End Jew Hatred in Art

July 2021

An Open Letter to the Art World:

We are signing this letter because we are demanding a dialogue based on facts - a dialogue about ending Jew-hatred and discrimination against Jewish and Israeli people in the art world. Signing this letter is not a statement on politics, but rather a message that Jewish identity must not be a victim of politics. Supporting the statement in this letter does not imply any conclusion to be reached with respect to the signatories’ political support for a specific party in the Israeli government or in the opposition. The statement below is also built on a recognition of a shared desire for peace and coexistence both in the Middle East and in diaspora communities around the world.

We are concerned members of the art community, writing to protest the drastically increased targeting and exclusion of Jews in the art world. We are artists, curators, visionaries, philanthropists and art lovers who have poured our lives into the pursuit of truth, challenging dialogue, and the search for a deeper meaning in the world.

We are appalled that because of their ethnic and cultural identity as Jews—including their indigenous ties to the land of Israel—some people are using racist, exclusionary principles to try to push Jews out of the art world. Demanding that Jews sever their connection to their homeland is a form of erasure which would never be tolerated by (or expected of) any other ethnic group. We are hurt and offended that the passion, talent, and commitment to art of the Jewish community is being cast aside due to ethnicity. This is bigotry, pure and simple.

The Jewish people are a minority community that has been oppressed for centuries. Throughout history, Jews have been targeted for racist discrimination and genocide. Anti-Jewish violence has always been preceded by purges of Jewish intellectuals from the arts and sciences. Jew-hatred has been justified with countless excuses. We will not tolerate the latest batch of excuses, which use a political litmus test about a conflict in the Middle East to marginalize and discriminate against Jews in the art world.

Moreover, across the world, Jews are being targeted not just with discrimination, but with genocidal terrorism. Yet many of our friends and colleagues are not reaching out with compassion to understand the trauma, cultural and religious heritage, or indigeneity to the land of Israel of the Jewish people.

Instead, they are working to exclude Jews and Israelis from participating in the art community, a community which perhaps more than any other stands for open inquiry, freedom of expression, and diversity.

Right now, bigots are trying to bully MOMA into ousting noted Jewish art patrons because of their ethnic and Zionist identity. In Canada, there are orchestrated demands that the Koffler Center of the Arts cut ties with the United Jewish Appeal. In England, prominent art trusts are being targeted for racist boycotts by agitators due to their ties with the Jewish state. This is precisely the kind of discriminatory animus that is prohibited by law, and yet these are just a few examples of the type of racism Jewish people face in the West.

It is obvious to us that a conflict in the Middle East is being used as an excuse to purge Jews from the art world. This is unacceptable. We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community against prejudice and racism that targets Jewish people based on their ethnic, cultural, and religious identities.

We will not allow the hard-earned civil rights of the Jewish community to be violated. The lies and propaganda of Jew-hatred are designed to limit free and equal participation in society—and in the art world. This is discrimination prohibited by federal and state law in the United States, as it is by various countries across the world. Whether under the Civil Rights Act or the New York Human Rights Law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of creed or national origin, Jews are entitled to live their lives, work, and pursue artistic endeavors without being targeted. “Politics” is never an excuse for discriminating against Jewish and Israeli people.

We are traumatized by the vile expressions of hate that deny Jews their humanity, identity, and very existence. We call on the art world to condemn this bullying campaign to dehumanize the Jewish people and deprive them of their rights to equal and full participation. The Jewish presence in the land of Israel is not a provocation. It is an expression of indigeneity. Our freedom to express ourselves in the art community is a civil right that we will not surrender. Jews cannot be bullied into denying their ethnic identity because of the political prejudices and refusal of so-called anti-Israel activists to engage in fact-based conversations.

We demand:

1) Recognition that Jew-hatred is a growing and unacceptable problem which must be confronted.

2) A statement of solidarity against the targeting and boycotting of Jewish and Israeli people in the art world.

We demand a world without Jew-hatred, in which the arts are open to all, and in which society flourishes from the shared artistic expression of every community, without exclusion.

Sincerely,

#ENDJEWHATRED IN ART

#ENDJEWHATRED IN ART

SIGN THE LETTER

#ENDJEWHATRED IN ART

#ENDJEWHATRED IN ART

SIGN THE LETTER

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