Independent Jewish Voices

Independent Jewish Voices welcomes and supports the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA).  Drafted by an international group of leading scholars on this issue, and signed by over 200 academics in Jewish Studies and related fields,  the JDA is a useful tool to help identify, confront and raise awareness of antisemitism in the contemporary world. It is also attentive to issues of free speech, and includes, in relation to Israel and Palestine, examples both of the sort of statements that  are likely to be antisemitic and of those which, on the face of it, are not antisemitic. Our founding declaration notes that the battle against antisemitism is undermined whenever opposition to Israeli government policies is automatically branded as antisemitic. Independent Jewish Voices recommends reference to the JDA, or indeed adoption of it, in contexts where a definition of antisemitism, or guidance on the topic, is called for.