Please sign below to add your name to the community of voices that are asking the Times of Israel to review its blogging policies in light of a recent problematic post. Please note this letter may be published in full.

In solidarity,

Tema Smith


Letter text:

Miriam Herschlag
Ops & Blogs Editor
Times of Israel

Dear Ms. Herschlag,

We are writing today as a broad cross-section of members of the Jewish community to bring to your attention the behavior of one of your bloggers, Debbie Hall. Ms. Hall has repeatedly harassed and mocked Jews of color and their allies online, a trend that culminated in her blog post published on your platform on Friday, January 11, “Wearing Jewface: The Far-Lefts New Tactic”.

We believe Ms. Hall's behavior to be rooted in racism and cruelty, and contend that it does not serve to open debate on policy and philosophy, but rather to attack and defame.

This behavior is deeply inappropriate for a writer with any platform with your esteemed paper.

Ms. Hall has used her position as a Times of Israel blogger to lend legitimacy to her campaigns against individual members of the Jewish community, predominantly Jews of color and Jews by choice (converts). Not only are these attacks filled with egregious mischaracterizations of these individuals’ identities and views, they do nothing to advance the greater conversation that your blog platform exists to provide.  

While we understand that the Times of Israel is not responsible for the 3rd Party content on the blogging platform, the Times of Israel brand lends credibility to the writing that appears there.  

In order to maintain the integrity of the conversation on the Times of Israel blog platform, we call on the Times of Israel to:

1. clarify its terms of use to define “abuse”.

2. put in place controls to ensure that the blog platform cannot be used as a vehicle for harrassment.

3. remove Ms. Hall’s blog from the Times of Israel platform. Should you determine that this is not the correct course of action, we strongly ask that you censure her, and at a minimum, remove the post, “Wearing Jewface”, and any follow-up posts.

We believe that implementing these steps will ensure that the Times of Israel blog platform remains a respectful place of community conversation that brings forward the diversity of Jewish opinion.

Signed,