectives and is committed to being “as big a tent as they can be” for Jewish organizations in Boston.
He said BWC’s resignation “did not have to happen,” saying if BWC had voiced its sentiments without the support of Jewish Voice for Peace, the outcome would be different. Burton added that JCRC did not expel BWC but that the group resigned.
“We very much appreciate the passion that BWC is expressing regarding its concern for Palestinian safety,” he said. “We as JCRC very much share the concern for innocent Palestinians who are in harm’s way in Gaza because of the actions of Hamas and what has come since then.”
Hornstein said the window for cease-fire is small and it is essential to call for peace while it’s still possible.
“There’s been an unbelievable amount of death and carnage and destruction,” she said. “If things continue to escalate, so many more civilian lives will be lost in a tragic way.”
Elsa Auerbach, a longstanding member of Jewish Voice for Peace’s Boston Chapter, criticized the Jewish Community Relations Council’s position.
“We think the JCRC is completely disingenuous in calling itself a progressive organization while in essence expelling BWC,” Auerbach said. “JVP’s position is that no one is safe until we’re all safe. We believe that justice, equality, and freedom for all people is the goal.”