Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., a lifelong Democrat and civil rights advocate, is sounding the alarm over what he calls a dangerous virus spreading within his own party: the systematic targeting of Jewish Americans through donor tracking efforts. In a stark op-ed, Chavis draws on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who warned decades ago that silence in the face of rising antisemitism and racism is a betrayal of the coalition that advanced civil rights.
Chavis, who leads the National Newspaper Publishers Association and co-chairs the Black-Jewish Action Alliance, argues that the Democratic Party is tolerating a campaign that singles out pro-Israel donors, including those affiliated with AIPAC and even the dovish J Street. He calls this effort, spearheaded by a group called Track AIPAC, a de facto registry that threatens to drive Jewish Americans out of political participation. “That should sound alarm bells as it exposes the effort is targeted at Jewish Americans. Effectively creating a list of who is a good Jew and who is a bad Jew,” Chavis writes.
The controversy echoes broader concerns about democratic erosion. A recent AP-NORC poll found that two-thirds of Americans see voting rights under threat ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary. Chavis connects the tracking of Jewish donors to historical patterns of racial profiling that have long targeted Black communities. “Black America has its own history with lists—with the government and private actors tracking who we were, who we gave money to, and what organizations we belonged to or allegedly affiliated. We called it what it was: racial profiling and intimidation,” he notes.
Chavis also points to the case of Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who faced criticism over a Nazi tattoo. He questions why some party leaders offer excuses for Platner’s tattoo while condemning similar symbols of hate. “Would the same parade of voices coming to Platner’s defense be doing so if he had a KKK tattoo? What’s the difference?” he asks, highlighting what he sees as a double standard in confronting antisemitism versus other forms of bigotry.
The tracking campaign, Chavis argues, is part of a gradual normalization of antisemitism. “It arrived as anti-Zionism, then as anti-Israel sentiment, then as willingness to embrace those who celebrate terrorism against Jews, then as systematic targeting of Jewish donors, and now as the punishment of Jewish officials who dared enforce rules equally,” he writes. He warns that if the party does not protect Jewish Americans with the same clarity it protects other minorities, the coalition that has fought for civil rights will crumble.
The broader political landscape underscores these tensions. Black representation in the House is set to plummet after a Supreme Court ruling and retirements, while debates over history and identity continue to divide the nation. Chavis’s call for unity between Black and Jewish Americans is a direct challenge to those who would let the issue fester. “If Jewish Americans, Black Americans and others are not protected from profiling, scapegoating, from registries, and from being driven out of their own party—with the same reflexive clarity we’d bring to protecting any other community—then our coalition is not what we say it is,” he concludes.
