November 22, 2022
November 21, 2022
Jeff Bezos,
Executive Chair
Andy Jassy,
President and CEO
David Zapolsky,
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
Dear Mr. Bezos, Mr. Jassy, and Mr. Zapolsky,
We, the undersigned, lead organizations representing US Jewish communities. We come together today in one voice to express how disturbed we are that Amazon has not given any indication that it will remove the book and film, Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America, by Ronald Dalton Jr. This virulently antisemitic content has recently received significant attention due to a now-deleted tweet by basketball star Kyrie Irving.
The book and film propagate antisemitic tropes about Jewish power, control and greed, minimize the Holocaust, and allege a global Jewish conspiracy — all of which actively endanger Jewish safety here and now.
After Irving's social media posts, the antisemitic book and film shot to #1 on Amazon's bestsellers list, and a number of the signatories here immediately called for its removal and collectively mobilized tens of thousands of our constituents. While representatives of Amazon initially went so far as to tell the New York Times that you would take action, nothing has happened to date. By continuing to platform this film, and other clearly hateful content, Amazon is knowingly and willingly propagating antisemitism. At a time of rising antisemitism, when incidents in the U.S. reached an all-time high in 2021, Amazon’s failure here is dangerous.
We urge Amazon to remove these products and to conduct a top-to-bottom search of your platform for other similar works that promote antisemitism, racism, white supremacy and hate. Your failure to do so to date has already done harm to the communities we represent.
Sincerely,
Ted Deutch, CEO, American Jewish Committee (AJC)
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO & National Director, Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
Eric Fingerhut, CEO, Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA)
Rabbi David Zwiebel, Executive Vice President, Agudath Israel of America
Herbert Block, Executive Director, American Zionist Movement
Levi Fox, 98th Grand Aleph Godol (International President), Aleph Zadik Aleph, & Avi Gorodetski, 78th International N’siah (International President), B’nai B’rith Girls, BBYO
Rabbi Eric Fusfield, Director of Legislative Affairs, B’nai B’rith International
Elan S. Carr (Former US Special Envoy to Monitor & Combat Anti-Semitism), Combat Antisemitism Movement
Rabbi Eli Cohen, Executive Director, Crown Heights Jewish Council
Deborah Bienenfeld, President, Emunah of America
Rhoda Smolow, President & Naomi Adler, CEO, Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc.
Tammy Gilden, Policy Director, Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Meredith Jacobs, CEO, Jewish Women International
Kenneth L. Marcus, Founder and President, Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law
Mark Levin, CEO, National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry
Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO, Rabbinical Assembly
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President, Union of Reform Judaism
Mort Klein, CEO, Zionist Organization of America
Jodi Bromberg, CEO, 18Doors
