Jewish Groups Which Attacked ZOA/Mort Klein for Correctly Calling BLM a Racist Group Should Apologize
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
Last week, on the widely respected Dennis Prager radio show on July 18, 2022 (minute 50:10), Dennis Prager correctly stated that the Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization is a “hate group.”
Prager also elaborated on BLM previously. During a September 8, 2020 radio broadcast, Prager stated: “BLM is a despicable, fascist group. Why can’t people say that? It is so obvious. Do you see what they do in almost every city? Now Rochester and Pittsburgh. The other one was Washington, D.C. They scream and curse people, white people, who are having dinner because they’re white. And they’re not a racist organization? It’s the most racist organization in the country outside of the Ku Klux Klan. It’s just beyond belief.”
Dennis Prager’s recent and previous statements that the BLM organization is a hate group that promotes racism are well-supported by other knowledgeable commentators (including Melanie Phillips; Professor Alan Dershowitz; Joel Pollak, Caroline Glick, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Muhammad Ali, Jr., etc.); by courageous business leaders (Veronica Wu, Phil Berk, etc.); and by ZOA’s extensive collection of information about the BLM organization’s antisemitism, in ZOA’s “The BLM Organization’s Files.” In addition, BLM’s failure to help Black families and corruption have come more to light.
The BLM organization’s racism, antisemitism, failure to assist Black families and corruption is now widely acknowledged and fully documented.
The Zionist Organization of America urges the Southern Poverty Law Center to join this moral, ethical fight by adding the Black Lives Matter organization and its leaders to SPLC’s hate group list.
ZOA thus reiterates our demand for a public apology from Union of Reform Judaism (URJ) leader Rick Jacobs and leaders of certain other left-leaning and far-left groups who outrageously called ZOA and ZOA’s president, civil rights activist Morton Klein, despicable names and attempted to remove ZOA from umbrella groups, simply because we documented and called out the BLM organization’s Jew-hatred and Israel-hatred. (See “ZOA Demands Apology from URJ’s Rick Jacobs & Others for Denouncing ZOA’s Condemnation of BLM Org’s Antisemitic Israel-Hating Platform,” June 29, 2020.)
An apology to ZOA and Morton Klein is long overdue. ZOA, Morton Klein and his family endured severe pain, humiliation and harm due to these Jewish groups and their leaders’ unwarranted, unjust and unfair verbal assaults.
The groups whose leaders still owe ZOA and Mr. Klein a public apology include: Union of Reform Judaism (URJ)’s Rabbi Rick Jacobs; its affiliate Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA)’s Rabbi Bennett Miller, which also promotes defunding Jews living in historic Jewish areas of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria – a form of BDS); Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR)’s Rabbi Hara Person; HIAS’ Robert Aronson and Mark Hetfield; Jewish Women International’s Meredith Jacobs; Na’amat USA’s Janet Gurvitch; MERCAZ USA’s Marilyn Wind; National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW)’s Sheila Katz; Rabbinical Assembly’s Rabbi Blumenthal; Workers Circle; United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s Leslie Lichter; Women of Reform Judaism’s Rabbi Marla Feldman; Women’s League for Conservative Judaism’s Rabbi Ellen Wolintz-Fields; New Israel Fund (NIF) (which funds anti-Israel NGOs that defame Israel and funded CWP, the group that helped establish the BDS infrastructure); pro-BDS Americans for Peace Now (APN)’s Hadar Susskind; extremist J Street’s Jeremy Ben Ami (which promotes anti-Israel UN resolutions and commemorates Nakba Day – which calls Israel’s rebirth a “catastrophe”); Ameinu (which is headed by Ken Bob, J Street’s treasurer); Workmen’s Circle; Keshet; Partners for Progressive Israel (PPI) (which promoted boycotts against long lists of Jewish companies); Reconstructing Judaism, The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, and T’ruah (which is also attempting to defund and remove the tax exemption from pro-Israel humanitarian charities. (See “Black Lives Matter Group Again Supports Hamas Terrorists, Defames Jews & Israel, Supports Antisemitic Anti-Israel Actions: ZOA & ZOA Pres. Morton Klein Respectfully Requests Apology from Those who Falsely Accused ZOA of “Racism” Because We Condemned BLM/M,” May 21, 2021.)
It’s unconscionable that certain Jewish groups attacked ZOA as “racist” for telling the truth about a racist, antisemitic, Israel-hating organization and for standing up for and protecting the Jewish community while they defended the Jew-hating Black Lives Matter. Instead, those Jewish groups should be working together with ZOA to protect the Jewish community from antisemites.
It is also long past due for leaders of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) like Jonathan Greenblatt, the Reform and Conservative movements, and other left-leaning and far-left Jewish groups to retract their full-page newspaper ad supporting the haters of BLM, which they co-signed together with extremist Israel-bashing groups – including Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), New Israel Fund (NIF) and IfNotNow. (See ZOA Criticizes ADL, Reform/Conservative Movements, JCRCs, HIAS, Etc. Signing Ad Supporting Israel-Hating & Jew-Hating Black Lives Matter Organization, Co-Signed With Israel-Haters,” Sept. 13, 2020; and “The ADL Has Corrupted Its Mission and Betrayed the Jewish Community,” by Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser, Newsweek, July 28, 2022.)
As ZOA’s “The BLM Organization’s Files” thoroughly document, BLM, and BLM’s parent organization (the “Movement 4 Black Lives” – M4BL) and the M4BL platform:
- “wholeheartedly endorse” anti-Israel antisemitic boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) in social media, the M4BL platform and elsewhere;
- falsely accuse Israel of numerous blood libels, including committing “genocide”; “ethnic cleansing”; “brutal” conduct; conducting a “Gaza massacre”; “apartheid”; “theft”; and “one-sided slaughter”;
- organize anti-Israel trips, during which BLM, M4BL and partner groups including “Dream Defenders” hold anti-Israel demonstrations and meet with the murderous, designated Marxist terror group PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) and its front groups;
- promote the agenda of, and hold joint events in the U.S. with Al-Haq and DCI-Palestine, both of which are front groups for the designated terror organization PFLP;
- incite and participate in violent anti-Jewish riots: BLM’s Los Angeles leader incited the violent Los Angeles pogrom in the Jewish Fairfax District, in which BLM activists burned, looted and defaced Jewish synagogues, stores, offices and schools, while screaming “Kill the Jews”; and
- joined “Days of Rage” demonstrations calling for Israel’s destruction “from the river to the sea” in multiple U.S. cities.
Incidentally, some Jewish groups tried to sweep BLM/M4BL’s promotion of vicious blood libels under the rug by falsely claiming that the M4BL platform was changed. In fact, the M4BL platform maligning Israel has NEVER been abrogated. We just checked again today. (See M4BL’s “Cut Military Expenditures” brief, downloadable here.)
Others Condemn BLM’s Racism and Antisemitism:
Melanie Phillips wrote: “BLM is an anti-white, anti-capitalist and anti-Jewish hate group”; and “Grossly slandering all white people is innately racist, yet Antifa or BLM activists can never acknowledge their own racism against white people.” Phillips’ article also condemned BLM for perpetrating the antisemitic pogrom in Los Angeles, antisemitic blood libels, and violent anti-police riots in London; and decried the moral cowardice of those who refused to acknowledge BLM’s antisemitism and racism.
Joel Pollak condemned: “the antisemitism and the very real fact that American Jewish communities are under threat from this [BLM] movement. . . . It’s like the ADL and these other organizations have suddenly lost their courage to speak out against antisemitism.”
Professor Alan Dershowitz wrote: “Until and unless Black Lives Matter removes this blood libel [falsely accusing Jews of committing genocide] from its platform and renounces it, no decent person — black, white or of any other racial or ethnic background — should have anything to do with it. . . . To give Black Lives Matter a pass on its anti-Jewish bigotry would be to engage in racism. Black antisemitism is as inexcusable as white antisemitism or white racism. There can be no double standard when it comes to bigotry.”
Caroline Glick wrote: “Black Lives Matter, the radical group leading the demonstrations, is an antisemitic organization. BLM was formed in 2014 as a merger of activists from the antisemitic Nation of Islam, the antisemitic Black Panthers and Dream Catchers. In 2016, BLM published a platform [Glick’s subsequent Facebook update noted that the antisemitic platform still exists and was moved to a new link]. The platform accused Israel of committing “genocide” and referred to the Jewish state as an “apartheid” state. The platform accused Israel and its supporters of pushing the U.S. into wars in the Middle East. The platform also officially joined BLM with the antisemitic BDS campaign to boycott, divest and sanction Israel. BDS campaign leader Omar Barghouti acknowledged this week that the goal of the BDS campaign is to destroy Israel. BDS campaigns on U.S. campuses are characterized by bigotry and discrimination directed against Jewish students.”
Muhammad Ali, Jr. (Muhammad Ali’s son) said that BLM is “racist,” and “divisive,” and stated, ‘‘My father would have said, ‘They [BLM] ain’t nothing but devils.’”
BLM’s Failure to Help Black Families; Corruption:
The BLM organization seems to do nothing to help ordinary Black families. Dedicated BLM St. Paul founder Rashad Turner quit BLM because, he explained, BLM does not care about improving Black families or education.
Meanwhile, the BLM organization’s national co-founders have apparently enriched themselves. A Washington Times editorial (May 6, 2021) noted:
“Harmony among all shades of color is humanity’s shared dream. . . . Americans recognize racism for what it is: a soul-crushing human flaw. . . . BLM is only making matters worse for Black Americans . . . BLM has become an indignation juggernaut, weaponizing the impulse to lash out. . . BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors has reportedly acquired four homes worth $3.2 million. Who knew that capitalist-hating Marxism could be so profitable?”
And it was recently revealed that the BLM Global Network Foundation used shell companies to purchase a swanky $5.8 million, seven bedroom, seven bathroom, elaborate mansion with pool and guest houses, in Studio City, Los Angeles.
Jewish leaders and groups must courageously call out all our enemies, and never condemn those who do.