Governor Maura Healey, House Speaker Ron Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka and other top politicians packed a State House room last week to underscore the findings of a task force assigned to combat antisemitism.
What went unmentioned, though, was a parallel effort among business leaders to show their support for the cause. Earlier in the month, around three dozen local executives signed a letter expressing support for the work done by the Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism, reflected in its 73-page report issued on Dec. 1.
The business community engagement on this issue began at roundtable discussions held by two friends, Andrea Silbert of the Eos Foundation and Sandy Lish of the PR firm Castle Group, to discuss antisemitism after the October 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel. (Silbert, who also chairs the Alliance for Business Leadership, got involved as a volunteer and not for Eos.) The aftermath of those attacks also prompted the state Legislature to create the special commission, and the two efforts eventually dovetailed.
Bridging the two was Red Sox executive David Friedman, the only Boston businessperson on the commission and a key participant in the roundtable discussions.
The hope with the letter, Friedman said, is to send the message that “this commonwealth takes antisemitism just as seriously as we take other forms of hate.”
The letter was released in the days before the Dec. 14 Bondi Beach massacre in Australia during a Hanukkah celebration, though that tragedy was obviously mentioned at the State House event a week later.
Many of the signatories are leaders of business groups. They included: Jim Brett of the New England Council, Chris Anderson of Mass. High Tech, Jay Ash of the Mass. Competitive Partnership, the Mass. Business Roundtable’s JD Chesloff, Jim Rooney of the Greater Boston Chamber, Brooke Thomson of AIM, and Doug Howgate at the Mass. Taxpayers Foundation.
Company executives included Patriots owner Robert Kraft (founder of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism), developer Steve Samuels, Suffolk Construction owner John Fish, Eastern Bank’s Bob Rivers, Adam Portnoy at RMR Group, and Sarah Iselin at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mass.
The commission’s focused on addressing antisemitism in schools and colleges, prompting some pushback from the Massachusetts Teachers Association, as well as public safety recommendations. But it has advice for employers, too, such as including antisemitism education in broader diversity efforts and ensuring full compliance around laws for religious accommodations in the workplace.
The business leaders’ letter argues that the economic competitiveness could be at stake. Antisemitic actions and words toward Jews and Israeli-Americans risks driving talent and investments outside of the state.
Friedman noted that some executives the group approached declined to sign the letter because they couldn’t sign something that could be construed as political, even though they agreed with its intentions.
“It’s not a given that Massachusetts and America are going to figure out how to beat this cancer,” Friedman said. “To have all these people jointly say, ‘Yeah, we know this is a big problem and we’re committed to standing up and trying to find solutions,’ I think is really important.”
This is an installment of our weekly Bold Types column about the movers and shakers on Boston’s business scene.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.
