Jewish organizations must cancel JVP, immediately.
The organization "Jewish Voice for Peace" rejoices in Jewish deaths, celebrates Jewish murderers, and then expects to be welcomed into the Jewish community with open arms. Enough is enough.
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This is a guest essay written by Amelia Adams.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
Last week, journalist and author Shane Burley published an article claiming that Jewish organizations are purging their staff of “anti-Zionists,” citing a string of firings from Jewish organizations 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, an organization that has consistently celebrated terrorist attacks against Israelis, distributed antisemitic blood libels, and just last week shared an Instagram post saying “death to Israel” is a “moral imperative and the only acceptable solution,” adding: “May the entire colony burn to the ground for good.”
Burley’s piece came to a riveting conclusion: If you work in Jewish institutional life and want to keep your job, you probably should not align yourself with an organization that openly calls for the death of Jews.
It seems simple enough, but responsibility to our fellow Jews in Israel has long divided the Jewish community. For example, 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” in which she vilified “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. And it strongly resembles the attitude of “anti-Zionist” organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace which, until October 7th, celebrated terrorists like Jerusalem supermarket bomber Rasmea Odeh, an activist for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary socialist organization founded in 1967, as well as designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Japan, Canada, and the European Union).
In 2017, Jewish Voice for Peace wrote on its website that it is “honored to feature deeply respected Palestinian organizer Rasmea Odeh at our upcoming National Membership Meeting.”1
Of Lod Airport massacre mastermind Ghassan Kanafani, Jewish Voice for Peace wrote that he is an “inspiration.”2 The Lod Airport massacre was a terrorist attack in May 1972 when three members of the Japanese Red Army, recruited by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, attacked Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion International Airport) near Tel Aviv — killing 26 people, including 17 Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico, a Canadian citizen, and eight Israelis.
The list of Jewish Voice for Peace honorees is endless: Leila Khaled (who hijacked a Trans World Airlines flight from Rome to Israel in 1969 and participated in the notorious campaign of Black September in Jordan), Marwan Barghouti (convicted of the murders of five Israeli civilians), and more.
However, on October 7th, Jewish Voice for Peace released a statement that somewhat acknowledged the brutality of the massacre. I asked myself how it was possible that an organization which 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 have long been a feature of Palestinian terrorism.
In 2011, two teenagers affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine slaughtered five members of an Israeli family. The youngest, 3-month-old Hadas Fogel, was decapitated. Still, Jewish Voice for Peace proudly waved the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine flag at their events and regularly collaborated with its affiliate, Samidoun.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s war against Israeli infants continues; they are believed to be holding two of the youngest hostages, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were 4 years old and 10 months old at the time of their abduction.3
On October 7th, Mor Bayder opened her Facebook account to the most horrific sight she could imagine: her beloved 74-year-old grandmother lying in a pool of her own blood. 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 have just killed your husband.”4
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, infamously photographed desecrating Avrahami and Nurzhitz’s bodies during the lynching, was commemorated in an Instagram post shared by Jewish Voice for Peace last November.
So, what was different about October 7th? Was it Shani Louk’s lifeless body being paraded in the streets of Gaza? Was it Naama Levy’s blood-soaked sweatpants? Or the mutilations?
No. It was that we watched it happen.
Emma Lazarus 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 also 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,” she wrote, “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, say, 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, rocket launching, 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. Forty-eight years later, Jewish Voice for Peace honored Odeh at their national membership meeting, where the organization’s rabbi, Alissa Wise (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 the supermarket 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 comments 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 Jewish Voice for Peace, 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 Joffe 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 smartphones. In Lazarus’ words: “The cup of anguish [was] held to our own lips” that day. Lives were 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 is easy to blame Jewish Voice for Peace, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the leftist Jewish Diaspora organizations that 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 is very simple: Jewish Voice for Peace has faced virtually no pushback on this so far, so why start now?
Since at least 2017, Jewish Voice for Peace has openly celebrated terrorism. This means that every organization or outlet which platformed, partnered with, or otherwise associated themselves with Jewish Voice for Peace since 2017 had a decision to make — and they decided that glorifying people who murdered Jews was not 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 Jewish Voice for Peace; or your weird cousin who runs the local chapter. Every individual who has collaborated with Jewish Voice for Peace since 2017 has sent a clear message: Glorifying anti-Jewish violence is no big deal. So, it is no wonder that “anti-Zionist” Jews feel they are owed community by those whose deaths they revel in.
Shane Burley’s article quoted Rabbi May Ye, who said she was “forced” to leave her dream job because “being the rabbi of an anti-Zionist synagogue [did] not provide a living wage.”5
This was, in fact, the same Jewish Voice for Peace 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 my hands.”6 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 is a Jewish Voice for Peace rabbi meeting with the President of the Islamic Regime, hugging a terrorist, or associating Jewish heritage with having blood on your hands, or a Jewish Voice for Peace campus chapter sharing a post glorifying “armed resistance,” this has gone on for far too long.
Burley’s article is not an exposé. It is a mirror. “Anti-Zionist” Jews continue to act like they are 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 have looked the other way, letting this rot fester. We have set the bar so low that organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace think they can L’chayim to dead Jews and still crack an invite to Shabbat.
Not celebrating Jewish deaths should not be a big ask. It is 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 is time to hold ourselves accountable. We cannot keep coddling those who revel in our pain.
“Jewish Voice for Peace is proud to host Palestinian organizer Rasmea Odeh.” Jewish Voice for Peace.
“Hamas ‘no longer has’ youngest Israeli hostage Kfir Bibas.” The Jewish Chronicle.
“‘I have just killed your husband’ wife was told.” The Guardian.
“U.S. Jewish Institutions Are Purging Their Staffs of Anti-Zionists.” In These Times.
“7 Questions for May Ye.” Jewish Women’s Archive.
 | A guest post by
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Amen. Self-flagellating Jews, if listened to, could portend the end of the Jewish people. I am constantly amazed by the self-righteous drivel they spew. One thing they seem to have forgotten is that when forces mass against the Jewish people, JVFP will also be targeted. This begs the question, Whatcha goin' to do when they come for you?
First step towards canceling these horrible people is to claim that they no longer have the right to use Jewish in their title. We can claim it as cultural appropriation. What percentage of their membership is actually Jewish? I heard recently that they’re mostly non-Jews.