The Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis has condemned a website that publicly singled out a Jewish college student from St. Louis over her views and actions on Israel.

Canary Mission “documents people and groups that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses,” according to its website.

Sophie Hurwitz, a John Burroughs School graduate, recently discovered that her name along with links to her Facebook page and Linkedin profile were listed on the website because of her statements and actions concerning Israel and the Birthright program. The website also names her college major and when she is slated to graduate.

It includes statements she has made on social media and ones drawn from videos of her at protests.

The Jewish Light is reporting on her listing on the website, which does not list its funders or any staff or volunteers, because JCRC responded to a Post-Dispatch column on Canary Mission and Hurwitz. 

Hurwitz said “it was scary” to see her name on the website. She attends Wellesley College and is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, a left-wing group that supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel. 

“I’m a college sophomore,” she wrote in an email to the Light. “I didn’t expect to start my second year living away from home by feeling stalked by an international, shadowy organization. Seeing your face, and details about your life, on a website that you know means to slander you is a surreal, disconcerting experience.”

Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles last year suspended grants to a group, the Israel-based nonprofit Megamit Shalom, that appeared to fund Canary, according to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency report. 

Haaretz reported that Israeli border control officers have used information from the site to bar political activists from entering the country. 

JCRC stated in a letter to the Post-Dispatch that it was “dismayed to read about the harassment faced by Sophie Hurwitz because of being included on the Canary Mission website. While we advocate strongly for a safe, secure, and democratic State of Israel, we unequivocally reject anyone who seeks to shut down discussion and disagreement about the Jewish State through intimidation tactics.” 

Maharat Rori Picker Neiss, JCRC executive director, told the Light that the organization decided to respond because “this is a member of our St. Louis Jewish community.”

Hurwitz attends Congregation Shaare Emeth and Central Reform Congregation when she is in St. Louis. 

“We have been hearing from people in the community who feel that all voices on Israel are not equally welcome, and we know that if this were a situation of someone being in any way antagonized or called out because they have openly expressed pro-Israel views, our community would rally to support that person,” Picker Neiss said. “This isn’t about whether or not we agree with a person’s opinions but about people’s rights to express those opinions and know that our community is stronger because of the diversity of opinions.”