To My Jewish Cousins
To my Jewish cousins (If you don’t know why I call you cousin, read up on Sarah’s and Hagar’s sons),
I wish you Shana Tova. For the 16th year, I had the honor of celebrating Yom Kippur with Sholem, a secular community, where I was a guest lead singer for the song “Peace, Salam, Shalom.” And though this may be just once a year, the values I sing about in this song are those that I strive to live out on a daily basis.
Because here are some simple truths about me - I do not tolerate intolerance. I do not tolerate hate. I was raised with pluralistic Islamic values, values that are reflected in both my personal life and the work I do at MPV.
For two decades I’ve worked for the common good of humanity and all those who encompass it, showing up in solidarity for various causes including reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ rights, the separation of church and state, against child/forced marriages and FGM/C. Much of this work was done in solidarity with diverse faith communities, including those from the Jewish tradition, which leads me to this question:
What is it about mainstream Jewish organizations, like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and their unwavering commitment to funding and supporting Islamophobia and anti-Muslim rhetoric, especially during election seasons?
Given how rampant anti-Semitism is, do you think your promotion of hate speech against American Muslims and Islam makes the Jewish people safer?
Here’s a speaker at the American Jewish Summit in Los Angeles on August 30, 2026, whose vile remarks (full video on Instagram) included the following:
“I, as an American, I, as a tax payer, I don’t want Muslims in America. Get the f**k out of the United States….” (to laughter and applause) “...When you identify yourself as a Muslim, you immediately pose an existential threat to me and I have the right to react to you accordingly.”
Can you imagine if a Muslim organization hosted a speaker who promoted physical harm against American Jews in a hate-filled speech? Without a doubt, all Muslim organizations would be held accountable, in the very same way Muslims were after 9-11, guilty unless proven otherwise. And yet, most mainstream Jewish organizations have been silent on the matter. Mayor Karen Bass and Senator Adam Schiff condemned the hateful speech but had no words of condemnation for the organizers or their sponsors.
Meanwhile, despite opposition from the California Teachers Association, Governor Newson signed a bill establishing a politically appointed anti-Semitism Czar for the California Schools’ Office of Civil Rights, which already has a Religious Discrimination Prevention Coordinator. In a climate where anti-Zionism is conflated with anti-Semitism, where teachers who educate their students about the genocide in Gaza are disciplined or fired, and where the Los Angeles Public Library cancelled Read Palestine Week, we need to call out what’s uncomfortably obvious - there is an orchestrated effort by mainstream Jewish and Christian Nationalist institutions to promote fear and hate of Muslims and Islam. This is, of course, not new. It started in the aftermath of 9-11, and after abating for some years, returned in October 2023 with vengeance, fueled by the Trump administration, and the Congress’ delusional “Anti-Sharia Caucus."
In Texas, a school board run by Christian nationalists voted to incorporate vilifying narratives about Islam in school textbooks, which are not only historically inaccurate but also disregard the Muslim world’s contribution to math, science, literature, and higher education You can read about that here.
And this brings me to my next question.
Why are you not using your political might, your traditions of justice and anti-oppression, to squash this bigotry? Surely you would do so if it was the Jewish tradition being manipulated in such a denigrating way, yes? So what is stopping you from defending your Muslim cousins and their faith?
Here in Los Angeles, the entertainment industry is also guilty of bowing to Islamophobia. So many Muslims and allies were fired, had contracts revoked, or were dropped by their agents and management for condemning Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Susan Sarandon and Macklemore are prominent examples, but the scope goes so much further, impacting the lives and livelihoods of artists and creatives who don’t have the name recognition to protect them from financial ruin. Tom Cruise went into his agent’s office and warned them if they fired his agent, a Muslim, he would leave the agency. So they demoted her and made her go through an ‘anti-Semitism’ training with… ADL.
On a podcast I did with Rabbi David Ingbert in New York, he brought up the subject of anti-Semitism to which I responded, “it is my responsibility to stamp out anti-Semitism within my Muslim community, and it is your responsibility to stamp out anti-Muslim sentiment in yours.”
May we have the moral courage to hold our siblings in faith accountable to live out the sacred teachings of inclusivity, acceptance, and justice, intrinsic in our shared faith traditions.
Onward and upward…
Ani Zonneveld
President & Founder of Muslims for Progressive Values