**UPDATE** SWC Welcomes Congress Call for federal probe of nefarious anti-Jewish “mapping project”

June 22, 2022

June 23, 2020 UPDATE TO THIS STORY:

Officials at the national anti-Israel movement known as BDS have disavowed  the nefarious “Boston Mapping Project” acknowledging its implicit call to violence against Jews. 

The map of the Greater Boston Area, which includes names and addresses of many Jewish organizations, “indirectly advocates for armed resistance” against Jewish groups, said Mahmoud Nawajja, general coordinator of the BDS National Committee, which controls the movement advocating for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

Promoting the map “… inadvertently but gratuitously opens the door widely for the eager Israeli lobby to intensify to unprecedented levels its legal warfare (lawfare), smears and bullying against the movement,” Nawajja wrote in a letter to BDS Boston, a local group of anti-Israel activists, that promotion of the map would cause a backlash against the BDS movement.

BDS Boston responded that it “continues to feel that the Mapping Project is an important source of information and useful organization tool,” but added it was not directly affiliated with the map, which included addresses for a Jewish day school and synagogue.

“We urge that federal law enfocement authorities pursue a full investigation of those behind the mapping project to make sure the Jewish people, its organizations, synagogues and schools do not become targets in Massachusetts or any other state in America,” said Rabbi Eric J. Greenberg, SWC’s Director of United Nations Relations and Strategic Partnerships.    

 

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center welcomed action by a bipartisan group of Congress members who urged Attorney General Merrick Garland and top federal law enforcement officials to investigate a nefarious initiative known as the “Boston Mapping Project” that targets Jewish institutions for violence. 

“We fear that this map may be used as a roadmap for violent attacks by supporters of the BDS movement against the people and entities listed therein,” said the letter from 37 House members to Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. 

“We ask that you investigate the use of the Mapping Project by extremist organizations, provide any necessary enhanced security for targets listed in the Project, and work with social media companies and internet service providers to prevent its further distribution.”

“At a time of dangerously rising violent antisemitism in the United States, we welcome this congressional call to investigate this nefarious project by an anonymous group of BDS supporters that targets Jewish institutions in Massachusetts, including schools and synagogues,” said Rabbi Eric J. Greenberg SWC Director of United Nations Relations and Strategic Partnerships. 

“This heinous project amounts to a roadmap for antisemitic hate crimes and demonizes American Jews for supporting the State of Israel,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC’s Director of Global Action. 

Cooper and Greenberg explained that the map lists hundreds of names and addresses of Jewish organizations to be “disrupted and dismantled.” The map also lists non-Jewish organizations, media, police and other groups, implying a conspiracy among them with the purpose of “disrupting and dismantling” Boston’s Jewish community and institutions.   

“This must be investigated, stopped and prevented from spreading elsewhere,” they said. “The Simon Wiesenthal Center pledges to work with local and national elected officials and law enforcement to assist in any way we can.”  

The congressional letter was organized by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Don Bacon (R-NE) and includes 29 Democratic and eight Republican signatories.

For further information contact the Center’s Communications department at pressinquiries@wiesenthal.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).