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March 12th, 2022 
Awake Goy 
We are a group of Illinois rabbis and cantors who are part of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, a national Jewish organization representing over 2,300 rabbis and cantors across the country.
We were deeply disappointed when Illinois passed SB 1761 in 2015, part of the worrisome wave of anti-democratic laws that have swept across the nation penalizing companies that endorse the non-violent call of Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel. And, we are fundamentally concerned with the Illinois Investment Policy Board‘s decisions on divestment based on that law.
Some of us who are signatories on this letter support BDS, and others do not. Many of us make a clear distinction between boycotting products from or sales in the Occupied West Bank and in Israel proper, a distinction that even the Jewish United Fund of Chicago has made in its decision not to invest beyond the “Green Line.” We all believe, however, in the freedom to exercise a non-violent, economic boycott in the pursuit of justice.
Most recently, we object to the IIPB’s December vote to divest from Unilever because its subsidiary, Ben & Jerry’s, decided not to sell ice cream in the Occupied Territories. In doing so, the State of Illinois is recognizing Israeli sovereignty over disputed land that not even the State of Israel acknowledges. And to consider punishing an American company, Morningstar, for its subsidiary’s rating scale – a scale evenly applied to many countries with respect to human rights – is to go beyond the purview of the law. Given these attempts to define the parameters of SB 1761 so loosely, the IIPB’s actions appear to us to be poor application of a bad law.
Our tradition declares “Justice, justice shall you pursue,” (Deut. 16:20) insisting on justice for those with whom we disagree as much as for those with whom we sympathize. We find the IIPB’s punitive actions against companies exercising their free speech rights to engage in boycott to be patently unjust. As recently stated by T’ruah: “A true commitment to the First Amendment requires us to defend the principles of free speech even, and especially, when we find it objectionable or offensive.”
Therefore, we call on the Illinois Investment Pension Board not to punish people and businesses that support BDS or engage in boycotts. In the United States of America, our consciences, like our practice of religion, should be free from State control.
Rabbi Ilana Axel, Buffalo Grove, Illinois
Rabbi Aryeh Bernstein, Chicago, IL
Rabbi Andrea London, Beth Emet The Free Synagogue, Evanston, IL
Rabbi Michael Davis, Hebrew Seminary, Skokie, IL
Rabbi Bruce Elder, Congregation Hakafa, Glencoe, IL
Rabbi Laurence Edwards, Chicago, IL
Rabbi Sam Gordon, Congregation Sukkat Shalom, Wilmette, IL
Rabbi Maralee Gordon, Woodstock, Illinois
Rabbi Suzanne Griffel, Chicago, IL
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann, Mishkan Chicago, Chicago, IL
Rabbi Rachel S. Mikva, Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL
Rabbi Max Weiss, Oak Park Temple B’nai Abraham Zion, Oak Park, IL
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