A protester outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. Photo by Michel Porro/Getty Images

By Louis Keene January 17, 2024

An employee of a Jewish social justice organization sent a public call for a cease-fire on Martin Luther King Day to the group’s listserv without authorization before abruptly quitting, the group’s leaders said Wednesday.

Some who received the email from the group, JOIN for Justice, which trains Jewish clergy and other communal leaders on social justice advocacy, were taken aback by the subject line: “ALL HANDS ON DECK – ceasefire now!” The nonprofit had previously remained neutral on the Israel-Hamas war.

JOIN for Justice has spent decades training leaders across Jewish denominations to organize for causes like racial justice and women’s rights. The cease-fire email ran more than 500 words and invoked the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to encourage the group’s alumni to deploy their training to “stop the genocide in Gaza.” It was signed, “The team at JOIN.”

“If you haven’t yet lifted your voice and utilized your resources for Palestine, we hope you will do so now,” the email said. “And for the many JOIN alumni and partners who have urged us to do this for so long: we apologize, and we thank you.”

Using the language of the anti-Zionist left, it added: “Ignoring the inherent violence of colonialism has been challenging, and for years we succeeded.”

About 90 minutes later, members of the listserv received a second email, this one signed by JOIN’s executive directors, Jess Greenblatt Seeley and Meir Lakein, “If you received an email from us earlier today, please know it was unauthorized. Thank you and our apologies for the confusion.”

Seeley, Lakein and the nonprofit’s board co-chairs provided a more detailed explanation on Wednesday, saying in yet another email to the listserv that an employee had “unilaterally, without letting any board or staff members know,” written the Jan. 15 email “and sent it out under our names. And then immediately quit.” They did not name the employee, say how long they had been working at the organization.

The Wednesday email said that Lakein, other staff members, and JOIN alumni had lost loved ones on Oct. 7 and in the ensuing war.

“It’s important to note that the tactic of sending out an unauthorized email in our names has honestly set back our work, and we would hope that the people we train know this,” the letter added. “Whatever the intent, the email had the effect of belittling people who disagreed rather than rallying people together — the opposite of the relational approach we teach.”

Wednesday’s letter also said the group had been working with a consultant to figure out how best to train people on navigating the war and broader conflict.

In an message to the Forward on Thursday, Seeley wrote that the initial letter had received “all kinds of reactions — some were shocked at the unauthorized email and glad to see our immediate explanation, and some were cheered by the initial email and wished that was our position.”

“We are organizers who train organizers and sometimes we expect that we’ll get organized, and we welcome that,” Seeley added. “But we also hope our people have learned that compassionate, relational organizing is the approach we believe in, especially in situations like these.”

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