APT‘s mission is “promoting peaceful coexistence in an ethnically diverse America by educating the American public about the need for a moderate political leadership that supports tolerance and core American values in communities across the nation.”
Jacobs and APT have undertaken many righteous battles both on campuses and elsewhere, some of which have been successful. But the reason Jacobs is on the 2013 Top Twelve list is because of his willingness to come out strong, clear and early on an issue, and then to call out the mainstream organizations who later come out credit claiming for Jacobs’ successes.
A perfect example is Jacobs strong leadership displayed in the face of extreme hostility to Israel by professors and a Muslim chaplain at Northeastern University. The chaplain, Abdullah Faarruq, had been at Northeastern for 15 years. But after a series of videos APT produced and released exposing the chaplain’s terrorist-supporting activity, Faaruq was removed from the position.
Jacobs was pleased, but not yet satisfied. He and his organization continued to expose anti-Israel diatribes and positions espoused by NEU professors.
While Jacobs was pursuing the matter, the mainstream Jewish leadership in Boston remained in the background. For the most part, organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and Hillels prefer building relationships with leaders of offending organizations, in the hopes that quiet diplomacy will eventually help those leaders make better choices.
In an important article, “Israel Apartheid Week – Campus Blood Libel,” Jacobs addressed exactly that kind of methodology, and explained why he finds it flawed.
As if to prove his point, or simply to pour salt in the wounds, the ADL recently took credit for opening the eyes of Northeastern University’s president Joseph Aoun to anti-Semitism on his campus, including the bullying and intimidation of pro-Israel students by NEU professors.
Of course, all the legwork had already been done by Jacobs’ APT and in extensive interviews of students by the Zionist Organization of America. The ZOA then took that information and compiled a thorough, substantive report about the problem. Neither APT nor ZOA were publicly credited by the ADL with their extensive work in bringing to light the NEU anti-Semitism.
So Jacobs and his APT are amongst the pro-Israel bright lights in 2013, refusing to follow in the sha shtill version of quiet diplomacy practiced by so many mainstream Jewish organizations. He may watch glumly as the credit for success is snatched by those same mainstream organizations, but he consistently refuses to back down before either the anti-Semites or the non-leading but self-proclaimed leadership organizations.
Without APT’s videos, interviews and exposes, NEU’s Aoun would have continued ignoring the problem and NEU’s pro-Israel students would have continued to endure rank anti-Semitism and anti-Israel diatribes.
May 2014 bring at least as many pro-Israel bright lights!