“Jewish Harper’s Letter” Denounces Viewpoint Suppression On Social Justice

A letter denouncing the “suppression of dissent” by Jewish organizations on “issues of racial justice” was recently published by the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values (JILV). The Institute describes itself as “a new organization that supports the free expression of ideas and helps Jewish organizations that care about true social justice prevent the encroachment of the Critical Social Justice (CSJ) approach in the Jewish world.”

The manifesto, which is being referred to as the “Jewish Harper’s Letter,” argues that America’s “unparalleled protection of freedom of expression” is one the “essential tools by which American minorities––including Jews––have made progress in advancing the causes of equality and justice.” This freedom, argues the missive, is being threatened by an ideology that “insists there is only one way to look at the problems we face” concerning social justice, “and those who disagree must be silenced.”

While the letter never explicitly names this ideology, the organization’s mission statement identifies it as Critical Social Justice, a combination of critical race and gender theories and social justice activism that JILV believes poses a threat to America’s “democratic liberal values.” In order to “counter the imposition” of the (CSJ) approach “in the Jewish community,” the organization aims to defend the “liberal principles of free thought and expression” and advance the “viewpoint diversity” that CSJ forecloses.

JILV’s Founder and CEO is David Bernstein, formerly the President and CEO of Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and its board members include Bret Stephens, the Pulitzer Prize-winning opinion columnist at The New York Times, and Dr. Misha Galperin, CEO of the National Museum of American Jewish History. The letter’s original signatories include Natan Sharansky, Former Head of the Jewish Agency, journalists Bari Weiss and Izabella Tabarovsky, author Jonathan Haidt and author and former refusenik Maxim D. Shrayer.

JILV’s call to “defend liberal principles, preserve Jewish civic life in the democratic tradition, oppose suppression of dissent” and “challenge collective moral guilt” has already been denounced by some, like Jewish Currents, edited by Peter Beinart. But such debate and dissent is precisely what the letter hopes to encourage in relation to the passionate discussions within the Jewish community about racial, gender, and social equality that have promulgated rapidly since the death of George Floyd last summer. Such “safeguarding” of “the marketplace of ideas,” argues JILV, is necessary to accomplish the difficult work of “curtailing racism and inequality” in this country, which must be undertaken “in a spirit of intellectual honesty and integrity.”

Such “safeguarding” of “the marketplace of ideas,” argues JILV, is necessary to accomplish the difficult work of “curtailing racism and inequality” in this country.

The letter argues that such “open discourse” is a vital part of the Jewish tradition, which “cherishes debate, respects disagreement, and values questions as well as answers.” Ancient Jewish institutions like the Beit Midrash ––the House of Study –– encouraged passionate argument “for the sake of heaven.” “The dominant social justice ideology” that “holds that individuals bear collective moral guilt or innocence based on the current conception of group identity” stands in direct opposition to Jewish tradition, which insists “that we only judge and be judged by our own deeds”: “A son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and a father shall not bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (Ezekiel 18:20).

The letter also raises concerns over the potentially antisemitic implications and results of CSJ, which “encourages pernicious notions of ‘Jewish privilege,’ even implicating Jews in “white supremacy.” Given the American Jewish community’s long involvement with the fight against “rampant discrimination and the disenfranchisement of Black Americans,” as well as its own victimization at the hands of White supremacy throughout American history, such implications often result in gaslighting American Jews into renouncing their experience and cultural memory in order to be allowed to participate in discussions around CSJ.

The inclusion of several former refuseniks and Soviet Jews among the letter’s signatories also serve as a subtle reminder that not so long ago, millions of Jews were trapped in a totalitarian society that presented itself as a social justice utopia, espousing an ideology eerily similar to the one being put forward today in the name of greater racial and gender equality.