This article was originally published on the Times of Israel Blogs. Why do some Jewish organizations and advocates – who profess fierce loyalty and commitment to the Jewish community – sometimes end up in partnership with individuals that other members of our community see as threats to Jewish security? This is a question that, in some form or another, I am asked more and more of late … Continue reading Tensions of our Jewish Identities and Safety
Next weekend we will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This is a particularly exciting and historic year in the city of Boston, and I wanted to take this opportunity to share information about some of the ways in which the Jewish community is participating – with sufficient advanced timing so that you can choose to participate in these activities as well. Next weekend is … Continue reading How the Jewish Community is Honoring MLK
By JCRC CEO Jeremy Burton On Tuesday I had the incredible honor of being invited to the White House for the ceremony as President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law. It was an awesome, celebratory day and I was proud to be there, on behalf of JCRC and as a member of the LGBTQ community. As I stood there bearing witness, fully … Continue reading The Power of Being Fully Visible
Are we having an impact in the fight against antisemitism? I hear a variation on that question virtually every day. Often, multiple times a day. There is, rightly, great concern in our community right now. Even fear. Because it is very clear that both expressions of and acts of antisemitism, including violent acts targeting people and facilities, are on the rise. Regular readers know that … Continue reading JCRC: Fighting Antisemitism for 80 years
A few years back, a member of the JCRC team told me about a conversation he had while advocating on Beacon Hill. In a conversation with a senior member, he expressed that a particular issue was one that the organized Jewish community was keenly interested and invested in. The legislator’s chief of staff responded, to paraphrase: “Are you sure? Because Jeremy hasn’t been talking about … Continue reading To Tweet or Not to Tweet?
There were many races and many outcomes on Tuesday. I’ll leave it to the pundits to make sense of it all. For now, we here at JCRC are celebrating the victory of #YesOn4 and the successful defense of Massachusetts’ Work and Family Mobility Law This campaign will help to ensure safer roads for our Commonwealth and will uphold a common-sense law that has already been … Continue reading #YesOn4 is a Victory for Jewish Values
Yesterday we marked four years since the attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. On that day seared into the memory of every member of our community, eleven Jews were taken from us by a white supremacist who espoused the antisemitic ‘great replacement’ theory; holding the Jewish people to be the nefarious force secretly siphoning white power by supporting non-European immigration to our … Continue reading Kanye, Tree of Life, and the Mapping Project
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of being at the Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture, as we welcomed five members of the Boston City Council along with several members of Mayor Wu’s cabinet into the sukkah. The visit, organized by the Vilna together with Councilor Kenzie Bok (representing district 8, home to the Vilna) and Council President Ed Flynn (a long-time dear … Continue reading Under the sukkah with civic leaders
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of being at the Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture, as we welcomed five members of the Boston City Council along with several members of Mayor Wu’s cabinet into the sukkah. The visit, organized by the Vilna together with Councilor Kenzie Bok (representing district 8, home to the Vilna) and Council President Ed Flynn (a long-time dear … Continue reading Our legacy in this city
This week, I had the privilege to spend several hours in Duxbury. Although it was a short week of work due to Sukkot, we had been busy at JCRC – speaking out to criticize a student newspaper board at Wellesley College and welcoming the strong condemnation of said newspaper’s antisemitism by the school’s president. And, taking note of a very disturbing situation at Tufts University … Continue reading A tale of two bridges