Rafi Lehmann
Overview
Rafi Lehmann protested pro-Israel Sabbath events on the campus of Princeton University (Princeton), as well as against the Birthright Jewish heritage tour (Birthright).He also defended U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar after she was denounced for making anti-Semitic remarks.
As of July 2019, Lehmann was the President of the Alliance of Jewish Progressives (AJP), a campus group that often hosts events with the Princeton University Committee on Palestine (PCP), the official chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Princeton.
AJP also reportedly “partner(s) with other left-wing Jewish organizations like Bend the Arc and IfNotNow (INN).”
Lehmann was chosen as a Bronfman Fellow in 2014 and spent that summer in Israel completing his fellowship.
As of July 2019, Lehmann’s LinkedIn page said he was a student at Princeton, studying History, slated to graduate in 2020.
Protesting Pro-Israel Sabbath Events
On April 5, 2017, Lehmann and AJP hosted a Sabbath dinner called: “#NotOurShabbat,” as a “retaliatory event” against “Israel Shabbat, put on by Israel advocacy group Tigers for Israel (TFI).”Israel Shabbat was part of the Center for Jewish Life’s (CJL) Israel Week, designed to “celebrate Israel as a Jewish and democratic state” through a week of events. AJP opposed Israel Shabbat because AJP’s leaders reportedly felt “it failed to acknowledge Israel’s occupation of the West Bank or mention Palestinians.”
Lehmann co-authored an open letter to the Daily Princetonian, in opposition to Israel Shabbat, calling upon “the Princeton community to abstain from attending the event
Lehmann admitted that CJL tried to accommodate AJP concerns by hosting a separate dinner, but Lehmann and AJP refused “because we reject the notion that our voices are alternative.”
Lehmann denied that Israel Shabbat was apolitical and charged every person attending Shabbat dinner with making “a political act.”
The pro-Israel Jewish group met with Lehmann’s AJP group to discuss alternatives, like holding discussion groups during or after the dinner, which the AJP refused. Instead, AJP gave “the CJL less than 24 hours to fundamentally change or cancel the event, or face a disparaging campaign against Israel Shabbat.”
Lehmann hosted a November 6, 2017 event meant to protest a CJL event featuring then-Israeli Member of Knesset Tzipi Hotovely, who was scheduled to speak on campus.
Lehmann pressured the CJL to cancel with the Israeli speaker. The Facebook description of Lehmann’s event referred to Hotovely as “racist” and said that her speech was “part of a propaganda tour” of American universities.
On November 7, 2017, Lehmann shared an AJP letter of protest on Facebook and encouraged others to sign. The letter was signed by members of AJP, as well as the campus SJP group, PCP. Hotovely was reportedly in the middle of a U.S. campus tour meant to combat the growing influence of BDS in American universities.
After the event was canceled by Hillel, Lehmann insisted he and AJP “never meant to get the event canceled, or to prevent Hotovely from speaking at Princeton.”
However, he maintained on his event’s Facebook page that “We will come together as a campus community to protest her talk,” after both the event’s sponsor and location were changed.
Lehmann changed the name of the event to demonize the campus Chabad house after they stepped in to sponsor the event, from “CJL-Sponsored Hatred” to “Urgent: Stand Against Chabad-Sponsored Hatred.”
AJP also reportedly “sent a series of emails to residential colleges, eating clubs, and other student groups protesting the event and urging students who disagreed with MK Hotovely’s right-wing views to sign a letter of protest.” Group members also “protested outside the event before it began.”
AJP released a letter commending CJL for canceling the event and sought to “reaffirm that the CJL made the right decision in choosing not to sponsor Hotovely’s talk.”
The president of Hillel International subsequently apologized to Hotovely for the CJL’s actions, explaining that “there must not be an internal boycott against Israeli representatives.”
Protesting Birthright
On April 5, 2019, Lehmann attended an INN protest the group held at Birthright Israel’s headquarters in NYC. The demonstration was called: “Birthright: It's Time to Choose - Us or the Donors?”The event’s Facebook description said that “hundreds” of young Jews...will converge on Birthright’s headquarters to give them one final chance to choose between the demands of INN members and their current policy.”
INN activists reportedly chanted outside of Birthright headquarters, linked arms and blocked entrances to the building. Fifteen activists were arrested [01:21:07] for refusing to move after ignoring [00:24:30] multiple warnings [00:49:33] by local [00:52:02] police.
On April 29, 2019, the AJP posted a photo to Facebook featuring Lehmann in the center with the caption “Princetonians know that it’s time for Hillel to #BreakUpWithBirthright #WeAreTheJewishFuture!” Both hashtags are slogans from the INN campaign against Birthright.
Defending Ilhan Omar
On March 5, 2019, Lehmann shared to Facebook a link to an INN petition opposing a resolution to “condemn” Congresswoman Ilhan Omar for anti-Semitic comments.Lehmann commented: “Confronting antisemitism also means confronting wrongful/weaponized accusations of antisemitism. Please consider signing this petition in defense of Rep. Ilhan Omar.”
Ilhan Omar was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2018. In February 2019, top Congressional leaders denounced Omar for tweeting anti-Semitic remarks.Omar has demonized Israel and endorsed BDS. In July 2019, Omar introduced a pro-BDS resolution in the U.S. Congress, which she described as “an opportunity for us to explain why it is we support…the BDS movement.”
Anti-Israel Activism
On October 17, 2019, Lehmann gave an interview to student magazine “The Prog,” where he said the mission of the AJP is in “raising awareness about the moral disaster of the Israeli Occupation and our Jewish community’s complicity in it.”On April 3, 2019, Lehmann was featured in a photo posted on Facebook by AJP, tabling for the group on campus. In the photo, Lehmann held up a sign that said: “Ask us about the occupation” and was seated behind an anti-Israel graphic, known as “The Map That Lies.”
The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” were purportedly stolen by Israel. In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college textbook containing the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, American cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.
Lehmann indicated on Facebook that he “went” to a March 30, 2019 event called: “Palestine Teach-In: Cultural Production as Indigenous Resistance,” hosted by PCP. The teach-in featured speakers including a contributor from the anti-Israel publication, Mondoweiss and Dareen Tatour.
In October 2015, Tatour was placed under house arrest for incitement to violence and for support of a terrorist organization on social media. Tatour had supported the terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and posted to Facebook: “I am the next shahid [martyr].”
IfNotNow (INN)
IfNotNow (INN) is an anti-Israel organization founded in 2014, in response to Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) against Hamas.
INN claims to be “young Jews angered by the overwhelmingly hawkish response of American Jewish institutions” to OPE. INN presents three demands on its website: “Stop the War on Gaza, End the Occupation, and Freedom and Dignity for All.”
INN defines “the Occupation as the military rule over Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza,” which is land Israel has controlled for nearly 50 years since the 1967 Six-Day War. However, INN leaders have made [00:34:32] the claim [00:13:49] at protests that the occupation is 70 years long, referring to Israel’s founding in 1948.
INN actions have aimed to demonize [00:38:13] Israel, harass [00:05:44] mainstream American Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and decrease support for Israel among American Jews.
INN has used “public action and imaginative ritual” to achieve its goals, including disruptions where activists were arrested.
One of the high-profile arrests occurred at a May 2018 disruption at a U.S. Senator’s office in Washington, D.C. to protest legislation against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
At the same incident, INN used [00:07:17] the Jewish ritual of the Mourner’s Kaddish prayer to mourn [00:09:10] protesters who were killed during the Hamas-organized and funded Great March of Return riots on the Israel-Gaza border.
INN activists have also staged and promoted walk-offs from Birthright Israel trips, a heritage trip to Israel for young Jewish adults from across the world.
INN claims to be “young Jews angered by the overwhelmingly hawkish response of American Jewish institutions” to OPE. INN presents three demands on its website: “Stop the War on Gaza, End the Occupation, and Freedom and Dignity for All.”
INN defines “the Occupation as the military rule over Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza,” which is land Israel has controlled for nearly 50 years since the 1967 Six-Day War. However, INN leaders have made [00:34:32] the claim [00:13:49] at protests that the occupation is 70 years long, referring to Israel’s founding in 1948.
INN actions have aimed to demonize [00:38:13] Israel, harass [00:05:44] mainstream American Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and decrease support for Israel among American Jews.
INN has used “public action and imaginative ritual” to achieve its goals, including disruptions where activists were arrested.
One of the high-profile arrests occurred at a May 2018 disruption at a U.S. Senator’s office in Washington, D.C. to protest legislation against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
At the same incident, INN used [00:07:17] the Jewish ritual of the Mourner’s Kaddish prayer to mourn [00:09:10] protesters who were killed during the Hamas-organized and funded Great March of Return riots on the Israel-Gaza border.
INN activists have also staged and promoted walk-offs from Birthright Israel trips, a heritage trip to Israel for young Jewish adults from across the world.
INN claims to take no position on the BDS movement and that it is “open to any who seek to shift the American Jewish public away from the status quo that upholds the Occupation.” However, INN organizes with pro-BDS, anti-Israel organizations including American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/100000205261501Twitter:https://twitter.com/rafiylehmann [Private]
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafi-lehmann-581708122/
