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 summit CAM organized in December, he suggested the organization “come to Montgomery and learn more about the Civil Rights Movement and certainly Black-Jewish relations during that time.”
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 “over the same bridge that Martin Luther King Jr. walked arm in arm with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.”
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 “it’s important to understand that cities can play a critical role combatting antisemitism through action.”
Besides putting together meetings for local politicians to discuss how to combat antisemitism, CAM also maintains a “Municipal Antisemitism Action Index,” which it officially launched during the December summit.
The index, which Katz described as “a framework for best practices of what you can accomplish,” 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.
Point 1.5 of the index calls for cities to adopt policies preventing them from contracting with businesses that boycott or divest from “the State of Israel, Israelis, or any other discrimination based upon ethnicity or national origin.” The Alabama state legislature already passed a law along these lines in 2016, and Alabama Senator Katie Britt introduced a similar piece of legislation in the Senate last July, but critics maintain these laws are plainly unconstitutional.
Jewish organization J Street, while an opponent of BDS, has called anti-BDS laws “misguided legislative overreach” and “the wrong way to fight BDS,” arguing that they “too easily violate constitutional free speech protections.” Brian Hauss, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote in 2019, that anti-BDS laws are “designed to discriminate against disfavored political expression.”
The other CAM recommended policy that has been critiqued for its potential effects on free speech is adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism. 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 “you can’t fight something until you define what it is.”
The definition, Katz elaborated, is “something that we would like every city and every state, and frankly, every country in the world to adopt,” explaining that it could be incorporated into hate crime legislation.
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 published by the Times of Israel, he wrote that “Jewish groups have used the definition as a weapon to say anti-Zionist expressions are inherently anti-Semitic and must be suppressed.”
The definition lists “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” “applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation,” and “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” as examples of antisemitism.
When asked by APR about Stern’s past comments, Katz explained she thinks he is “missing the mark.”
“Criticizing the government of Israel, much like you would criticize any other government, is not inherently antisemitic,” she stated. “Saying that Israel does not have the right to defend itself, or shouldn’t exist as a country entirely? That anti-Zionism is antisemitism, holding Israel to a standard that we wouldn’t hold any other country.”
Katz continued: “We in the United States, after 9/11, went to Afghanistan; we went after Bin Laden; we were not calling and saying, ‘Hey, you need to evacuate, we’re going to bomb here.’ We haven’t done any of that and we were never held to the same standard that Israel is being held now, and I think that’s where the difference is.”
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey already issued a proclamation in 2022 recognizing the IHRA definition. In September Ivey signed onto an open letter supporting its adoption at the federal level. Britt has also pushed for Congress to pass a law officially endorsing the IHRA definition, in line with her history of pro-Israel stances.
Reed told APR on Friday that he “had not read those critiques [of anti-BDS laws and the IHRA definition] and that’s why we’re deliberate.”
“We understand the views that exist on all sides,” the mayor said. “You just want to make sure that when we present something like this to our city council for consideration that we’ve vetted it to make sure that it’s the right thing to do.”
During her interview with APR, Katz repeatedly stressed the importance of interfaith events as “a meaningful and grassroots way to combat hate.”
“Legislation is important,” she noted. “But I think deep down getting people to love each other and realize all we have in common and that we’re not so different is really the most important thing to do.”
