‘We must think globally to tackle antisemitism’ says US Jewish leader

It was after the Amsterdam violence against Israeli football fans that Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), decided to schedule a long-overdue visit to Europe.

“It highlighted the need for even greater advocacy from our orgnisation, which has worked so hard to create national plans to counter antisemitism and foster Jewish life across both Europe and the United States,” he says when we meet in a hotel in London (which was also included on his trip).

“It was time to make sure that plans are being implemented, that we are seeing action and not just words. Security is paramount, making sure that there are meaningful concrete steps to effect policies to prevent antisemitic violence. The details may differ from country to country, but those issues are real across Europe.”

Headquartered in the United States but with offices around the world, AJC is a major Jewish advocacy organisation that stands up for Israel’s right to exist in peace and security, confronts antisemitism no matter the source, and upholds the democratic values that unite Jews and our allies.

Ted Deutch, 58, a lawyer who completed 12 years of service as the representative for Florida’s 22nd congressional district in 2022, was appointed to lead the organisation almost exactly a year before the world would change forever on October 7 2023.

“In the immediate aftermath, the community suddenly realised that there was a real vulnerability that we hadn’t acknowledged,” he says. “We knew that antisemitism had been rising for some time, both in Europe and the United States, but there was a sense that the Jewish community could fight it. It presented challenges on social media and in the US there was sometimes violence against the Orthodox, but in terms of the big picture, we trusted the institutions in our country to protect us.

“After October 7, however, we immediately started seeing protests in support of Hamas on campus, marches in New York, across the country and around the world, as well as pockets of violence. We realised that our vulnerability was significant and had to be confronted.”

In the preceding years, there was a certain complacency in some parts of American Jewry that felt that the antisemitism in Europe could never raise its ugly head on the other side of the Atlantic. Nobody has such illusions now. In response, the AJC has redoubled its efforts across the board, renewing attempts to engage in advocacy at the level of government, education, and promoting the belief that Jews deserve protection like anybody else in employment and civil society.

One sticking-point has been the arrest warrants issued for Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in September.

“It is imperative that countries speak out against the way this whole effort went forward,” he says. “It takes international law and turns it on its head, it ignores requirements of international law. We need to highlight this abuse of due process in order to preserve the ICC for those who believe it can be improved.”

This far-reaching vision is characteristic of Deutch, a lifelong Democrat who tends to think in terms of the big picture on the world stage and the granular details in individual communities at once.

“If I had an opportunity to speak to Sir Keir Starmer, I would express gratitude to him for acknowledging how outrageous it is that the ICC has treated a democracy the same as terror organisation,” he says. “But I would also look forward to discussing how the ICC overlooked its own requirements to consider the robustness of the court system in Israel before taking action. That decision alone undermined its authority.”

The ICC is a “recent enough creation”, he adds, to retain the ability to scrutinise its own adherence to the Rome Statute. “In this case, it seems that an entire part of ICC operations has been ignored.”

The father-of-three cautioned against jumping to the conclusion that Britain is some kind of “antisemitic hellhole,” as some in the United States seem to believe. “I recently attended the Labour Friends of Israel lunch which attracted 600 people and many cabinet ministers,” he said, “including the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary. That counts for a lot.

“We in the global Jewish community understandably feel shaken since Oct 7 and we pay very close attention to every attack against our community, everywhere in the world. In both Britain and the United States, there have been large pro-Hamas protests and social media has become filled with antisemitism. Everyone feels like they have experienced it directly.

“At same time, the community has rallied in ways that I have not seen before. Those efforts typically don’t fit well in social media algorithms, so it takes more work to remind people that we have agency. Our job of standing up and defending Israel’s place in the world is significant and when we stand, people stand with us.”

The key to building a united and resilient global Jewish community, he says, is maintaining strong bonds between countries – part of the thinking that led him to take his trip to Europe (especially to Amsterdam).

“We can’t afford to go back to our corners. There are too few of us and those against us are too many,” he says. “We have to work together. What happens in Chicago matters in Paris and what happens in London matters in Mexico City. Our needs are global because the attacks are global. We must redouble our efforts to support each other.”