Jon Haber is an American writer and political activist. ''
The Jewish Week
''The Jewish Week'' is a weekly independent community newspaper targeted towards the Jewish community of the metropolitan New York City area. ''The Jewish Week'' covers news relating to the Jewish community in NYC. In March 2016, ''The Jewish We ...
'' calls Haber "a key resource for anti-BDS activists."
Activism
Haber's Zionist activism dates to November 3, 1994, when during an
MIT forum on the subject of Jewish fundamentalism hosting
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...
and
Israel Shahak, he circulated an unsigned pamphlet denouncing the two speakers, later rising during the presentation to announce his authorship of the text when challenged. Haber later took to
USENET
Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was ...
to reprint the writing and to defend his actions.
In 2004, he renewed his commitments when anti-Israel activists proposed that the Board of Aldermen in his hometown of
Somerville, Massachusetts
Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total population of 81, ...
should boycott Israel.
[
Haber has written internationally on the subject of divest-from-Israel campaigns and their impact on civil institutions such as municipalities, religious institutions and schools.]Somerville, Massachusetts
Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total population of 81, ...
He also worked with Presbyterian anti-divestment activist Will Spotts on the Web site Bearing Witness (now defunct) which contributed to the successful 2006 campaign to see the Presbyterian Church PCUSA overturn its 2004 decision to begin a "phased, selective" program in corporations that do business in Israel. He is also the creator of the Web site DivestThis!, which chronicles the ongoing failures of the BDS movement, and an online guide of the same name.
A recurring theme in the author's work is what he refers to as the "corrupting impact" of divestment programs on the organizations that embrace them. He dubs this phenomenon "The Vampire's Kiss",[Haber, Jo]
"BDS: Nuisance or Genuine Threat"
The Jerusalem Post
''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...
, June 15, 2010, accessed August 28, 2011. Haber has been a movie reviewer for The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
and Boston NPR station WBUR
WBUR-FM (90.9 FM) is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Boston University. It is the largest of three NPR member stations in Boston, along with WGBH and WUMB-FM and produces several nationally distributed program ...
, as well as writing on the intersection of politics, economics and popular culture for the online publication TCS Daily.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haber, Jon
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American activists
American non-fiction writers
American male non-fiction writers
Anti-BDS activists
American Zionists