Introduction
Using the JLens Proxy Voting Guidelines, JLens casts proxy votes on behalf of Jewish values-based investors. During the 2025 proxy season (April – June 2025), JLens cast votes on 4,588 proposals at 353 companies.
JLens approaches proxy voting from a perspective informed by Jewish tradition, applying ancient wisdom to today’s investment process. JLens’ philosophy on voting proxies is driven by alignment with its Jewish advocacy pillars of Combat Antisemitism & Hate, Support for Israel, and Repair the World (Tikkun Olam).
What is Proxy Voting?
The term proxy vote refers to a ballot cast by a single person or firm on behalf of a corporation’s shareholder who has chosen to delegate their vote. Shareholders receive a proxy statement, which describes the issues to be voted on during the annual shareholder meeting. Shareholders vote on resolutions proposed by other shareholders, along with a variety of management issues, such as the election of board members, merger or acquisition approvals, and approving a stock compensation plan. Many companies hold their annual shareholder meeting between April to June of each year, a period which is commonly referred to as “proxy season.”
How Does JLens’ Vote?
JLens believes that proxy voting is an important aspect of shareholder engagement with companies, serving as an additional mechanism to promote the Jewish community’s interests as a shareholder. Through proxy voting, JLens can express its support or discontent with company management as well as aim to make voting decisions on issues that best serve Jewish community interests.
While many proxy votes cast are on routine matters, such as executive compensation, election of directors, and ratification of auditors, JLens concentrates a significant amount of time evaluating ballot items that are relevant to Jewish values.
As a leading investor advocacy organization working to combat antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in the corporate sphere, JLens takes a strong stance against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and issues pertaining to antisemitism in its proxy voting. For example, JLens votes against shareholder proposals designed to demonize and delegitimize the State of Israel, which are often filed by supporters of the BDS movement under the guise of human rights proposals. Additionally, in voting for company directors, JLens will consider whether their companies have been involved in anti-Israel, pro-BDS, antisemitic, or hate-related actions or controversies. JLens may also vote against directors in cases in which the company’s products and services have been used to promote antisemitism and hate.
Highlights of the 2025 Proxy Season
Combat Antisemitism & Hate
Holding Social Media Platforms Accountable for Hate
Meta
JLens filed and voted FOR Proposal 8 at Meta Platforms, which requested a report on the company’s effectiveness in addressing antisemitism, anti-LGBTQ+ hate, and anti-disability hate across its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. In the proposal’s rationale, JLens highlighted that Meta actively abandoned certain policies meant to prevent hate on its platforms, and research shows its new content moderation policies have allowed for increased hate and harassment online. According to ADL research from its 2024 Report on Online Hate and Harassment, 22% of Americans experienced severe harassment on social media in 2024, and 34% of Jewish adults reported being targeted because of their religion—nearly double the 18% reported by non-Jewish adults. The proposal received 14.6% of the total shareholder vote, but when adjusted to reflect only independent shareholders, support jumped to 46.8%—making it the highest-performing human rights-related shareholder proposal of the 2025 proxy season. Read more about the Meta campaign here.
Support for Israel
Combating the BDS Movement
Alphabet, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and Intel
During the 2025 proxy season, JLens led a campaign opposing four major proposals aligned with Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) activities, which were filed at Alphabet, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and Intel. JLens voted AGAINST these four shareholder proposals (Alphabet Proposal 9, General Dynamics Proposal 4, Lockheed Martin Proposal 5, and Intel Proposal 5). These proposals used human rights language to single out each company’s business relationships with Israel, calling for impact assessments or increased scrutiny of operations involving the Israeli government. ADL believes that many of the founding goals of the BDS movement, which effectively reject or ignore the Jewish people’s right of self-determination, or that, if implemented, would result in the eradication of the world’s only Jewish state, are antisemitic. These proposals received between 4.5% to 9.64% of votes in support from investors. Read more about these proposals here.
Tikkun Olam
Child Safety
Alphabet
JLens voted FOR Proposal 14 at Alphabet, which requested a report on child safety impacts and harm reduction to children on its platforms, specifically YouTube. In the proponent’s rationale for this report, they highlight that YouTube puts children at risk for cyberbullying, depression, self-harm, suicide, and even sexual exploitation. The proponent states that investors and stakeholders cannot verify Alphabet’s claims to improve child safety on YouTube without publicly available harm reduction performance metrics provided in a report. During the 2025 proxy season, JLens tended to support child safety proposals, as it is an important Jewish value to support the welfare of children. The Babylonian Talmud writes “the world endures only for the breath of school children”(Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 119b), emphasizing our duty to the next generation. The proposal received 9.3% of the total shareholder vote, which when you account for independent shareholders only, it received 24.5% of vote.
Worker Health & Safety
Amazon
JLens voted FOR Proposal 10 at Amazon, which requested a report and audit of warehouse working conditions and the treatment that Amazon warehouse workers face. In the proponent’s rationale for this report, they highlight that Amazon has not taken adequate measures to protect its warehouse workers from workplace illness and injury. According to the proposal, in 2023, Amazon employed 35% of all American warehouse workers, yet was responsible for 53% of all serious industry-wide injuries. During the proxy season, JLens tended to support workplace safety, particularly where company performance was lagging, as it is an important value of Jewish practice to treat workers with dignity and respect. Deuteronomy 24:14 states, “You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer.” The proposal received 22.5% of the total shareholder vote.
Dual Class Structure and Voting Rights
In the 2025 proxy season, JLens, along with many other institutional investors, voted against members on the nominating and governance committees at numerous companies that maintained dual-class voting structures with unequal voting rights. Dual class structure allows a company to issue multiple classes of stock with unequal voting rights. Classes of stock with superior voting rights, which are typically owned by founders and executives, have no greater economic interest in the company but carry superior voting interests. The most notable application of this policy was JLens’ vote against the Meta CEO and director Mark Zuckerberg, who has 61% of total voting power at Meta, despite his economic stake being far lower than his voting power. JLens also voted in support of Proposal 6 to eliminate the dual class voting structure at Meta, which received 25.8% of the total shareholder vote and 82.4% of the independent shareholder vote.
DoorDash
In another application of this policy, JLens voted against the election of director John Doerr (Proposal 1b). DoorDash began trading on the New York Stock Exchange nearly five years ago, and has since not issued any time-based sunsets for its multi-class structure. JLens marked its dissatisfaction with the company’s class structure by voting against the director John Doerr, who is Chair of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. JLens notes that dual and multi-class share structures hinder directors’ accountability to their company’s shareholders and believes each share should carry one vote. The director received 87.8% of the total shareholder vote, while all other DoorDash directors received an average shareholder vote of 94.8%.
Conclusion
In 2025, JLens had a successful first proxy season, applying the first-ever Jewish values-aligned proxy voting guidelines to the ballots of prominent US companies included in the JLens 500 Jewish Advocacy U.S. index. From casting votes in support of combating antisemitism to standing up against BDS-aligned proposals, JLens aspires to represent the Jewish shareholder voice at the corporate ballot box. In the upcoming 2026 proxy season, JLens will continue to work hard to help ensure that Jewish communal voices are heard in boardrooms across America.
