(Jewish Group) Sunrise: DC chapter's singling out of Jewish groups is 'antisemitic and unacceptable'

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6. 'This is what bigotry looks like' -- Jewish groups react to national Sunrise Movement statement

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Two days after the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Sunrise Movement, a powerful environmental advocacy group, announced it would not join a voting rights coalition due to the presence of “Zionist organizations,” the national Sunrise Movement released a statement condemning antisemitism and “anti-Palestinian racism” but did not condemn the Washington chapter’s decision, drawing ire from Jewish leaders.

“Many allies, Jewish leaders and climate activists reached out and gave the Sunrise Movement every opportunity to clean this up. And they made it worse,” said Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC), the movement’s political and legislative arm.

His tone marks a sharp departure from the RAC’s original posture toward Sunrise DC, when Pesner issued a statement that did not mention Sunrise DC by name or address whether its stance was antisemitic.

“No other community faces a litmus test for entry. That’s what bigotry looks like,” Pesner added in his comments to Jewish Insider yesterday. “Sometimes people in the progressive movement have trouble understanding the truth of antisemitism, and we need them to get it right. Especially for those of us who literally spend our lives and put our bodies on the line for civil and human rights.”