Jewish Community Relations Council

Does Not Speak For Me

The JCRC misuses its platform to attack individuals and organizations, predominantly Palestinian, Black, Indigenous and other people of color as well as Jews of all backgrounds, when it disagrees with their opinions of Israel.

Our message: The JCRC does not speak for us. It represents a small minority of Jewish people.

Why the JCRC Does Not Speak for Me

The Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC-BA) claims to represent the Jewish community but devotes an outsized effort and the majority of its resources to defending Israel and promoting Zionism. It attacks people and organizations with whom it disagrees– in large part individual Palestinian, Black, Indigenous, and other people of color and organizations led by them along with other Jews, including Jews of color.

The JCRC goes even further, and takes public policy makers, many of them elected, on one-sided trips to Israel–trips that erase Israel’s continued takeover of Palestine.

An alliance of Jews of Conscience and community partners harmed by the JCRC are making an appeal to Bay Area organizations: the JCRC’s racism and coercion has no place in interfaith, anti-racist, social benefit groups. Please boycott the JCRC.

For decades, the JCRC has misused its platform to threaten the reputations and funding of organizations that criticize Israel or Zionism or speak and act in solidarity with Palestinians. This includes efforts to undermine ethnic studies school curriculum and programs supporting Arab students and communities.

The Bay Area’s JCRC falsely claims to speak for a majority of Jewish people in the region. In fact, according to its tax filing, the JCRC is not even registered as a membership organization. By the JCRC’s own account, less than a third of Bay Area synagogues affiliate with the JCRC.

As long as the JCRC harms Bay Area people of color and the broader community, there should be no place for it in the Bay Area.

Please boycott the JCRC.

Who is the Jewish Community Relations Council?

The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) Bay Area Chapter does not speak for the majority of Jews.

Fewer than a third of the Bay Area’s 120 synagogues affiliate with JCRC.

The JCRC does not account for the 40% of the Bay Area Jews, who number 350,000, and are unaffiliated with any synagogue.

According to its tax filing, the JCRC is not a membership organization and does not have a membership base. JCRC affiliates do not have a vote in the organization’s policies.

Already, over 1,200 Bay Area Jews across the Bay Area have signed a petition denouncing the JCRC’s racist and Islamophobic attacks. The JCRC misuses antisemitism to silence criticism of Israel and undermine movements for racial justice such as efforts to incorporate liberatory ethnic studies curriculum in our schools

Jewish communities, like all communities, have diverse opinions. To reduce the Jewish community to a single perspective, as the JCRC attempts to do, is a disservice to the Bay Area, and to Jews.

Jews of Conscience share Bay Area values of equality, justice, and diversity. The JCRC speaks only for itself.

As long as the JCRC harms Bay Area people of color and the broader community, there should be no place for it in the Bay Area.

JCRC in Their Own Words

The JCRC degrades civic discourse and attacks people and organizations. Please boycott the JCRC.

Jewish Community Relations Council Racism

The JCRC predominantly attacks people of color and other Jewish people. Please boycott the JCRC.

While the JCRC attacks communities of color broadly, frequently its racism targets Palestinians themselves. The JCRC chronically misuse the very serious accusation of antisemitism against Palestinians who speak about their own lives under Israeli apartheid.

The JCRC exploits collective Jewish suffering when it falsely accuses people it opposes of antisemitism.

Jews of Conscience want to stop the JCRC’s harmful actions and rhetoric and make clear, ‘The JCRC Does Not Speak for Me.’ Moreover, the JCRC owes an apology for its harm to individuals, organizations, elected officials, and above all, Palestinians.

The below examples are just a few of the ways that JCRC have perpetuated racism and the weaponization of anti-semitism in the past twenty years.

JCRC-BA condemns and calls for the removal of former county supervisor and affordable housing leader John Avalos in response to a post on X/Twitter. Avalos commented on a video depicting state assembly representative Scott Weiner saying that politicians should expect to be criticized when, like Weiner, they oppose ceasefire. The JCRC associated Avalos with objectionable content in the video, smearing him with a false accusation of antisemitism.

JCRC-BA opposes a permanent ceasefire. It supports Israel’s campaign to kill people in Gaza and mislabels support for Palestinians as antisemitic. The JCRC-BA campaigns to stop city councils from issuing ceasefire resolutions though 68% of Americans support a ceasefire. The JCRC did this in Oakland, where 86% of the 1,254 public comments were in support of a ceasefire, the majority of which came from Jews. The resolution passed despite the JCRC’s opposition.

JCRC-BA targets Palestine solidarity events in California by attempting to cut their funding. It opposed an art project by Homies Unidos and Eastside Arts Alliance when they drew connections between US-funded Israeli violence and Israeli-trained police violence in the Bay Area. Israeli Defense Force training of Oakland’s police has ended.

JCRC-BA, both in California and nationally, has targeted teachers who include Palestine-related content in their curricula, and lobbied California legislators to attack K-12 ethnic studies and remove Arab American Studies. Nonetheless dedicated teachers continue teaching about Palestine.

JCRC-BA advocated to eliminate the only Arab youth programming in Bay Area schools, programs run by Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC). JCRC-BA further worked to stop Arabic-language initiatives in schools and lobbied to stop Eid from being recognized as an official school holiday. AROC continues its advocacy in Bay Area schools to this day.

JCRC-BA threatened the Museum of Children’s Art’s funding when the museum exhibited art from Gazan children. The museum canceled the art showcase. Organizers rented a private location to host the exhibit.

JCRC-BA and the ADL lobbied the Haas Foundation use its influence as a funder to pressure EastSide Arts Alliance, a haven for Black artists, to apologize for an event addressing state-sponsored violence in Gaza and Oakland. The event followed the murder of Oscar Grant by BART police and an Israeli attack on Gaza. Eastside removed and apologized for the image it had used. The organization refused to apologize for the event or its guiding political principles. While they lost Haas funding, others donated to support their principled stance.

JCRC-BA targeted SF city and foundation funding of Homey, a Mission District based youth organization, when youth artists designed a mural that honored solidarity between Black and Brown struggles including the Palestinian struggle. The JCRC demanded removal of a Palestine map and a Palestinian woman wearing a kuffiyeh. Homey removed the shape of map. Subsequently, Homey lost much of its foundation and city funding causing permanent cuts to its staff and programming.

JCRC-BA advocated to censor a mural at San Francisco State University that honored the late scholar Edward Said. JCRC-BA likened an image of a key, symbolizing Palestinian refugees' UN-guaranteed right of return, to the uniforms of the KKK. The mural stands as a testament to students’ ongoing campaign for a free Palestine

In the wake of 9/11, vandals sprayed Islamophobic messages on the Women’s Building. JCRC-BA persuaded the City of San Francisco to revoke the funding of SF Women Against Rape for seven months when the organization issued a statement critical of Zionism, asserting that the ideology fuels Islamophobia thus increasing risk to Arab and Muslim women. Through community advocacy, funding was reinstated.

The JCRC pressured the SF Chronicle to fire a Jewish journalist who wrote about Intel Corp.’s Fab 18 chip plant in Qiryat Gat, Israel, which generated $1.8 billion in exports. The column pointed out contention over land ownership issues stemming from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The JCRC and others accused him of antisemitism, which he denied, pointing out that he is Jewish.

Pilar Meija the principal at Cesar Chavez High School was removed from her position for encouraging more Latino teachers to be hired to teach Spanish speaking students instead of teachers not of Latin American descent. JCRC told SF Superintendent Bill Rojas Jewish teachers were being discriminated against. Rojas transferred principal Meija out of her position without notice.

There’s no place for the JCRC’s racism among Bay Area social support organizations.

JCRC’s practices

The JCRC’s claims and practices warrant critical inquiry. Please boycott the JCRC.

Economic Coercion

JCRC attempts to influence private and government funders to withdraw funding for organizations that express solidarity with Palestine, and encourages funders to use their power and resources to censor and direct the politics of their grantees.

Suppression of Criticism

JCRC actively works to suppress criticism of Israel and Zionism, particularly in academic settings, by attempting to influence educational content and confine discourse to its own views.

Anti-Boycott Legislation

JCRC advances legislation opposing the boycott, divestment, and sanctioning of Israeli goods, inhibiting peaceful activism and restricting political expression critical of Israel.

Censorship of Activism

JCRC works to suppress Palestine solidarity events and expressions of solidarity with Palestine, including art and culture.

Exclusionary Educational Content

JCRC elevates Jewish history within Ethnic Studies, putting it above narratives from communities of color. Arab and Asian groups continue their campaign to have their histories, experiences, and cultures included in public education.

Controversial Associations

JCRC associates with the Brandeis Center and AIPAC, both accused of engaging in repressive actions. Linked to groups that fund US police training by the Israeli military [link to affiliations below] and oppose equal opportunity programs.

Limiting Speech

JCRC equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism, undermining free speech.

Misuse of Antisemitism

JCRC misidentifies criticism of Israeli policies and actions as antisemitism. This is not only inaccurate but exploits the very real history and harm of antisemitism.

JCRC Falsely Alleges Antisemitism to Censor Free Speech on Palestine

The JCRC chronically mislabels pro-Palestine and anti-Zionist expression as antisemitism. This misuse exploits and betrays the long history of persecution and genocide against Jewish people.

The JCRC attempts to confuse anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

Zionism is not and never has been the same as Judaism or Jewish identity.

Zionism is a belief, not a people.

Zionism as a political ideology and movement emerged in 19th century Europe as a false solution to the very real antisemitic persecution of Jews at that time. The originators of Zionism mirrored the prevailing ideologies of racial dominance and colonial expansion in European society at the time.

Anti-Zionism is rejection, often by Jewish people, of the racism of the founding ideology of the state of Israel. Many Anti-Zionists believe that forming a Jewish ethno-national state makes everyone in it unsafe.

Antisemitism is prejudice, hatred, or violence directed at Jews because they are Jewish.

JCRC’s cynical use of antisemitism to paint those who criticize Israel or Zionism as antisemitic punishes protected speech. It is an attempt to stop anti-racists from speaking out against the prejudice, hatred and violence directed at Palestinian people in the name of justifying the ethnic cleansing and genocidal violence of the state of Israel.

We denounce the use of Jewish suffering to attempt to censor and divide people who share the values of anti-racism, anti-fascism and human rights.

We say that Never Again must mean Never Again for Anyone or it means nothing at all.

The Jewish Community Relations Council affiliates with extremists.

Please boycott the JCRC.

Questionable Political Affiliations

The JCRC affiliates with organizations that suppress criticism of Israel and Zionism, and oppose pro-Palestine political advocacy including the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), founded by the Jewish Federations of North America. The JCPA chronically attacks Arabs, Palestinians, Jews and critics of Israel and attempts to cut the funding for Palestine solidarity events.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs affiliates with the Brandeis Center, which files Title VI complaints against equal opportunity programs and advocates against boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel. The Brandeis Center attempts to limit sexual assaults, and protections for LGBT, immigrant, and disabled students. The Brandeis Center’s president, Kenneth Marcus, was appointed by Trump to do those very same things as the Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights.

The JCRC affiliates with the Anti Defamation League which has long targeted racial and social justice movements, advocates for Palestinian rights, and radical Jewish activists.

Questionable Funding Sources

It is not uncommon to find the JCRC and Jewish Council for Public Affairs listed in funding documents alongside such anti-Muslim and anti-Arab groups as the Clarion Fund, David Horowitz, and the Middle East Forum.

Questionable Board Affiliations

Past and present JCRC board members are also affiliated with The Israel Project, which focuses on coverage promoting Israel and degrading Palestinians in the American press, and the AIPAC National Council, which lobbies the US government to support Israel and defund institutions that aid Palestinians.

There’s no place for the JCRC’s racism in the Bay Area. Please boycott the JCRC.

HAPPENING NOW

Petition: Join 1200 Bay Area Jewish signers who say, the JCRC Does Not Speak for Me

See the Petition

Asian Petition for Palestine

See the Petition

In the News

Anti-Zionist Jewish groups hold public 'Tashlich' in SF

Last night, anti-zionist Jewish protestors gathered outside of the Jewish Community Relations Council in San Francisco to condemn the non-profit’s actions.

Local Jews Mark Jewish New Year Calling for Rejection of JCRC

On October 8, 2024, hundreds of Bay Area Jews protested the Jewish Community Relations Council to demonstrate a united front against the organization for their harmful misrepresentation of the local Jewish community. The JCRC misuses its power to make false accusations of anti-semitism against people who protest Israel’s genocide.

JCRC: YOU DON’T SPEAK FOR ME.

Yesterday, over 100 Bay Area Jews gathered on the steps of the Jewish Community Relations Council to demonstrate a growing movement against the organization for their harmful misrepresentation of the local Jewish community.

Contact us

Until the JCRC rectifies the harm it causes, I or my organization will abstain from partnerships, alliances, coalitions and other joint work.

Add your name or organization to the boycott or send questions: