JEWS & ALLIES UNITED TO END ANTI-SEMITISM
A Project of the Re-Evaluation Counseling Community
MISSION STATEMENT
We believe that the liberation of Jews, and the liberation of all peoples, can be achieved when Jews and non-Jewish allies join together to understand the harmful effects of anti-Semitism and work to eliminate it. The main work of Jews and Allies United to End Anti-Semitism is to raise awareness of how anti-Semitism hurts everyone—Jews and non-Jews alike—and how its divide-and-conquer mechanism holds back the work of achieving social justice. Using the resources and process of Re-evaluation Counseling, this project works to undo the damage on an individual basis, and provides resources and support for an allies’ movement against anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism is the systematic, institutionalized mistreatment of Jews. Over their long history, the Jewish people have been the target of both violent and subtle forms of persecution, including discrimination, expulsions, and genocide. For centuries, anti-Semitism has divided Jews from other groups and set up Jews as a buffer to protect those in power.
Anti-Semitism is important to understand because it continues, today, to derail the liberation efforts of many groups. When Jews are singled out for blame, the attention of other groups gets diverted from identifying, and fighting against, the real causes of their own oppression. As long as anti-Semitism exists, the work of ending economic injustice, racism, sexism, Gay oppression, and other forms of oppression is also hindered. This is why anti-Semitism is sometimes called a “divide and conquer” mechanism. Anti-Semitism divides Jews from other groups and slows down the work of many liberation movements: Black liberation, Gay liberation, the women’s movement, the labor movement, and others. Click here to see examples that illustrate how anti-Semitism slows down the work of other liberation movements.
Jews and Allies United to End Anti-Semitism is a project of the Re-evaluation Counseling Communities, and all of the members of Jews and Allies United have learned to use the theory and tools of Re-evaluation Counseling. Re-evaluation Counseling (RC) has existed since the early 1950’s, and the RC Communities have directly taken on the work of eliminating anti-Semitism, among other forms of oppression, since the 1970’s. In 2017, the RC Communities adopted Jews and Allies United to End Anti-Semitism as a project of the International RC Communities.
Note: We use the terms “anti-Semitism” and “anti-Jewish oppression” interchangeably. While the term anti-Semitism is less precise (there are also Semitic peoples who are not Jews), it is the term that has been widely used and understood to refer to the specific oppression directed against the Jewish people.
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