RFI’s Ismail Royer testified this week at a briefing of the New Jersey Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR). The briefing was part of a project of the Committee to examine different perspectives on what constitutes antisemitism and on preventing a culture of antisemitism from taking root in academic institutions as well as in New Jersey communities.

This week’s briefing focused on the potential civil liberties implications of the adoption by federal and state governments of a specific definition of antisemitism. Royer testified alongside Nadine Strossen, New York Law School Professor Emerita and Senior Fellow at FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression).

In his testimony, Royer argued that while laws form the guardrails of society that, if crossed, impose civil or criminal liability, our true aim as Americans should be to cultivate the virtue of civic friendship, which obviates the reliance on law for the safeguarding of the people’s rights. 

Royer cited Aristotle: “When men are friends they have no need of justice, and while when they are just they need friendship as well.” He then turned to the related admonition of Jewish and Muslim religious literature to want for one’s neighbor what one wants for oneself, which aims at cultivating a civic friendship that goes beyond the mere requirements of the law. Royer cited the Jewish concept of chesed, which he defined as overflowing kindness going beyond the letter of the law, as another virtue conducing to such a friendship. And he quoted Raghib al-Isfahani, a classical Islamic scholar, who wrote:

One of the causes of order in the affairs of people is love, and then justice: for if people love one another and work together with love, they have no need for justice. Thus it is said: justice is the substitute of love when love is absent.

Royer then argued that the acrimonious relationship between large segments of the American Muslim and Jewish communities has been an obstacle to civic friendship. A condition for moving beyond this state of affairs, he said, is an honest self-reflection by Muslims as to how much of their past and present advocacy for the rights of Palestinians has been inflected by perceived and real antisemitism. This has not only undermined the credibility of their cause and their community, it has contributed to rising antisemitism and the increasing polarization of American society.

Royer advised that he was not endorsing any specific definition of antisemitism, and he acknowledged the potential danger to civil liberties that overly-broad definitions might pose. But the furtherance of true civic friendship, he said, requires Muslims advocating for justice for the Palestinian people to eschew antisemitism and to recognize the reality of Jewish suffering and persecution, the religious and national centrality of the Holy Land and the modern State of Israel to many or most Jews, and the degree to which American Muslim advocacy for Palestinian rights has been perceived as antisemitic by many American Jews.

The New Jersey Advisory Committee Chair states that the aim of this project is to ensure that the USCCR is advised of antisemitism in the State of New Jersey. Based on the briefing record and references, the Committee will submit a report to the USCCR which will include both findings and recommendations. The report may include recommendations to the USCCR for federal policy and statutory changes, which might be helpful for the citizens of New Jersey and policy makers as they consider how to improve issues related to antisemitism in the State of New Jersey.

Committee Chair Robert George said, “The testimony we receive in these briefings will inform our understanding of the definition of antisemitism. It will also help us to think about how to combat anti-Jewish bias and animus while honoring the constitutional right to freedom of speech. We invite interested members of the public to attend and share their perspectives during the public comment session.”

The USCCR was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Established as an independent, bipartisan, fact-finding federal agency, its mission is to inform the development of national civil rights policy and enhance enforcement of federal civil rights laws. The commission pursues this mission by studying alleged deprivations of voting rights and alleged discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the administration of justice.

Watch the entire briefing here.