Combatting Bullying, Censorship and Defamation Campaigns by “CJA” Against Local Students, Educators, and Public Institutions
A thorough review of CJA’s website, social media accounts, and campaigns to-date quickly suggest that it is a front organization for far-right Israeli propaganda aimed at chilling American freedom of speech in hopes of censoring alternative views to the Israeli government’s official narratives.
According to its own website, the Chicago Jewish Alliance (CJA) was launched last year by 5 individuals who were outraged that Chicagoans were demanding an end to the mass murder of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces. Per their warped logic, a demand that Israel stop the massacres of tens of thousands of civilians amounted to “hatred” – not to mention “antisemitism” and “support for terrorism.”
Such is the peak gaslighting that has permeated CJA’s every campaign since its inception, wherein every accusation is an admission and wherein they have prioritized the singular task of spreading hate and fear of Muslims and Palestinians, and silencing their voices in public spaces.
CJA does not operate in a vacuum but seems to be part of an emerging phenomenon - that can be referred to as “Israel first” - comprised of a slew of individuals and groups working to limit American freedoms of conscience, belief, and association that challenges official Israeli propaganda. As such, CJA poses a serious threat to the civil rights, safety and peace of local students, educators, public institutions and community organizations. CJA’s feeble attempts to browbeat targets into submission are typically packaged in two talking points designed to intimidate and shame victims into acquiescence: 1) accusations of antisemitism and 2) accusations of links to terrorism.
Examples of CJA's bullying campaigns include:
The targeting of a 15-year old Christian Palestinian high school girl for a line in her yearbook they took issue with, causing a public stir that caused her and her family undue distress (multiple school board hearings, and a media circus).
The targeting of at least 3 public libraries demanding the filtration or shutting down of a film exploring American-Jewish attitudes towards the conflict (made by Israeli filmmakers) and sponsored by local Jewish organizations, because they disagreed with its content. As a result of the external flood of pressure, two of the libraries while not cancelling the showings, stipulated that the local sponsoring Jewish organizations hire extra private security due to the incessant emailed threats which at the end proved cost prohibitive.
The targeting of Stevenson/District 125 via the same tactics: they put out an email template on social media to solicit users in a mass campaign to feign popular outrage and bend the educators to their demands which invariably include erasing/muffling Palestinian voices/narratives as with all their hitjobs to date.
The targeting of the only Palestinian-American department chair at District 207 accusing her of antisemitism and ties to terrorism on the claim that she refused to teach the novel "Night" and the Holocaust, which turned out to be a lie. The course offers multiple tracks in the Genocide studies section including "Night"/Holocaust. They altered their accusation to claiming she was antisemitic for not "exclusively" teaching "Night" and the Holocaust. CJA doxed her publicly and rallied social media against her, defaming her character and imperiling her career.
Yesterday, CJA launched a frivolous attack against CAIR-Chicago regurgitating long-since debunked smears that once festered on now-discredited far-right, anti-Muslim Zionist blogs. This desperate and misguided action was presumably triggered by our active pushback against their heinous attempts to infiltrate and bully our schools and libraries, censoring and maligning students, educators and institutions they disagree with. We make no apology for actively living up to our mission of defending civil rights and combatting hate. If this makes CJA uncomfortable, they should end their active spread of hate, online bullying, school bullying campaigns, and doxxing of victims.
CAIR-Chicago’s 20-year exceptional record of activism against Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and all forms of bigotry is well documented and widely recognized by interfaith groups - including Jewish groups - academic institutions, hundreds of elected officials, and most of all, diverse Muslim communities across our great state of Illinois and beyond. Our dedication in standing up to bully-tactics, censorship, and erasure of vulnerable communities will not waiver.