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.
Could the weighting factors (1.03, 1.00, 0.97) be adjusted in the future to create larger differentials between company categories?
Yes, the current weighting factors are designed to be symbolic while maintaining close alignment with large-cap domestic equity benchmarks, but they could be adjusted in the future. The Index Advisory Committee periodically reviews the effectiveness of our weighting methodology, including the magnitude of the factors. If the Committee determines that stronger weighting differentials would better serve our advocacy goals without significantly impacting overall index performance characteristics, it could recommend adjustments. Any such changes would be implemented at quarterly rebalancing and communicated to investors in advance to maintain transparency about our investment approach.
How does JLens’ weighting approach differ from other values-based ETFs that may completely remove poorly performing companies?
Unlike some values-based ETFs that simply exclude companies not meeting their criteria, JLens employs a more nuanced approach with our symbolic weighting system. By slightly adjusting weights rather than completely removing companies with “Needs Improvement” scores, we maintain our shareholder advocacy position while still implementing a values-aligned signal in the portfolio construction. This approach allows us to continue engaging with these companies to encourage improvement, rather than losing our voice at the table. We believe this balanced methodology better serves Jewish communal interests over the long term by enabling ongoing advocacy while still reflecting our values in the investment process.
Why doesn’t JLens apply a more significant overweight or underweight to companies that perform well on its Jewish values scorecards?
After market capitalization weighting, JLens applies a small symbolic overweight (1.03), neutral weight (1.00) or underweight (0.97) to a company depending on its performance on JLens Jewish values scorecards. This score-based weighting is symbolic in nature and is intended to allow the TOV index to closely track the performance of a large-cap domestic equity benchmark. This slight weighting enables JLens to maintain a Jewish values alignment in the TOV index and is one of many tools JLens can use to push companies to improve their performance on JLens Jewish values scorecards.
Why does the TOV ETF hold a greater percentage of companies like Amazon and Meta than other companies in the portfolio?
The TOV ETF tracks the JLens 500 Jewish Advocacy U.S. Index which is weighted by market capitalization (the total value of a company’s outstanding shares). As any company’s market cap may increase or decrease over time, a smaller or larger percentage of the Index holdings will be made up of that company. JLens applies a small symbolic overweight (1.03), neutral weight (1.00) or underweight (0.97) to a company depending on its performance on JLens Jewish values scorecards.