Charles Jacobs (political activist)
Encyclopedia
Charles Jacobs is the co-founder of the American Anti-Slavery Group
(1994), which campaigns against slavery
worldwide, and a co-chairman of The Sudan Campaign (2000), a coalition calling for an end to slavery in Sudan
. He also served as Deputy Director of the Boston chapter of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
, and co-founded The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership
in 2002, which he led until July 2008.
Jacobs has appeared on CBS
's This Morning, ABC
's World News Tonight, and National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation
. His work has been published in The New York Times
, The Boston Globe
, The New Yorker
, and The Wall Street Journal.
. He was active in the civil rights movement as a teenager, and in 1963, attended Martin Luther King's March on Washington. He graduated from Rutgers University
in 1966 and earned a Doctor of Education degree (Ed.D.) from Harvard University
in 1988.
(CAMERA), a media watchdog
that responds to media bias against Israel. Throughout the following decade, he pursued a career as an international management consultant, working as a publicist
, advertising
campaign promoter, and speech writer
for several organizations and became a member of public relations
firm and speakers' bureau Benador Associates.
He learned about the continuing existence of slavery in North Africa
in 1993. The next year Jacobs left his job to found the American Anti-Slavery Group
with African human rights
activists Mohamed Athie of Mauritania
and David Chand of Sudan
, beginning to work full-time as the organization's first research director.
He was appointed director of The Sudan Campaign in May 2000, serving as one of its four co-chairmen since 2004. On September 18, 2000, in recognition of his work for the American Anti-Slavery Group
and as its president, he received the Boston Freedom Award in a ceremony attended by Boston mayor Thomas Menino
and Coretta Scott King
, who presented it.
On September 28, 2000, he testified to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with three survivors of slavery from around the world. In April 2001, he "joined a slave redemption mission in Sudan
that helped liberate over 2,900 enslaved women and children."
After September 11, 2001, Jacobs joined the Board of Advisors of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
, created in response to the events of 9/11 and the War on Terrorism
. He founded The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership
in 2002. The next year, in 2003, Mohamed Athie became president of the AASG, while Jacobs served on its board as its treasurer. In July 2008, Jacobs resigned as President of the David Project "in order to focus on a new initiative in support of the Jewish community."
station, in Newton, Massachusetts
, of the program Mosaic: World News from the Middle East
, which supporters of the broadcasts agreed contains "anti-Semitic
and anti-American
content." Noting that Newton has a sizable Jewish population, he likened the station's broadcasting Mosaic to public television broadcasting David Duke
in Roxbury
: "That's like bringing the KKK
into Newton
. It's not diversity
, it's hate speech
. Newton is a progressive city. This will not bring us more truth, as the proponents think, about the Islamic world, but less truth." In particular, he protested the program's portrayal of Arab media:
, along with Boston College
political science professor Dennis Hale
(an Episcopal
layman), and Islamic scholar Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour
. Its purpose is to "promote peaceful coexistence in an ethnically diverse America by educating the American public about the need for a moderate political leadership that supports tolerance and core American values in communities across the nation." The group is a primary critic of the $15.6 million mosque in Roxbury
Crossing, which the group asserts is led by extremist leaders and contributors.
American Anti-Slavery Group
The American Anti-Slavery Group is a non profit coalition of abolitionist organizations that engages in political activism to abolish slavery in the world today...
(1994), which campaigns against slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
worldwide, and a co-chairman of The Sudan Campaign (2000), a coalition calling for an end to slavery in Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
. He also served as Deputy Director of the Boston chapter of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is an American non-profit pro-Israel media watchdog group. The group says it was founded in 1982 "to respond to the Washington Post's coverage of Israel's Lebanon incursion", and to respond to what it considers the media's "general...
, and co-founded The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership
The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership
The David Project, is a non-profit educational organization located in Boston, Massachusetts, with satellite offices in New York and Israel. The David Project's stated aim is "to educate and inspire strong voices for Israel through dynamic educational seminars, workshops, and curricula." It was...
in 2002, which he led until July 2008.
Jacobs has appeared on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's This Morning, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's World News Tonight, and National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation
Talk of the Nation
Talk of the Nation is a talk radio program based in the United States, produced by National Public Radio, and is broadcast nationally from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time. Its focus is current events and controversial issues....
. His work has been published in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, and The Wall Street Journal.
Early life and education
Jacobs was born in Newark, New JerseyNewark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
. He was active in the civil rights movement as a teenager, and in 1963, attended Martin Luther King's March on Washington. He graduated from Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
in 1966 and earned a Doctor of Education degree (Ed.D.) from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1988.
Career
In the late 1980s, Jacobs served as the Deputy Director of the Boston Chapter of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in AmericaCommittee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is an American non-profit pro-Israel media watchdog group. The group says it was founded in 1982 "to respond to the Washington Post's coverage of Israel's Lebanon incursion", and to respond to what it considers the media's "general...
(CAMERA), a media watchdog
Watchdog journalism
Watchdog journalism aims to hold accountable public personalities and institutions, whose functions impact social and political life. The term "lapdog journalism", for journalism biased in favour of personalities and institutions, is sometimes used as a conceptual opposite to watchdog...
that responds to media bias against Israel. Throughout the following decade, he pursued a career as an international management consultant, working as a publicist
Publicist
A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a public figure, especially a celebrity, a business, or for a work such as a book, film or album...
, advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
campaign promoter, and speech writer
Speechwriter
A speechwriter is a person who is hired to prepare and write speeches that will be delivered by another person. Speechwriters are used by many senior-level elected officials and executives in the government and private sectors.-Skills and training:...
for several organizations and became a member of public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
firm and speakers' bureau Benador Associates.
He learned about the continuing existence of slavery in North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
in 1993. The next year Jacobs left his job to found the American Anti-Slavery Group
American Anti-Slavery Group
The American Anti-Slavery Group is a non profit coalition of abolitionist organizations that engages in political activism to abolish slavery in the world today...
with African human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
activists Mohamed Athie of Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
and David Chand of Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, beginning to work full-time as the organization's first research director.
He was appointed director of The Sudan Campaign in May 2000, serving as one of its four co-chairmen since 2004. On September 18, 2000, in recognition of his work for the American Anti-Slavery Group
American Anti-Slavery Group
The American Anti-Slavery Group is a non profit coalition of abolitionist organizations that engages in political activism to abolish slavery in the world today...
and as its president, he received the Boston Freedom Award in a ceremony attended by Boston mayor Thomas Menino
Thomas Menino
Thomas Michael "Tom" Menino is the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, United States and the city's first Italian-American mayor...
and Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader. The widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.Mrs...
, who presented it.
On September 28, 2000, he testified to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with three survivors of slavery from around the world. In April 2001, he "joined a slave redemption mission in Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
that helped liberate over 2,900 enslaved women and children."
After September 11, 2001, Jacobs joined the Board of Advisors of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan policy institute "working to defend free nations against their enemies". It was founded shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks to address what it regards as the "threat facing America, Israel and the...
, created in response to the events of 9/11 and the War on Terrorism
War on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
. He founded The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership
The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership
The David Project, is a non-profit educational organization located in Boston, Massachusetts, with satellite offices in New York and Israel. The David Project's stated aim is "to educate and inspire strong voices for Israel through dynamic educational seminars, workshops, and curricula." It was...
in 2002. The next year, in 2003, Mohamed Athie became president of the AASG, while Jacobs served on its board as its treasurer. In July 2008, Jacobs resigned as President of the David Project "in order to focus on a new initiative in support of the Jewish community."
Mosaic: World News from the Middle East
At a public meeting in January 2004, Jacobs, along with other community leaders, opposed broadcasts on a cable TV Public-access televisionPublic-access television
Public-access television is a form of non-commercial mass media where ordinary people can create content television programming which is cablecast through cable TV specialty channels...
station, in Newton, Massachusetts
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
, of the program Mosaic: World News from the Middle East
Mosaic: World News from the Middle East
Mosaic: World News from The Middle East is a daily news program offered by the free American satellite channel, LinkTV. Mosaic features selections from television news programs produced by broadcast outlets throughout the Middle East. The news reports are presented unedited, translated into English...
, which supporters of the broadcasts agreed contains "anti-Semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
and anti-American
Anti-Americanism
The term Anti-Americanism, or Anti-American Sentiment, refers to broad opposition or hostility to the people, policies, culture or government of the United States...
content." Noting that Newton has a sizable Jewish population, he likened the station's broadcasting Mosaic to public television broadcasting David Duke
David Duke
David Ernest Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan an American activist and writer, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative. He was also a former candidate in the Republican presidential primaries in 1992, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in...
in Roxbury
Roxbury, Massachusetts
Roxbury is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was one of the first towns founded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, and became a city in 1846 until annexed to Boston on January 5, 1868...
: "That's like bringing the KKK
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
into Newton
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
. It's not diversity
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
, it's hate speech
Hate speech
Hate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic....
. Newton is a progressive city. This will not bring us more truth, as the proponents think, about the Islamic world, but less truth." In particular, he protested the program's portrayal of Arab media:
These stations, in Arabic, in their un-whitewashed form, teach the Arab world that the Jews are killers. To pretend that these stations are like an Arab version of CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
is a lie, it's a deception. And that deception shouldn't be broadcast because it falsely represents these stations.
Americans for Peace and Tolerance
He is a co-founder of Americans for Peace and ToleranceAmericans for Peace and Tolerance
Americans for Peace and Tolerance is a Boston, Massachusetts, 501 non-profit organization. It was founded by Boston political activist Charles Jacobs , Boston College political science professor Dr. Dennis Hale , and Islamic scholar Sheikh Dr...
, along with Boston College
Boston College
Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
political science professor Dennis Hale
Dennis Hale
Dennis Hale is Associate Professor of Political Science at Boston College.-Education and teaching:Hale has a B.A. from Oberlin College , an M.A. from Brooklyn College , and a Ph.D...
(an Episcopal
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
layman), and Islamic scholar Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour
Ahmed Subhy Mansour
Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour , born March 1, 1949, in Abu Harair, Kafr Saqr, Sharqia, Egypt is an Egyptian-born noted Islamic scholar and cleric, with expertise in Islamic history, culture, theology, and politics...
. Its purpose is to "promote peaceful coexistence in an ethnically diverse America by educating the American public about the need for a moderate political leadership that supports tolerance and core American values in communities across the nation." The group is a primary critic of the $15.6 million mosque in Roxbury
Roxbury
Roxbury may refer to:United States*Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts*Roxbury, Connecticut*Roxbury, Kansas*Roxbury, Maine*Roxbury, New Hampshire*Roxbury Township, New Jersey*Roxbury, New York...
Crossing, which the group asserts is led by extremist leaders and contributors.
See also
- American Anti-Slavery GroupAmerican Anti-Slavery GroupThe American Anti-Slavery Group is a non profit coalition of abolitionist organizations that engages in political activism to abolish slavery in the world today...
- Benador Associates
- Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in AmericaCommittee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in AmericaThe Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is an American non-profit pro-Israel media watchdog group. The group says it was founded in 1982 "to respond to the Washington Post's coverage of Israel's Lebanon incursion", and to respond to what it considers the media's "general...
(CAMERA) - The David Project Center for Jewish LeadershipThe David Project Center for Jewish LeadershipThe David Project, is a non-profit educational organization located in Boston, Massachusetts, with satellite offices in New York and Israel. The David Project's stated aim is "to educate and inspire strong voices for Israel through dynamic educational seminars, workshops, and curricula." It was...
- Foundation for Defense of DemocraciesFoundation for Defense of DemocraciesThe Foundation for Defense of Democracies describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan policy institute "working to defend free nations against their enemies". It was founded shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks to address what it regards as the "threat facing America, Israel and the...
- Simon DengSimon DengSimon Aban Deng is a Sudanese human rights activist living in the United States. He is a victim of child slavery. A native of the Shilluk Kingdom in southern Sudan, Deng spent several years as a domestic slave in southern Sudan.-Biography:...