{"id":125395,"date":"2025-03-11T02:08:29","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T02:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/alabama\/alabama-mayors-participate-in-roundtable-about-antisemitism\/"},"modified":"2025-03-11T02:08:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T02:08:29","slug":"alabama-mayors-participate-in-roundtable-about-antisemitism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=125395","title":{"rendered":"Alabama mayors participate in roundtable about antisemitism"},"content":{"rendered":"


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On Saturday, mayors convened on Montgomery for a roundtable hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement or CAM. Besides Steven Reed, the mayor of Montgomery, the list of attendees included Selma Mayor James Perkins, Prichard Mayor Jimmie Gardner, and Tuskegee Mayor Tony Haygood.<\/p>\n

Reed explained to APR that after he was invited to a national mayors summit<\/a> CAM organized in December, he suggested the organization \u201ccome to Montgomery and learn more about the Civil Rights Movement and certainly Black-Jewish relations during that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lisa Katz, the chief government affairs official for the Combat Antisemitism Movement, also pointed to the historic solidarity between the Jewish and Black communities, saying it would be incredibly meaningful when she walked \u201cover the same bridge that Martin Luther King Jr. walked arm in arm with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the roundtable being held the day before a key anniversary for the Civil Rights movement, Reed said synagogues and Jewish individuals in the city have reached out to the city government about antisemitic incidents recently and \u201cit\u2019s important to understand that cities can play a critical role combatting antisemitism through action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides putting together meetings for local politicians to discuss how to combat antisemitism, CAM also maintains a \u201cMunicipal Antisemitism Action Index,\u201d which it officially launched during the December summit.<\/p>\n

The index<\/a>, which Katz described as \u201ca framework for best practices of what you can accomplish,\u201d calls for increasing penalties for hate crimes and funding, as well as two policies which have drawn criticism in recent years for their potential conflict with the First Amendment and free speech principles.<\/p>\n

Point 1.5 of the index calls for cities to adopt policies preventing them from contracting with businesses that boycott or divest from \u201cthe State of Israel, Israelis, or any other discrimination based upon ethnicity or national origin.\u201d The Alabama state legislature already passed a law along these lines in 2016,<\/a> and Alabama Senator Katie Britt introduced a similar piece of legislation<\/a> in the Senate last July, but critics maintain these laws are plainly unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

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Jewish organization J Street, while an opponent of BDS, has called<\/a> anti-BDS laws \u201cmisguided legislative overreach\u201d and \u201cthe wrong way to fight BDS,\u201d arguing that they \u201ctoo easily violate constitutional free speech protections.\u201d Brian Hauss, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote in 2019,<\/a> that anti-BDS laws are \u201cdesigned to discriminate against disfavored political expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other CAM recommended policy that has been critiqued for its potential effects on free speech is adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance\u2019s working definition of antisemitism<\/a>. Katz, who helped approve the adoption of the IHRA definition while a councilwoman in New Castle, New York, said that the definition is important because \u201cyou can\u2019t fight something until you define what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The definition, Katz elaborated, is \u201csomething that we would like every city and every state, and frankly, every country in the world to adopt,\u201d explaining that it could be incorporated into hate crime legislation.<\/p>\n

But the lead drafter of the IHRA working definition, Kenneth Stern, has consistently opposed its use in government policy in recent years. In a 2020 op-ed<\/a> published by the Times of Israel, he wrote that \u201cJewish groups have used the definition as a weapon to say anti-Zionist expressions are\u00a0inherently<\/i> anti-Semitic and must be suppressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The definition lists \u201cclaiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,\u201d \u201capplying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation,\u201d and \u201cdrawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis\u201d as examples of antisemitism.<\/p>\n

When asked by APR about Stern\u2019s past comments, Katz explained she thinks he is \u201cmissing the mark.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCriticizing the government of Israel, much like you would criticize any other government, is not inherently antisemitic,\u201d she stated. \u201cSaying that Israel does not have the right to defend itself, or shouldn\u2019t exist as a country entirely? That anti-Zionism is antisemitism, holding Israel to a standard that we wouldn\u2019t hold any other country.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Katz continued: \u201cWe in the United States, after 9\/11, went to Afghanistan; we went after Bin Laden; we were not calling and saying, \u2018Hey, you need to evacuate, we\u2019re going to bomb here.\u2019 We haven\u2019t done any of that and we were never held to the same standard that Israel is being held now, and I think that\u2019s where the difference is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey already issued a proclamation<\/a> in 2022 recognizing the IHRA definition. In September Ivey signed onto an open letter<\/a> supporting its adoption at the federal level. Britt has also pushed<\/a> for Congress to pass a law officially endorsing the IHRA definition, in line with her history of pro-Israel stances.<\/p>\n

Reed told APR on Friday that he \u201chad not read those critiques [of anti-BDS laws and the IHRA definition] and that\u2019s why we\u2019re deliberate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand the views that exist on all sides,\u201d the mayor said. \u201cYou just want to make sure that when we present something like this to our city council for consideration that we\u2019ve vetted it to make sure that it\u2019s the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her interview with APR, Katz repeatedly stressed the importance of interfaith events as \u201ca meaningful and grassroots way to combat hate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLegislation is important,\u201d she noted. \u201cBut I think deep down getting people to love each other and realize all we have in common and that we\u2019re not so different is really the most important thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On Saturday, mayors convened on Montgomery for a roundtable hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement or CAM. Besides Steven Reed, the mayor of Montgomery, the list of attendees included Selma Mayor James Perkins, Prichard Mayor Jimmie Gardner, and Tuskegee Mayor Tony Haygood. Reed explained to APR that after he was invited to a national mayors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11763],"tags":[],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-125395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alabama"],"yoast_head":"\nAlabama mayors participate in roundtable about antisemitism - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=125395\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alabama mayors participate in roundtable about antisemitism - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Saturday, mayors convened on Montgomery for a roundtable hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement or CAM. 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