June 9, 2021
At Willkie, we stand firmly against bigotry and prejudice of every kind. Amid a recent surge in anti-Jewish hate around the world, we have joined with other leading law firms to condemn these vitriolic attacks rooted in anti-Semitism, and denounce anti-Semitism in any form.
The following statement was published in The American Lawyer on May 27.
Statement Condemning Anti-Semitism
As leaders of some of this country’s largest law firms, we are heeding the call by Bret Stephens, Anti-Zionism Isn’t Anti-Semitism? Someone Didn’t Get the Memo, The New York Times, May 24, 2021, to publicly denounce anti-Semitism and the demonization of Jews pervading the press, social media, and the streets of this country.
We stand for the rule of law and the tolerance and inclusion of all. We have protested the senseless murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and countless others; we have publicly condemned acts of violence and hatred against Asian Pacific Islanders, Black, Latinx, LGBTQ, and Muslim communities; we are litigating against hate groups to hold them accountable for their racist and violent acts; we have litigated seminal civil rights cases; we have fought against efforts to separate children from their parents’ arms at our borders; we have fought to expand the right to marry to include same-sex couples; and we are engaged in the struggle to end gun violence. We are advocates who take action to redress the wrongs in our country and to protect the vulnerable.
Today, and every day, we stand against the pernicious and violent attacks against Jews in this country. We are horrified by the vitriolic hate being spewed, by both the uneducated and the educated who know better, on social media. We are disheartened and alarmed by the lack of urgency in denouncing these escalating and offensive attacks on Jews. In the face of these acts in our own country, we are frightened by the silence of a nation that vowed never to forget the massacre of millions at the hands of hate.
An attack on any group based on race, religion, color, sexual orientation, or national origin — including Jewish people — is an assault on the values of diversity, equity and inclusion that are the bedrock of this country and that we as law firms strive to uphold in our own institutions. We call on our colleagues, the leaders of corporate America, and private and public academic institutions, including law schools, to stand with us and publicly denounce anti-Semitism, in all of its forms.