Persona: Friends & Allies

By FayeRuth Fisher

As the representative for the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) to Beacon Hill, this time of year I am focused on the FY25 state budget advocating on behalf of our collective priorities, including funding for nonprofit security grants, the genocide education trust fund and the other budget appropriations that support our incredible and diverse human service agencies. I spend a lot of time reporting back on how each of our budget priorities fared in the governor’s version of the budget, the Massachusetts House of Representatives budget and the Massachusetts Senate’s budget. 

However, reflecting on the week of Senate budget debate, which concluded on Thursday, May 23, I want to share how it felt. 

On Wednesday, May 22, I sat in the gallery of the Senate listening to the klezmer band Ezekiel’s Wheels followed by Majority Leader Cynthia Stone Creem and Senate Ways and Means Vice Chair Sen. Cindy Friedman read a resolution celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month. Senators from across the commonwealth and across parties stood behind Creem and Friedman while the resolution was read. Following the unanimous adoption of amendment 803, Senate President Karen Spilka spoke passionately about Jewish American contributions to the country, the commonwealth and about her own Jewish pride.

It was joyous to stand up and applaud with so many others from our community and beyond. Maybe even without knowing it right then, I took a breath for the first time in months that was free of anxiety, free of needing to hold any complexity in that moment and felt pure pride. Shortly after, I texted my dad—who came to this country as an unaccompanied minor on a refugee visa in 1940—that the Senate president, in a time of virulent antisemitism, led the Massachusetts Senate to affirm that we matter, we belong and that our stories are integral to the fabric of this country’s story.

Later that same night, those words turned to policy action, led by Sen. John Velis, someone JCRC has been building a relationship with for some time, to pass an amendment addressing antisemitism. Over the course of the last few weeks, we were engaged in conversation with the senator and other leaders about the content of the amendment to share our expertise and perspective. The amendment adopted broadly does two things: it directs the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to provide resources to districts and teachers on antisemitism and other forms of bias and creates a task force on antisemitism to, among other charges, review the U.S. National Strategy on Countering Antisemitism and make recommendations on its implementation. Since the release of the strategy, we have been talking with elected officials across the state about its recommendations and opportunities for implementation, and launched our K-12 educational partnerships work focused on ensuring schools are safe, inclusive and welcoming for all students. 

Several senators, Jewish and non-Jewish, rose to speak in support of the amendment and the need to address antisemitism explicitly. Listening to several of the non-Jewish senators speak, notably Sen. John Velis (1:26:45) and Sen. Lydia Edwards (2:07:53), I heard the model of allyship we so often name. Having a task force focus on antisemitism affords the opportunity to focus on strategies that can serve as a road map and can help us as a larger society make progress. It was a recent reminder of something I’ve heard from a lot of wise women—if faced with a problem, take it apart and address it one thing at a time, piece by piece. 

In a time where we are flooded with terrible news and images, where antisemitism and extremism are at record levels, where communities’ feelings of isolation are easily exacerbated, last week strengthened my resolve that there is progress, and more to be made, with our elected allies in both the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives. It is a reminder to me that in these times, that in addition to the work in which we are entrusted to do, we must also pass on moments of light and hope to one another.

FayeRuth Fisher is the chief of public affairs and community relations for Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston. With more than 20 years of experience in community organizing and advocacy, Fisher has focused on workforce and health care policy, electoral politics and leadership development. Prior to joining JCRC, Fisher was the political director for 1199SEIU in Massachusetts, the state’s largest health care workers’ union. Fisher has served on the boards of several community organizations and nonprofits, including the founding board of Emerge Massachusetts and Temple Isaiah in Lexington. She holds a master of social work degree from Simmons University, a BA from Hampshire College and was an organizing fellow through the Jewish Organizing Initiative (now JOIN for Justice). 

By Melissa Garlick, Senior Director of Combating Antisemitism and Building Civic Engagement at Combined Jewish Philanthropies

With antisemitism rising, it can be easy to overlook the bright spots — the building blocks our work is laying for long-term, meaningful change. CJP’s Center for Combating Antisemitism (CCA) recently launched the first-ever local workplace antisemitism strategy, focused on bringing resources and tools to businesses and workplaces in Greater Boston to address antisemitism. This work kicked off recently through a roundtable discussion CJP hosted with human resources and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) executives across Greater Boston with April Powers, VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Project Shema, on how to incorporate antisemitism education and training into DEIB initiatives. 

“Many Jewish people hold intersectional identities (e.g. multi-ethnic, LGBTQIA+, disabled) which may be considered in DEI programs, only to find that their Jewish identity is not, which means antisemitism can go unchecked in our workplaces,” April says. “When we think about our staff having psychological safety and a sense of belonging, that should include Jewish people.” 

Antisemitism is a bigger problem than any one person, one organization, or one sector of society. We need a whole-of-society approach to effectively address it. Our community has long valued the notion of building relationships and allyship with civic leaders, but after Oct. 7 it has become clearer that our allies lack the knowledge and tools to know how to be allies in the fight against antisemitism. These must include action to learn, educate, and create inclusive spaces that reflect Jewish experiences and address antisemitism head on. 

“No robust DEI program is complete without incorporating Jewish identity and countering antisemitism appropriately in their work,” April says. “As a Black Jewish DEI practitioner, I myself did not do this well in the past. To do this, companies can start by offering trainings on antisemitism and Jewish identity; sponsoring Jewish cultural employee resource groups; ensuring DEI consultants appropriately include antisemitism in the ‘isms’ and biases they cover; and partnering with organizations like CJP to make sure that they are engaged in conversations around the issues that impact our community.” 

Building and leveraging relationships with civic leaders — including business and nonprofit leaders — CJP’s CCA is proud to be a hub for this work and to partner with organizations like Project Shema to bring these trainings and tools to civic spaces so that our society can better understand and address antisemitism.   

By Melissa Garlick, Senior Director of Combating Antisemitism and Building Civic Engagement at Combined Jewish Philanthropies

Like many of you, I am gutted, devastated, and heartbroken—for my Israeli friends and family, for our Jewish community, and for the future we work toward every day: our vision for freedom and safety. To me, this is a moment of reckoning—there is heightened urgency for the work we do here to deepen allyship across communities.   

In the days immediately after the terror attack by Hamas, I recalled the emotional response of when I experienced significant and traumatic loss before—that feeling of loneliness, not understanding why everyone around me was continuing with daily life and I was standing still, and feeling confused and pained by friends and acquaintances who didn’t reach out to see how I was doing. When this has happened to me before, for weeks and months after, I closed my circle, in some cases held grudges, and pushed others away. In those moments, it felt like that was what I needed to protect myself and my own grief. But the feeling of loneliness and anxiety compounded and kept growing.  

After the horrific attacks by Hamas, we face lives taken too soon and families ripped apart, the massacre of Jews, the panic over our existence as a people, and the future we are leaving for our children. This time, I have been so heartened by the many statements of solidarity for Israel and the Jewish community by elected leaders and community leaders. What’s been especially meaningful for me has been the small gestures of love and support, like my neighbor checking to see if I could use some help, knowing my personal and professional proximity to the impacts of the terrorist attacks.    

At the same time, it has been incredibly distressing that many of the people I’ve worked with in progressive spaces have either justified terrorism and antisemitism or failed to call it what it is: the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. 

As Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), said immediately after the attacks: “The epigenetic trauma of seeing Jews pulled from their homes, kidnapped, and killed—it’s real. This does not take away from the real suffering of the Palestinian people, and the many other layers to the conflict and the region. But when we see people celebrating the massacre of Jews as ‘resistance,’ that is not OK—and it does nothing to advance peace and safety.” 

Allyship can be defined, in this moment, as the action and commitment by individuals and organizations to listen and learn about the impact of the attacks, to commit to take action themselves and in their communities to root out antisemitism and to stand with the Jewish community, even when it’s hard for them. Allyship requires learning from a community how best to show up for them. We are so appreciative of the statements and expressions of solidarity from our state and city lawmakers, interfaith leaders, partners in the Black and Latinx communities, schools, and other civic organizations.  

As this war to eliminate Hamas grinds on, we need to sustain and build meaningful allyship beyond these initial statements. Allyship requires learning from a community how best to show up for them. While many allies are proactive, we can and should reach out to them too, to invite and call them in. Solidarity is necessary and critical in the short-term during this crisis, but building allyship is long-term work that entails learning (and mistakes) and requires grace and compassion. Allyship is born from trust and accountability to one another. 

The trauma of the last two weeks has affected so many of us. Even conversations with like-minded people can be difficult. But if you’re ready to start engaging with potential allies, here are some suggestions: 

• Remember that it’s OK not to be OK, and please make sure you’re reaching out for the support you need.
• Distinguish between the detractors and those who are likely willing to engage with you, and don’t take the bait from those just looking to argue.
• For those who have potential to be allies, call them into conversation, invite them to learn, and raise their awareness about the communal pain and impacts.
• With those friends or colleagues who have been silent in this moment or have tried to show empathy but perhaps have missed the mark, tell them you are hurting and that you want to talk. Reach out for both the support and the opportunity for them to be in allyship with you. Help them understand what you and the Jewish community are going through.   

These are difficult and exhausting conversations—but this work is needed now more than ever. We cannot fight the antisemitism that has been unleashed and rebuild by ourselves. And we must know that we are not alone in this moment of crisis. 

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