Americans for Peace Now, a nonprofit whose stated aim is to help find a political solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is refusing a request from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of
antisemitism.
In a letter, which Haaretz obtained a copy of, the nonprofit’s leaders
told the umbrella organization representing 51 national Jewish groups that while they support “joint action
to confront antisemitism,” they “strongly believe that the IHRA Working Definition is the
wrong vehicle for such action.”
When it comes to “labeling people and entities as antisemitic,” wrote APN president and CEO Hadar Susskind, and
the group’s board chair, Jim Klutznick, to COP leaders, the Conference would be better served “using a scalpel
rather than a bulldozer. The broad-brush approach that the IHRA Working Definition suggests does not serve well
the cause of fighting antisemitism or the interest of the Conference of Presidents.”