In announcing the formation of a new international alliance to battle the uptick in antisemitism on a global level, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the ADL, said that “we needed to meet these challenges through coordinated action.”
Such action comes in the form of the J7, the Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism.
“This new coalition of major organizations representing seven large Jewish Diaspora communities in liberal democracies will provide a formal framework for coordination, consultation and formulating global responses to antisemitic threats against the Jewish people,” said Greenblatt.
Participants include the Board of Deputies of British Jews; the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF); the Central Council of Jews in Germany; Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA); Argentina’s Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas (DAIA); the Executive Council of Australian Jewry; the ADL; and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
The new entity will meet virtually and in person, with one gathering scheduled for March 2024 at the ADL’s “Never Is Now” summit. Another activity will include creating working groups of subject matter experts to focus on subjects like tech policy, security and education.
Peter Wertheim, co-CEO for the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said: “As the elected peak representative body of the Australian Jewish community, we are pleased to join our colleagues from organizations representing other major Jewish communities in the Diaspora to coordinate our efforts to combat antisemitism and maximize our impact.”
Adding to that was CRIF executive director Robert J. Ejnes, who said that “if antisemitism exists everywhere in the world, it is in Europe that it has been brought to its climax.”
He emphasized a broad targeting against Jew-hatred “in all its forms—whether Islamist, conspiratorial, hatred of Israel or Holocaust denial, from wherever it originates.”
