Jewish Community Action Network warned Rotary leadership that Farrah Khan had circulated blood libels and dehumanizing tropes against Jews; Rotary promised a review, but failed to intervene and the Club installed Khan anyway.
The Jewish Community Action Network (JCAN) today sent a letter to Rotary International leadership condemning Orange County LA Rotary Club’s decision to install former Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan as President, despite documented warnings about her record of spreading blood libels and conspiracy theories about Jews. JCAN called on Rotary International to intervene, and enforce its own Manual of Procedure and Constitution.
On June 22, JCAN joined the Jewish Federation of Orange County and the Israeli American Council in a joint letter to District 5320 leadership flagging a pattern of public statements by Khan that goes beyond mere policy disagreement over Israel and instead recycles some of the oldest and most dangerous antisemitic tropes. In a February social media post, Khan circulated an unverified claim that Israel had attacked an Iranian girls’ school, adding: “The sick pedophiles/cannibals are doing what they do best.” In a separate post, Khan claimed the “elite,” i.e. Jews, are “worshipping evil, eating humans, engaging in rape and pedophilia” – language that is a coded restatement of the same libel. And in yet another post, Khan cast Zionism – the belief that Israel is the Jewish ancestral homeland and has a right to exist as a Jewish state, a view held by approximately 80% of American Jews – as fundamentally opposed to “humanity.”
The coalition asked Rotary leadership to conduct a formal review of whether Khan’s conduct aligned with the Rotarian Code of Conduct and the Four Way Test before her installation. Hundreds of community members wrote in as well. But no such review occurred, and the coalition learned that Khan was installed less than a week later. When JCAN inquired about the installation, Rotary International took the position that their leadership was powerless to intervene. Yet Rotary International’s Manual of Procedure provides that the Board can remove members for good cause.
In a new letter to Rotary leadership, JCAN Director of Policy, Legal, and Government Affairs Julie Heiman writes that the Club’s decision sends an unmistakable message: “Evidently the Orange County/LA Club determined that endangering the Jewish community is not disqualifying or inconsistent with ‘truth,’ ‘fairness,’ and building ‘good will.’” The letter warns that turning a blind eye to such conduct “creates a permission structure for such targeting and blood libels to continue to circulate.”
The letter goes on to say that Khan’s conduct using her social media platform as “Former Mayor” incites violence and must be condemned: “For centuries, across other societies, we’ve seen such rhetoric escalate into violence. Now, it’s happening here—in Michigan, in Washington, in Colorado, in California at record levels, we see people attacking Jews, or those who stand with us, because they think they are attacking (to use Ms. Khan’s framing) something in opposition to ‘humanity.’ ‘Cannibals,’ ‘pedophiles,’ those who would throw ‘handcuffed babies in a mass grave.’ We know where such language leads, especially when good people stay silent.”
The letter, addressed to Rotary International Director Wyn Spiller and General Counsel Steven Routburg, asks Rotary leadership to reconsider their decision.
“We came to Rotary in good faith, with receipts, and with a measured ask to just look at the conduct and apply your own standards,” said Ilana Meirovitch, CEO of the Jewish Community Action Network. “Instead, Rotary leadership acknowledged our letter, and then installed her anyway. Blood libels are not a policy disagreement. They are the oldest pretext for violence against Jews – a civic institution that shrugs and treats their spread as just another viewpoint has abandoned the basic decency its principles were meant to protect.”
The June 22 coalition letter, which documents Khan’s posts in detail, is available here. Today’s follow-up letter from JCAN is available here.