On the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, Bank of America is scrambling to put a lid on a planned “moment of silence” that has angered Jewish employees and sparked complaints to the bank’s CEO Brian Moynihan, The Post has learned.
Last week, a so-called corporate-resource or affinity group called the Arab Executive Advisory Council called on its members to join a virtual meeting at work and “observe a moment of silence with each other to remember the tragic loss of life on Oct. 7 and since then,” according to an internal memo obtained by The Post.
Jewish employees immediately took offense to the timing of the memo, which was sent on Wednesday at 6:45 p.m. – just as the Jewish holy day of Rosh Hashanah began.
Their affinity group, the Jewish Executive Advisory Council, planned their own Oct 7 gathering to “remember the tragic loss of life” a year ago, according to a separate memo obtained by The Post.
Indeed, many Jewish employees had no idea that there was a competing commemoration until later in the week since observant Jews refrain from work – including reading emails – during the holidays.
Some were likewise galled by the “since then” language as a criticism of Israel’s military response to the massacre.
Reps for both groups declined to comment on Monday.
Over the weekend, sources said Jewish BofA employees angrily alerted senior executives including Moynihan and his direct staff that a bank-approved group was in their view seeking to counter their commemoration of one of the worst massacres of Jews since the Holocaust.
“Why are they allowing something to go down like this and on this day?” one BofA employee fumed.
Senior BofA officials worked Sunday night through Monday morning to quell the controversy, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.
One plan on the table is to convince the Arab group to hold a joint moment of silence with Jewish employee groups.
A BofA spokesman told The Post “There are a number of events organized by employee networks at the bank to commemorate the terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7.”
He didn’t deny the controversy roiling the bank, and declined further comment.
Ethnic affinity or resource groups at major corporations have grown in recent years as companies increasingly embraced so-called Diversity Equity and Inclusion policies. Yet they are controversial as critics say they can sow divisiveness and sap employee morale.
Bank of America in recent months has been an unlikely epicenter of the nation’s culture wars as they involved tensions in the Middle East, with Moynihan playing a leading role in the contretemps.
Earlier in the year, Moynihan volunteered for the job as Chancellor of the Brown Corporation, the Ivy League university’s ruling body that is set to vote on whether the school’s $6 billion endowment should divest from companies that do business in Israel.
The vote, scheduled for Oct. 16 and 17, was part of a deal by the school’s administration with radical students protesting Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7 massacre.
The students agreed to remove a campus encampment in exchange for a divestiture vote– a controversial move that led one member of the Brown Corporation to resign. Joseph Edelman, writing in the Wall Street Journal said: “I find it morally reprehensible that holding a divestment vote was even considered, much less that it will be held—especially in the wake of the deadliest assault on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
After The Post earlier reported Moynihan’s involvement in the divestment vote, the bank received numerous complaints from major clients, people close to BofA say. Some argued to BofA management that Israel has the right to protect itself, and is the only real democracy in the region, also noting there are no similar votes to divest from countries like China that are oppressing ethnic minorities.
BofA officials have alerted staff to deflect all complaints framing Moynihan’s work for Brown as non-bank related.
