International, national and local politics collide in Providence mayoral race with over nine months to go before primary
Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published by Rhode Island Current on December 9, 2025. Reprinted with permission.
On a national stage last week, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley described the scene outside his house in May the night before he left on a weeklong trip to Israel funded by the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.
“The night before we left, we were greeted at our house with protesters on the sidewalk chanting that I support genocide and asking how many babies I had killed that day,” Smiley recounted to the audience on Dec. 3 at a conference in New Orleans sponsored by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM).
“I’ve traveled for work plenty, even internationally, but the only time I have ever been protested for doing so was a trip to Israel,” Smiley, who converted to Judaism in 2024, said. “Why is that? That’s the double standard.”
It was the third year in a row that Smiley attended a summit centered around fighting antisemitism. But his attendance this year drew rebuke from Democratic state Rep. David Morales — Smiley’s main rival in the 2026 Democratic primary for the Providence mayorship. Morales said the conference was organized by a national coalition connected to “outside donors pushing a national agenda.”
“Providence is a diverse city with strong immigrant communities, and we should never align our municipal policies with dark money efforts designed to chill political speech or target residents for expressing solidarity with Palestine,” Morales wrote in a Dec. 4 news release sent out by his mayoral campaign.
More than two years after the war in Gaza War began, the Israel-Palestine conflict continues to carve a sharp divide in Providence municipal politics — including the capital city’s mayoral race with its Democratic primary still nine months away.
Morales cited a Dec. 2 investigative piece in the left-wing magazine Current Affairs which claims that CAM is funded by a network of largely right-wing and President Donald Trump-affiliated donors, and that the organization is “staffed heavily with former Israeli military and government communications operatives.”
The North American Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism which Smiley attended from Dec. 2 to 4, according to Current Affairs, was “not really about ‘combating antisemitism’ at all,” but “getting city governments to suppress pro-Palestine activism, plain and simple.”
That interpretation was disputed by Smiley’s campaign manager, Josh Block, who wrote in a Dec. 5 email that the event was attended by city leaders and organizations “committed to creating safe, welcoming cities where residents can peacefully disagree free from discrimination.”
“For Representative Morales to suggest that these efforts to address hate speech through cooperation and collaboration amount to ‘policing free speech’ and ‘targeting residents’ is exactly the type of dangerous and divisive rhetoric that sows more hatred in our community,” Block said.
The event program shows the mayor — who also chairs CAM’s nine-member Mayors Advisory Board, which launched in October — spoke during the event’s opening plenary on Dec. 3. A video of Smiley’s speech shows he spoke for about six minutes.
As the mayor of “a relatively liberal New England College Town,” Smiley told the conference crowd he has seen his city fulfill all three parts of an antisemitism litmus test modeled by former Soviet dissident and Israeli politician Natan Sharansky: delegitimization, demonization and double standards.
For Representative Morales to suggest that these efforts to address hate speech through cooperation and collaboration amount to ‘policing free speech’ and ‘targeting residents’ is exactly the type of dangerous and divisive rhetoric that sows more hatred in our community.
– Josh Block, campaign manager for Mayor Brett Smiley
Providence has “had a lot of protests, a lot of activism,” the mayor said. “There were young people ready to make posters and to go out and spew hate.”
The protest in May outside Smiley’s home was organized by the state chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, a national anti-Zionist organization mostly made up of American Jews and allies who criticize the Israel occupation of Palestinian territories.
Smiley told conference attendees that the same week he returned from his Israel trip, a Palestinian flag was flown over City Hall via a City Council-led push to recognize Palestinian-Americans on Nakba Day, which marks the displacement of the Palestinian people. The Council’s move drew condemnation from the Jewish Alliance.
Smiley also participated in a breakout session on Dec. 3, titled “Leading from City Hall against bias and antisemitism,” which focused on “how mayors can respond with clarity and authority to antisemitic incidents,” according to the event program.
Lisa Katz, CAM’s chief government affairs officer and the head of the organization’s Mayors Program, responded to Morales’ release in a statement Monday, saying Smiley “has proven to be a committed and effective ally, and we are proud to partner and stand resolutely with him.”
“Rather than kowtowing to malicious disinformation campaigns, Mayor Smiley has shown up time and again to do the hard work of recognizing and countering Jew-hatred in all its modern-day forms, across the political spectrum, from the extremes on both the left and the right,” Katz said, “It is unfortunate some would seek to besmirch Mayor Smiley’s leadership role in this vital collective effort to score cheap partisan points. We will not be deterred, and we’re confident Mayor Smiley won’t be either.”
The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island wrote in an unsigned statement to Rhode Island Current Tuesday that it is not affiliated with the Combat Antisemitism Movement, but that, as the “largest collective voice of the local Jewish community … we do encourage leaders across the political spectrum to engage in meaningful efforts to address the alarming rise in antisemitism at the local, national, and international levels.”
“Our leaders have an obligation to listen to and understand the Jewish community’s fears and concerns, recognize the impact of rhetoric and policies, and ensure this city remains safe for everyone,” the statement continued. “The path forward requires recognizing that Jewish safety and rights depend on building a strong, inclusive city and democracy where all people are protected.
Smiley’s trip in May was part of a “regularly scheduled civic leaders’ trip” paid for by the Alliance. Guests of participants pay for their own travel expenses, the statement said.
‘Practical playbooks’?
The Current Affairs report added that mayors attending the conference would be encouraged to adopt policies based on the organization’s Municipal Antisemitism Action Index, whose action items include broadening the definition of hate speech as well as divesting from companies and businesses that participate in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement — which encourages the severance of ties with Israel-associated businesses.
Morales’ statement included a few public demands of Smiley, including that the mayor release the conference agenda and “any practical playbooks” from the conference relating to municipal policymaking. Morales also asked for information on conference costs and expenses.
The conference landing page notes that attendees would receive “practical playbooks with model ordinances and sample resolutions,” but according to Smiley’s campaign manager Block, the program booklet was “the only material from this conference.”
“The purpose of this conference was to share best practices from around the country on combating hate speech and learn from one another — there was no slate of policy recommendations developed or agreed upon by attendees during this conference,” Block added.
Block did confirm that CAM funded the trip. “[N]o city money was spent on this conference,” he added.
Different strokes at City Hall
Smiley’s even-keeled approach to governance has often served as a foil to the council’s tendency to float more sweeping reforms.
Not all of the council’s bolder wishes have gone fulfilled, but from rent stabilization and safe drug use sites to carbon neutral buildings and phasing out gas-powered leafblowers, Providence’s council generally has been a reliable source of progressive policy proposals. That progressivism also applies to the council’s November 2023 resolution urging a cease-fire in Gaza and a June 2024 ordinance that would divest city funds from Israel-linked bonds.
Both initiatives were led by Council Majority Whip Miguel Sanchez, who, in November 2023, was fired from his role as a staffer in Gov. Dan McKee’s office after posting his support for Palestine on social media and participating in a pro-Palestine rally.
Along with City Council President Rachel Miller, who has stated she’s of Jewish heritage, Sanchez also led the move to raise the Palestinian flag over City Hall in May. Some city officials argued that other flags from around the world, including Israel, had been flown in the recent past to celebrate different heritages. After the uproar over the Palestinian flag’s presence, Smiley signed an executive order setting rules for flags flown above City Hall.
Not all City Councilors have been on board with such maneuvers. Councilor James Taylor decried the flying of the Palestinian flag in May, the Providence Journal reported then, and former Councilor Helen Anthony did not support the move either.
The council’s actions, such as the divestment ordinance, resurfaced in Smiley’s speech at the CAM conference.
Included in Morales’ Dec. 4 statement was a quote from Sen. Sam Bell, a Providence Democrat who is Jewish and, like Morales, more closely aligned with the leftist wing of the Democratic party.
“While I’m grateful for his conversion to our religion, when Brett Smiley persecutes people who disagree with his right-wing views on Israel, especially fellow Jews, it makes Providence a less safe place to be a Jew,” Bell said.
Morales, replying via his campaign manager to Blocks’s statement, told Rhode Island Current, “The mayor’s statement would be more believable if he hadn’t spent the past two years filing criminal charges against peaceful college students exercising their right to protest.”
Morales was referring to the 41 Brown University students who were arrested on trespassing charges during a December 2023 sit-in that demanded the school divest from Israel-associated companies. The university administration and Smiley’s office opposed dropping the charges, which were filed in Providence District Court, but Judge Nicholas Parrillo ultimately issued a not guilty verdict in May 2024, citing their protest as “a reflection of what nonviolent and peaceful resistance, frankly, is supposed to look like.”
“There is critical work that has to be done to make Providence a safer city for all of our neighbors, especially in the face of antisemitism,” Morales added.
Alexander Castro covers education, health and technology for Rhode Island Current. He previously worked as a visual arts critic, curator and adjunct professor.
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