Longtime American Jewish activist Charles Jacobs forms the “Jewish Leadership Project” as an alternative to the ADL, Jewish federations, and other establishment organizations that he claims “refuse to fight for Jewish interests.”
By World Israel News Staff
A new American Jewish organization is accusing the Jewish establishment in the U.S. of ignoring or even appeasing anti-Israel elements on the far-left and is offering itself as an alternative to groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee.
The Jewish Leadership Project is the brainchild of longtime American Jewish activist Charles Jacobs, president of Americans for Peace and Tolerance, who also founded a pro-Israel campus activist group called The David Project.
Jacobs has also worked as an anti-slavery activist, founding the American Anti-Slavery Group to combat the practice in Sudan and Mauritania.
Now, Jacobs has joined with other American Jewish activists dissatisfied with the Jewish community’s leadership to form the Jewish Leadership Project (JLP).
The Washington Free Beacon, which interviewed Jacobs for an article published Monday, described the new organization as adopting a “more right-leaning philosophy” than established Jewish groups in the U.S.
Jacobs lamented that most American Jewish organizations today are led by “people who refuse to fight for Jewish interests” and who, in some cases work to appease the radical, anti-Israel Left.
Mainstream Jewish groups “have failed to inform the community of the dangers of Islamic radicalism and anti-Semitism and instead have vouched for radical Muslims posing as ‘moderates,’” Jacobs continued.
The Jewish Leadership Project, Jacobs vowed, will force the leading Jewish organizations in the U.S. to stop subordinating the safety and welfare of the Jewish-American community to partisan ideology.”
Jacobs accused Jewish leaders of blindly embracing the Democratic Party, leaving them reluctant to confront anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic elements on the far-left, such as the Black Lives Matter movement.
“They have enthusiastically embraced Democratic Party policies, prioritizing them above the needs of the community while ignoring the views of more conservative and observant Jews.”
The JLP is not the first bid to offer American Jews a more conservative alternative to the Jewish establishment.
In 2019, model Elizabeth Pipko founded The Exodus Movement, initially known as “Jexodus”, encouraging young Jews to bolt the Democratic Party.
“The old guard establishment is losing credibility and power, while the rising tide of millennials is joining with highly identified Jews to break down the walls of our political ghetto,” said Jeff Ballabon, an adviser for Jexodus.