About Us
The Jewish Leadership Project (JLP) is a national leadership and action platform confronting the failures that left Jewish communities exposed in a moment of historic danger. Founded in 2022 by Dr. Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser, JLP was created in recognition that rising antisemitism is not only a threat from without, but the result of prolonged institutional paralysis, moral evasion, and strategic failure from within.
JLP operates as a consortium of experienced consultants, educators, analysts, and practitioners spanning policy, civic action, communications, technology, and leadership development. We provide strategic guidance, educational training, and thought leadership to Jewish communities, grassroots organizations, and allies who are no longer willing to outsource Jewish safety, dignity, or truth to legacy institutions that failed to act when it mattered most.
JLP equips everyday people and local leaders with the tools, knowledge, and strategic clarity required to confront antisemitism, defend Israel, and uphold the foundational American values of liberty, justice, and human dignity. Where others manage decline or issue statements, JLP builds leadership, accountability, and the infrastructure necessary for sustained action.
The Jewish Leadership Project (JLP) did not emerge in response to the October 7 atrocities or the wave of antisemitism and Jew-hatred that followed. While JLP itself was formally launched in 2022, it is the product of decades of activism led by its founders—work that anticipated these threats long before they became unavoidable.
For more than thirty years, JLP’s leadership has confronted institutional failure, moral evasion, and ideological capture across media, academia, government, and Jewish communal life. From challenging systemic media bias against Israel, to exposing modern-day slavery, to issuing early warnings about antisemitism on college campuses and the spread of Islamist extremism in the West, this work consistently began before consensus formed and before action was considered safe.
JLP exists because experience has shown that Jewish security and moral clarity cannot be outsourced to legacy institutions unwilling or unable to confront hard truths. The timeline below reflects the history that informed JLP’s creation and now guides its mission: holding leadership accountable, cultivating courageous Jewish voices, and building the infrastructure required to defend the Jewish future.
In response to persistent mainstream media bias, Charles Jacobs co-founds the Boston chapter of CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) with Andrea Levin.
The Boston chapter evolves into CAMERA’s national office, which becomes the leading U.S. organization monitoring Middle East media coverage.
Jacobs delivers a talk at UMass Amherst and experiences a coordinated anti-Zionist confrontation.
He circulates a private warning memo to Jewish communal leaders identifying the emerging campus threat years before it becomes widely recognized.
After learning of contemporary slavery in Africa, Jacobs founds the American Anti-Slavery Group with Mohammed Athie and David Chand.
AASG exposes the enslavement of tens of thousands of Africans in Sudan by militias backed by the Islamist regime in Khartoum.
Jacobs receives the inaugural Boston Freedom Award, presented by Coretta Scott King and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, recognizing his leadership in the fight against modern slavery.
During Passover, Jacobs travels into Sudan on a rescue mission that frees thousands of enslaved Africans and brings global attention to the practice.
Jacobs testifies multiple times before the U.S. Congress on slavery and Sudan.
He is invited to the White House for the signing of the Sudan Peace Act, where he speaks with President George W. Bush.
AASG plays a key role in influencing U.S. policy and enforcing the North–South peace agreement that ends slave raids.
In response to rising global antisemitism, Jacobs also co-founds The David Project in 2002 with Avi Goldwasser.
The organization trains thousands of pro-Israel students to engage effectively in campus debates and later evolves into a center for Jewish leadership.
Alarmed by the spread of Islamist ideology and institutional inaction, Jacobs leaves The David Project to found Americans for Peace and Tolerance with Professor Dennis Hale and Sheikh Ahmed Mansour.
APT exposes extremist networks and supports moderate Muslim voices.
Jacobs returns to Sudan to observe the independence referendum.
He participates in further slave-liberation efforts and meets with Salva Kiir, president of the newly formed nation.
Recognizing that repeated crises had exposed deep, unresolved failures within organized Jewish leadership, Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser launch the Jewish Leadership Project. JLP is created to confront institutional paralysis, moral evasion, and strategic incompetence that left Jewish communities vulnerable—particularly in media, education, philanthropy, and public life—and to build a new cadre of leaders prepared to act with clarity, courage, and accountability.
A strong, secure Jewish community thriving within a confident American nation that upholds Western values, individual rights, and fundamental freedoms, resists extremist ideologies, protects civic institutions, and empowers citizens to confront antisemitism, defend democratic norms, and ensure Jewish life is protected, respected, and unapologetically sustained for future generations.
The Jewish Leadership Project (JLP) utilizes thought leadership from the foremost experts in consulting, tech, civic action, public relations and messaging globally to support a national network of Jews and their allies confronting rising antisemitism and defending America from the forces seeking to undermine it. We transform concerns into actions; we train and unite everyday people and grassroots organizations to act effectively where the legacy Jewish organizations failed and left our communities vulnerable.
Turning back the tide of antisemitism and assault on American and Western values requires political engagement, government intervention and massive lawsuits. Our strategy is to support and encourage civic engagement on the local level and to build a large coalition of partners to create pressure for government intervention and legal action by documenting, publicizing, and effectively confronting antisemitism.
CO-FOUNDER
Charles Jacobs is a social activist, journalist, and founder of multiple national organizations confronting systemic failures in the Jewish and human rights communities. He co-founded CAMERA, now the leading U.S. watchdog on Middle East media coverage; founded the American Anti-Slavery Group, which helped expose and end mass enslavement in Sudan; co-founded The David Project to counter antisemitism on college campuses; and founded Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), where he serves as president.
In recognition of his abolitionist work, Jacobs received the inaugural Boston Freedom Award, presented by Coretta Scott King and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. Today, he leads APT and its initiatives, including the Jewish Leadership Project (JLP) and the African Jewish Alliance (AJA), focused on exposing antisemitism, anti-Israel activism, Islamist extremism, and leadership failures across American civic, educational, and Jewish institutions. He has testified before Congress, participated in the White House signing of the Sudan Peace Act, and has been widely published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Jerusalem Post, and Encyclopedia Britannica. He holds a doctorate in social policy from Harvard University.
CO-FOUNDER
Avi (Ralph) Goldwasser has been a filmmaker and Jewish activist for over 20 years. In 2002, he co-founded the David Project, an educational organization which supported Jewish students on college campuses. He also served on the Boston boards of the American Jewish Committee and the Boston Jewish Community Relationship Counsel. He is also in a leadership role with the Confronting Antisemitism Network (CAN).
Most recently, along with Dr. Charles Jacobs, he co-edited the book Betrayal: The Failure of the American Jewish Leadership (Wicked Son, 2023), a collection of essays by major Jewish luminaries including Alan Dershowitz, Caroline Glick, Mort Klein, Richard Landes, and Jonathan Tobin, as well as on-the-ground activists.
As a filmmaker, he produced Columbia Unbecoming (2004), a controversial documentary about the intimidation of Jewish students by Arab professors at Columbia University. The award-winning Forgotten Refugees (2005), a film about the plight of Jews expelled from Arab countries in the years after 1948. Losing Our Sons (2012), the dark story of two all-American boys—one who became a soldier, the other, indoctrinated by Muslim terrorist preachers in Nashville, murdered him in a roadside shooting in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2009. The J Street Challenge: The Seductive Allure of Peace in Our Time (2014), an exposé of an advocacy group promoting itself as “pro-Israel, pro-peace” when it is neither. And Hate Spaces: The Politics of Intolerance on Campus (2016), a film illustrating how antisemitism is being made fashionable at universities across America.
Born in Poland to Holocaust survivors, Avi grew up in Israel and New York City. He has a BSEE from CCNY, and an MBA from NYU. Professionally, he worked as a CPA at Price Waterhouse Coopers. He has also been a financial executive in the hi-tech industry and CFO of several NYSE technology companies.
CO-FOUNDER
Victor Muslin is a software engineering executive specializing in large scale data processing systems in the area of Internet advertising.
After retirement he helped launch Alums for Campus Fairness and for a number of years served as its Columbia University chapter’s lead. Victor is a founder of CU-Monitor and Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus that focused on documenting and bringing attention to antisemitism on university campuses, especially at Columbia University.
Victor holds a degree in Computer Science from Columbia University.
