Charles Jacobs is a human rights activist. Jacobs has a long history of working for pro-Israel lobby groups. In 1988, he co-founded Boston's branch of CAMERA, and in 2002, he founded The David Project. He is currently the president of Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), which describes itself as a Boston-based non-profit that combats Islamist antisemitism but has been described as an Islamophobic hate group.
Early life and career
Jacobs spent his early years in Newark, New Jersey. He has been described as a business consultant and a management consultant. He holds a Doctor of Education (EdD) from Harvard University, having graduated in 1988. The Jewish Advocate (Boston) has described Jacobs as a key figure in founding Boston's chapter of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA);
American Anti-Slavery Group
Jacobs has been involved in anti-slavery activism since the 1990s, having helped to found the American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG)—which was incorporated in December 1994, with Jacobs as its clerk and treasurer—through which he proceeded to publicize contemporary slavery in Sudan and Mauritania. Jacobs campaigned personally in favor of divestment from mutual funds supporting oil companies such as Talisman Energy which, he alleged, supported the Khartoum-based Sudanese government.
AASG, in partnership with Christian Solidarity International (CSI), participated in a practice known as slave redemption, whereby aid organizations purchase slaves' freedom with money from donations. As of 1999, AASG was a fundraiser for CSI. AASG's and CSI's slave redemption policy was opposed by UNICEF, which argued that the practice was "intolerable." Jacobs responded on behalf of AASG that "[w]hat is intolerable is to leave these women and children in the hands of brutal captors" and also disputed UNICEF's allegations that redemption encourages the purchase of weaponry by injecting US dollars into the Sudanese economy. He has further claimed that slave redemption does not incentivize the slave trade, although he characterized the policy as a "temporary solution" that AASG would abandon if it were deemed counterproductive by the people of Sudan.
Jacobs was given the Boston Freedom Award in September 2000 as an acknowledgment of his anti-slavery work. His application was chosen from a pool of approximately 12 other candidates. Jacobs has thus far been the sole recipient of the award, which was created by Boston 2000, a private corporation tasked with preparing celebrations and other commemorations for the New Year in Boston, as part of Boston's festivities for the new millennium. The award was presented on behalf of Boston 2000 by Mayor Thomas Menino and Coretta Scott King, but it was neither officially endorsed nor funded by the city of Boston; partial financing was provided by Andrew Wilson, creator of the Boston Duck Tours.
David Project
Along with Ralph Avi Goldwasser, Jacobs founded the David Project for Jewish Leadership in 2002. The Project is a right-wing organization whose mission is to "combat anti-Israel bias on university campuses" and "document campus harassment of Jewish students." According to The Forward, Jacobs viewed the David Project as a means of combating a purported "'Muslim-left' anti-Israel alliance on campus." Daniel Pipes has described the David Project as one element of a "general effort" to combat the bias he perceives in universities which includes his own Middle East Forum and David Horowitz's eponymous Freedom Center. Jacobs has also described the Project as a "response to the new anti-Semitism in which Jews are hated not for their religion or race, but for their state" and an attempt to "teach Jews who were divided politically to make Israel's case in the face of the unfair, dishonest discourse on college campuses." While the David Project under Jacobs's leadership focused much of its attention on universities, it also launched initiatives in Jewish day schools, middle schools, high schools, and summer programs.