What happens when a company rejects or ignores JLens’ advocacy efforts despite repeated engagement attempts?

When a company proves consistently unresponsive to our engagement efforts, we employ a graduated escalation strategy. First, we intensify our advocacy approach through more formal channels, potentially including exempt proxy solicitations to educate other shareholders. If necessary, we may file shareholder resolutions on issues of critical importance to the Jewish community. In cases of continued resistance on fundamental issues like antisemitism or BDS-related concerns, we evaluate whether the company’s behavior warrants addition to our Watchlist for potential exclusion from the index. Throughout this process, we maintain detailed documentation of our engagement attempts to inform our scoring and ensure transparency with our investors.

How do you measure ‘success’ if antisemitic incidents don’t decline—or even if they rise—despite TOV’s advocacy?

We view this as a long-term effort. We track how corporations respond to anti-Israel pressure, how effectively they protect Jewish employees’ rights, and whether they adopt policies that reflect zero tolerance for antisemitism. We’ll publish regular advocacy reports so investors and community members can gauge the impact of our engagements, even if we can’t solve antisemitism overnight.

Given its relatively modest size, how does the TOV ETF expect to win if an anti-Israel proposal is backed by much larger shareholders?

The collective shareholder voice of the Jewish community is stronger than just the number of shares we own. The Jewish community has a long track record of successful government advocacy that goes beyond just the number of voting constituents and it is time that we do the same in the corporate arena. JLens, through TOV, is well-equipped to be a voice for those concerned by the rising threat of malign actors using corporate advocacy against Israel and Jewish values.

What advocacy tools does JLens have, beyond the measures already available to ADL?

JLens’’s advocacy through TOV can take several forms: JLens will engage in direct dialogue with CEOs, board members, investor relations or HR staff. JLens will monitor the shareholder proposal process at companies in which we hold shares and identify and oppose proposals that directly and unfairly target Israel or contain harmful and inflammatory language. As a shareholder in many of the largest US public companies, JLens will exercise our right to vote proxies FOR or AGAINST directors and shareholder proposals informed by Jewish values. Where necessary, we have the ability to submit shareholder proposals to promote or protect Jewish communal interests like combating antisemitism and hate.

Why is it important to have a corporate advocacy tool such as TOV?

Given the growing impact corporations play in our society, many top companies – the vast majority of which want to do the right thing – are increasingly being targeted by hateful campaigns that threaten Israel’s security and economy, and create hostile workplaces for Jewish employees. The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement has expanded aggressively from university campuses to company boardrooms – using tactics such as shareholder proposals to target corporations and pressure them to suspend or withhold economic interaction with Israel. Through TOV, JLens will employ shareholder advocacy to amplify the Jewish community’s voice in the corporate arena to combat antisemitism and support Israel.

Will JLens’ advocacy be more impactful if it represents more shareholders and assets?

While it is unlikely that JLens will ever represent a voting majority of shares in a public company, shareholder advocacy isn’t just a numbers game; it’s about voice and visibility. TOV brings a clear, values-based perspective that major index funds often overlook, especially regarding Jewish and Israel-related issues. Companies care about reputational risk, and our focused advocacy taps into precisely that—allowing us to punch above our weight in the boardroom. In addition to this, TOV’s advocacy involves educating large institutional shareholders about antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in order to encourage them to make commonsense proxy voting decisions on behalf of their shareholders.

What advocacy has JLens conducted with Meta?

In 2024, JLens filed an exempt solicitation supporting a proposal at Meta that asked for the company to report on the measures Meta takes to ensure child safety. That proposal received 18.5% of votes (or 59.1% of shares not held by Mark Zuckerberg), a high number that signals to the company the importance of addressing this issue. Currently, JLens is engaging Meta on content moderation issues related to protecting users from antisemitism and other online hate.

What advocacy has JLens conducted with Amazon?

JLens conducted a successful campaign against an anti-Israel shareholder proposal on Amazon’s 2024 Proxy Statement brought forward by a BDS proponent, which we believe sought to end Amazon’s $1.2B cloud-computing contract with the Israeli government. Shareholder support halved from 34% in 2023 to ~17% in 2024, including a flip from “FOR” to “AGAINST” by Charles Schwab, State Street and other large institutional shareholders.In 2022, JLens successfully advocated for Amazon to remove hateful and misinformed Holocaust denial books from its product offerings, leading the company to take down the content. Currently, JLens is engaging Amazon around its policies regarding dangerous extremist products, as well as internal allegations of antisemitism leveraged at the company.

If it is an “own and advocate” strategy, how does JLens actually advocate with all 496 companies in the TOV ETF portfolio as of March 2025?

JLens interacts on an ongoing basis with the companies in the TOV portfolio to request that they (when applicable): offer antisemitism training for employees, allow creation of Jewish Employee Resource Groups, implement best practices for religious accommodations in the workplace. JLens evaluates every company in the portfolio, gathering about 80 metrics on each, to learn about opportunities for deeper advocacy engagement on behalf of the Jewish community.