Boston Jews say they will not be intimidated by interactive map’s publication.
By David Hellerman, World Israel News
The Congressional Latino Jewish caucus denounced a controversial BDS mapping project of Boston-area Jewish institutions last week.
The caucus is a bipartisan group of 30 lawmakers of Jewish-Latino origins.
The caucus said in a statement it was “deeply concerned over the targeting of the Jewish Community in Massachusetts by The Mapping Project and find it troubling that this implicit antisemitic attack directed towards our Jewish brothers and sisters has been allowed to happen.”
“We have witnessed far too many hate-based attacks on places of worship, businesses, schools, and public facilities, to wait silently for the next incident to take place. Antisemitic attacks have risen by 42 percent in Massachusetts while nationwide there has been a 34 percent uptick,” the caucus stated.
The caucus further stressed that the mapping project “explicitly stated that the intention of its collective mapping is to reveal local Jewish entities and networks to specifically dismantle and disrupt them.”
The so-called BDS “Mapping Project” is an interactive map of Massachusetts showing ostensible links between myriad Jewish and Israeli institutions in the state along with several U.S. government and educational institutions and private businesses.
The map includes Jewish and Israeli institutions running the gamut of Israel’s Consulate in Boston, the Ruderman Family Foundation, Israeli-American Council Boston, the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts, Elbit Systems, AIPAC, J Street, the Anti-Defamation League, two Jewish newspapers, and more.
Staffers at the Jewish organizations are often identified by name.
The map also features Boston-area police stations, hospitals, universities, U.S. military sites, financial and pharmaceutical businesses, the AFL-CIO, various federal, state and local government offices among other institutions, implying a conspiracy between the Jewish and public institutions.
The pro-BDS group said it “wanted to develop a deeper understanding of local institutional support for the colonization of Palestine and harms that we see as linked, such as policing, U.S. imperialism, and displacement/ethnic cleansing.”
The people behind the map did not identify themselves by name.
Local Jews say the map is merely intended to intimidate their community. The Federal Bureau of Investigations told local Jewish leaders in June it is monitoring the site.
The Latino-Jewish caucus is co-chaired by Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), and Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.).