Opinion | Michael Rubin: The Quakers lose their moral clarity amid Jew-hate

In a Washington Examiner column, Michael Rubin of the Middle East Forum takes on the American Friends Service Committee, the Quaker group that won the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize, for its silence on antisemitism.

Rubin opens with Nov. 8, the eve of the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, when the progressive group Philly Bike on the Left organized a ride through Philadelphia's Center City and Rittenhouse Square to point out Jewish- and Israeli-American-owned businesses and demand their boycott and closure. Counterprotesters outnumbered the riders. "To their shame, the Quakers' public face was not among them," he writes.

He argues the AFSC has drifted from relief work into politics, from dismissing reports of the Khmer Rouge killings as "bloodbath stories" to staying silent on China's Uyghurs. After Oct. 7, he writes, the group's first statement put Israel's death toll at only 90 and condemned "deaths that occurred," not the terrorists, and two days later said "people who are oppressed will continue to find ways to resist their oppression."

Rubin says the AFSC and other Quaker groups partner with groups such as CodePink, the National Iranian American Council, CAIR and Philly Democratic Socialists of America, which the bike ride listed as a collaborator.

"How hard should it be for the AFSC, Quaker schools, and pacifist organizations to speak out without apologia against antisemitic violence and abuse?" he asks. Rubin, a former student at a Quaker school, notes that schools such as Sidwell Friends have also stayed silent.