Jewish Voice for Peace

The group “unequivocally oppose[s] Zionism.” ¹ This stance has put it at odds with other left-of-center Jewish groups, notably the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which has taken to tracking its activities together with those of other anti-Israel groups, such as the radical-left Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). ADL claims that JVP campus chapters “work closely with SJP” and that JVP “strenuously advocates for the eradication of … a connection to Israel from the lives of Jews worldwide.” ² The right-of-center Zionist Organization of America has also attacked JVP for its apparent ties to radical pro-Palestine groups, as well as for including notable far-left anti-Israel activists such as Judith Butler and Noam Chomsky on its advisory board. ³

Background

Jewish Voice for Peace is an organization highly critical of the state of Israel. It explicitly seeks to create “a wedge” within the American Jewish community to weaken broader American support for Israel. ⁴

The organization’s position toward the existence of Israel as a Jewish state is hostile: In 2017, the organization produced a booklet, Confronting Zionism; A Collection of Personal Stories featuring 13 JVP members writing about their change of heart from supporting to opposing Zionism. ⁵ In 2019, the group adopted a declaration that says, “Jewish Voice for Peace is guided by a vision of justice, equality and freedom for all people. We unequivocally oppose Zionism because it is counter to those ideals.” ¹

The organization states “The United States must stop supporting repressive policies in Israel and elsewhere,” and that “U.S. military aid to Israel must be suspended until the occupation ends.” ⁶

Activities

Opposition to Mainstream Jewish Organizations

The organization launched a “return the birthright” campaign to push younger Jews to boycott Birthright Israel, which offers free first-time trips to Israel for Jewish students around the world. ⁵

JVP targeted a number of mainstream Jewish organizations including the left-of-center Anti-Defamation League as part of its “Stop the Deadly Exchange” campaign. The campaign targets U.S. cities that have police officer exchange programs with Israeli cities and the mainstream Jewish groups that facilitate them. ⁵

The group produced a video in which the narrator says: “Who is making this deadly exchange possible? The main groups are actually U.S.-based Jewish organizations. … Who’s going on these exchanges? Officers who lead police departments that brutalize black and brown communities.” ⁵ In 2019, JVP claimed to have collected 21,823 signatures calling on the Anti-Defamation League to end its police exchange program with Israel. ⁷

Durham, North Carolina, canceled its exchange program after demands from JVP, which blamed the program for racial profiling in both countries. ⁸

Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions

The JVP is a strong advocate of the movement to boycott, divest from and impose sanctions on Israel, also known as the BDS movement. The group has encouraged universities, colleges and Christian churches to endorse the BDS movement. ⁵

Prior to 2015, Jewish Voice for Peace professed that it only supported boycotts of Israeli settlements in territories controlled by Israel after the 1967 Six-Day War. Since that time, the group has endorsed a boycott of all of Israel. ⁵

JVP participated in a “block the boat” demonstration to prevent Israeli cargo from coming into Oakland, displaying the logo, “Zionism isn’t welcome in our town.” ⁵

#NoKings Protests

In June 2025, Jewish Voice for Peace participated in organizing or supporting protests branded under the “#NoKings” banner, a national day of demonstrations positioned as a defense of democratic norms against Donald Trump. These events were part of a larger mobilization involving over 70 Democratic Party affiliates and allied organizations across at least 19 U.S. states and multiple international locations, according to publicly available event listings on Mobilize.us, a Democratic Party-aligned organizing platform. ^{9 10}

Focus on Election Advocacy

As of July 2025, Jewish Voice for Peace is restructuring to focus its advocacy on supporting specific policy proposals as well as the campaigns for specific candidates running for office. A statement released by the organization reads “The U.S. government has not budged from its commitment to sponsor Israel’s genocide. Public polling and public displays of opposition alone will not shift U.S. policy. Our movement must contend for real power.” ¹¹

“No Wars, No Kings, No ICE” 2026 Demonstrations

In January 2026, a coalition of organizations and nonprofits organized a protest in New York City titled “No Wars, No Kings, No ICE,” to demonstrate against the Second Trump Administration, U.S Military Action in Venezuela, and operations conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These included the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) NYC, Rise and Resist, The People’s Forum, Federal Unionists Network, Jewish Voice for Peace NYC, Target Majority, Common Defense, Indivisible Brooklyn, Our Time, 50501, and the Brooklyn Resisters. Other groups that took part in similar protests in the city around January 2026 include the national DSA organization, the Revolutionary Internationalist Youth from the City University of New York, the International Communist League, Indivisible, and Refuse Fascism. ^{12 13}

Funding

In 2021, Jewish Voice for Peace received nearly $3.9 million in contributions and grants. That year, the organization’s expenses were just over $2.6 million, and its net assets totaled just under $3.2 million. ¹⁴ The organization’s 501(c)(4) political action arm received more than $580,000 worth of contributions in 2021 and held net assets of just under $460,000. ¹⁵

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is most notable identified funder of Jewish Voice for Peace. ⁵ The Fund provided a two-year, $140,000 grant to Jewish Voice for Peace in 2017, after Fund director Nicholas Burns resigned from Rockefeller in protest of funding BDS-supporting organizations. ¹⁶

JVP has also received significant funding from the Open Society Network of billionaire left-wing activist financier George Soros, especially through his leading grantmaking organization, the Open Society Foundations. Since 2016, JVP has received at least $650,000 from philanthropic entities connected to Soros. ¹⁷

JVP has also received large grants from the donor-advised fund Schwab Charitable; donor-advised funds allow donors to hide the ultimate destinations of their contributions from public disclosure. ¹⁸ Other identified JVP contributors include the Firedoll Foundation, the Tides Foundation, and the Kaphan Foundation. ¹⁹

Controversies

Anti-Semitism

Jewish Voice for Peace regularly defends statements by left-wing and anti-Israel public figures that mainstream figures consider anti-Semitic. JVP defended U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) with a social media campaign of #IStandWithIlhan⁵ amid a fury over a Tweet in which Omar wrote, “Israel has hypnotized the world”²⁰ that culminated in the passage of a resolution denouncing “hate” by the U.S. House of Representatives. ²¹

Jewish Voice for Peace likewise objected to Britain’s Jewish newspapers that were critical of far-left Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and defended the national Women’s March organizations after liberal groups began abandoning the March in protest of the controversial leaders of the March having made anti-Semitic comments. ⁵

JVP hosted a Shabbat with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) after she refused to travel to Israel. Both Tlaib and the JVP have expressed support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions approach to coercing Israel. ²² JVP has praised Tlaib as a “hero for justice.” ²³

Alignment with Palestinian Extremism

The group criticizes military action from Israel and does not condemn Palestinian terrorism. JVP Board of Directors member Phyllis Bennis said of Palestinian violence: “The problem is that if you just stop the violence you would not have justice.” ⁵

Jewish Voice for Peace hosted convicted Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist Rasmea Odeh as a speaker at its 2017 national conference. Odeh, who was convicted for involvement (that she denies) in a 1969 bombing of a Jerusalem supermarket, was stripped of U.S. citizenship after it emerged that she had failed to disclose the Israeli conviction on her citizenship application materials. ²⁴

JVP faced backlash in 2020 for a now-deleted tweet in which the organization celebrated the 33rd anniversary of the first intifada, a Palestinian uprising characterized by widespread protests, civil disobedience, and resistance against Israeli occupation. ²⁵ The tweet included a poster that featured the phrase “where there is oppression, may there thrive resistance,” along with the expression “L’chaim intifada” at the bottom, signifying “long live the intifada.” ²⁵ In March 2022, the organization’s twitter page shared a series of nine posts, expressing criticism towards Israel’s policies concerning Jewish Ukrainian refugees who sought refuge from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, claiming that, “Israel is giving Jewish Ukrainians citizenship not out of kindness and generosity, but rather to cement a Jewish demographic majority in Palestine. ²⁶

In April 2023, JVP became part of a coalition consisting of 104 civil society organizations that called upon the United Nations to condemn antisemitism and implement measures aimed at safeguarding Jewish communities. ²⁷

2023 Israel-Hamas Conflict

Following the attack on Israeli territory by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in early October 2023 which left at least 1,200 dead, Jewish Voice for Peace released a statement framing the response as “a wave of one-sided media coverage without any context.” The organization also claimed that Israel would attempt to “destroy as many lives as possible” in response, and that American support for Israel would enable this. ²⁸

Later that month, JVP organized a campaign of protests against the Israeli military’s air campaign and anticipated ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, calling for a ceasefire and for a political solution favorable to Palestinian interests. Notably, JVP and its allies staged a large sit-in at Grand Central station in New York City, which led to several hundred protesters being arrested. The organizers claimed that the event was “the largest civil disobedience New York City has seen” in at least two decades. May Ye, a member of the JVP rabbinical council, also issued a statement claiming that “genocide is unfolding in our names.” ^{29 30}

In early November, another member of the JVP rabbinical council, a transgender left-wing rabbi who goes by the name Jessica Rosenberg, appeared at a private fundraising event in Minneapolis, Minnesota which featured President Joe Biden. Rosenberg demanded that President Biden push for a ceasefire before being removed from the venue. ^{31 30}

By 2024, JVP has been involved with organizing pro-Palestinian protests on multiple college universities across the United States, which involve activities such as large-scale demonstrations by students, faculty, and outside organizers; as well as the construction of encampments on college grounds. ³²

In March 2024, JVP advisory board member Judith Butler spoke at a panel in Paris, France hosted by international advocacy group Paroles d’honneur in which she defended the October 7 terrorist attacks against the state of Israel that killed over 1,200 Israelis as “armed resistance.” ³³ Butler also commented on the attacks by claiming, “We can have different views as Hamas as a political party, we can have different views on armed resistance, but I think it is more honest and historically correct to say that the uprising of October 7 was an act of armed resistance…It is not a terrorist attack and it’s not an antisemitic attack, it was an attack against Israelis.” ³³ According to the Jerusalem Post, Butler also voiced her support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to delegitimize the state of Israel, claiming that BDS does not, “target individuals on the basis of nationality, but targeted corporations and institutions complicit with the State of Israel. ³³ Shortly after the speech, she made a blog post in an attempt to clarify her comments, claiming that, “The Hamas attack in October came from the armed faction of a political party that administers Gaza and I remain willing to describe this attack as a form of armed resistance to colonization and the ongoing siege and dispossession. ³³ In addition, her blog post stated, “Feminism, queer mobilization, trans mobilization have to all be in solidarity with Palestine now, because we all suffer from forms of state and regulatory violence that makes our live unlivable or makes us have to fight for our lives.”³³

As of January 2025, JVP was ordered to pay $677,634 after it was discovered that the organization had defrauded the U.S government by signing up for the CARES Act Disaster Relief Program. ³⁴

As of February 2025, international advocacy group StandWithUs released a report titled “JVP:
A Shield for Hate, Not a Voice for Peace” which criticized JVP for being “at the forefront of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign (BDS) in the United States,” ³⁵ for attempting, “to “drive a wedge” within the Jewish community, positioning itself as the “Jewish wing” of the anti-Israel movement,” ³⁵ and helps promote “antisemitic (anti-Jewish) conspiracy theories and works with partners that are connected to antisemitic terrorists.” ³⁵ Claiming the JVP’s primary goal is to ” dismantle the State of Israel,” the report argues that “University administrations, elected officials, and other civil society leaders should reject JVP’s political agenda, hold them accountable for any legal transgressions, and condemn non-Jews who use JVP as a shield to dismiss concerns about antisemitism.” ³⁵

In April 2025, the JVP chapter on George Washington University was suspended through May 2025 due to allegations that the chapter conducted “multiple instances of misconduct, including discriminatory harassment.” ³⁶ The university’s Conflict Education and Student Accountability (CESA) office found that the chapter had hosted an event without advisory approval as well as its social media account sharing a post which created a “hostile environment” for Jewish students on campus. ³⁶ As of August 2025, an anonymous JVP GW chapter member stated the organization would “disaffiliate” from George Washington University but also alleged, “anti-Zionist Jewish students will continue to organize and pressure the university to divest from genocide…” ³⁶

Leadership

Stefanie Fox is the executive director at Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), taking over from Rebecca Vilkomerson in 2020 after the latter departed from the organization in 2019. She has previously worked with JVP starting as an organizer and later progressing to the roles of Co-Director of Organizing, Deputy Director, and Acting Co-Executive Director. ³⁷ Rebecca Vilkomerson is the former JVP executive director, serving with the organization from 2001 through to 2019 when she left the group. She previously lived with her family in Israel from 2006 through 2009. In 2010, Forward named her one of the 50 most influential Jewish American leaders. In 2017, The Jerusalem Post named her one of the 50 most influential Jewish leaders in the world. ³⁸

Grace Lile is the chairwoman of the board of directors at JVP. She previously served as the director of operations at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), an organization known for its stance against war. ³⁹

Jethro Eisenstein was the previous chairman of the board of directors at JVP. He has claimed that the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement “reflects the essence of Judaism,” citing the 1st-century B.C. Jewish scholar Hillel the Elder and his saying that “what is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.” ⁴⁰ He has also described the state of Israel as “a nation that has deprived an indigenous population of the right to vote for the past half-century.” ⁴¹

Linda Holtzman is the vice chairwoman. She is rabbi of the Tikkun Olam Chavurah and is on the regular faculty of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She was previously a rabbi at the Beth Israel in Coatesville, Pa., and was a part-time rabbi at Beth Ahavah, an LGBT-focused congregation in Philadelphia. ³⁸