The Jewish Federation vs. Zionism
When the Los Angeles Jewish Federation stopped me from speaking last month, I said that Zionism was not welcome at the Jewish Federation. I didn’t know just how right I was. Last week Lori Lowenthal Marcus, the U.S. correspondent for the Jewish Press, reported that “in what has been described as ‘a closeted and cowardly move,’ the Jewish Federations of North America last week rejected the inclusion of the term ‘Zionism’ in a major system-wide planning document.”
According to Marcus, “Richard Wexler, former chair of the Chicago Federation and national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal in the late ‘90s, revealed yesterday, July 26, that JFNA’s leaders have rejected the inclusion of the term ‘Zionism’ in their Global Planning Table Work Group Report because the term ‘is too controversial.’”
“I am beyond disappointed and upset,” Wexler said. Marcus explained, “The rejection of Zionism by JFNA leaders was described by Wexler in his blogpost and in comments to The Jewish Press, as a continuing trend by Federations to distance themselves from Israel.”
This is the most mind-numbing and sickening news. Despite their carefully crafted half-denial, this is an attempt to distance themselves from Israel. And that is suicidal. The Jewish people are Israel. It’s like saying that I want to distance myself from myself. Or I want my heart removed from my body. I don’t want it anymore.
But in response to Marcus’s article, Jerry Silverman, the president and chief executive officer of the Jewish Federations of North America, issued a statement: “On July 27, 2012,” Silverman said, “Lori Lowenthal Marcus wrote accusing the Jewish Federations of North America of moving away from its support of Israel and Zionism. Nothing could be further from the truth. The ongoing support of Israel is fundamental to Federations and to JFNA. Our system sends hundreds of millions of dollars each year to Israel to support the vulnerable, to assist in education programs, to help new immigrants, to assist in job and skills development, and to provide concrete expressions of solidarity during Israel’s darkest hours. We connect American Jews to Israel and Israelis by supporting birthright and other youth and young adult programs, community and national missions to Israel, and innovative partnerships between our communities and Israeli communities. We are proud to be holding our 2013 General Assembly in Israel, where we will have an opportunity to highlight the important work we do with our partners in Israel.”
This is not Zionism. The Federation’s statement is clearly a deflection. Helping Jews throughout the world including in Israel is altogether different from Zionism.
I asked Marcus about this, and she pointed out that Silverman’s statement doesn’t say anything about the central claim of her article: that the Federation rejected use of the term “Zionism” in its Global Planning Table Work Group Report. She told me: “I stand by the story exactly as written — as written, some have not read it carefully and misreadings on both sides have blurred facts. It’s regrettable the JFNA folks chose not to respond to my queries and only issued a non-responsive statement after the article was already published.”
This is in line with what Steven M. Goldberg, national vice chairman of the Zionist Organization of America and chair of the ZOA Los Angeles chapter, told me about the Federation’s cancelation of my speech: “What happened to you in Los Angeles was not a momentary aberration. It was part of a pattern that defines the Federation.” The burying of the term “Zionism” for being too “controversial” is a manifestation of the same moral cowardice. So is what journalist Caroline Glick termed in April 2011 the “Jewish Federation’s financial and organizational support for University of California at Irvine’s Olive Tree Initiative,” a tour of Israel for Jewish students in the U.S.
The Olive Tree Initiative, Glick explains, “claims to be interested in fostering good relations between Jewish and Arab students,” but “it actually just propagandizes against Israel. The speakers who addressed students participating in the two-week trip were overwhelmingly anti-Israel. Almost all the Palestinian speakers expressed hatred for Israel. Many of the Israeli speakers represented groups that call for economic warfare against Israel and defame Israel as a racist state. Half of the supposedly neutral representatives of international organizations who spoke to the group are notorious for their opposition to Israel.”
And here again, when challenged on their support for the Olive Tree Initiative, according to Glick “the Federation and Hillel have dug in their heels.” The Federation also has included “Palestinian” jihad propaganda movies in its film festivals.
We live in times when those controlling the establishment media organizations increasingly fear confronting the true evils of the day, cowed by the forces of Islamic supremacism. It saddens me to number the Los Angeles Jewish Federation among these compromised elites, but it cannot be denied any longer. L.A.’s failed Jewish leadership follows in the rich tradition of its forebears who worshipped the golden calf. Imagine: Zionism is not welcome at the L.A. Jewish Federation.
Jewish leadership is on the trains and thinks we will go quietly. This is tragic. Is it any wonder that the American Jewish left has become a problem for Israel? Who are these people? What is their role? What is the point of these fat, bloated, morally bankrupt organizations? What is their mission? What’s the point of Jewish lay leadership if they submit before their executioners? Shame on our cowardly leadership for throwing one of our own under the bus. We expect that from kapos, not from proud Jews.
The kapos had a gun to their head. What is the Federation’s excuse?
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Thumbnail and illustration courtesy shutterstock / mhatzapa.
Kudos to PJ Media for hosting both Pamela and Robert Spencer. It’s to PJ Media’s great credit that they have the courage to fight for the right. Too many on the right blogosphere (such as Hot Air and Ace) have blacklisted counter-jihad writers in a bid to gain mainstream popularity. Keep up the good work!
The Jewish Federation is as useless to Zionism/Israel as the regular leftist-bent media is to the general citizenry. They serve NO purpose other than their own power-centered access.
I stopped giving to the Federation a long time ago. I told them to stop calling me, and to leave me the hell alone. They are relentless. They still ! call, even though I live in Israel, they are able to find me via my US access number!
Let them stew in their ‘tikkun olam’ gobblygook, which does little for Jews, other than massage some egos.
My blog, http://www.adinakutnicki.com is dedicated to true Zionist & Conservative thought provoking concepts. The poohbahs at the Federation would stroke out if they accessed it!
Let them.
Do you know how many Federations give to the leftist New Israel Fund? Because if they do, I’d rather they stayed away from Israel altogether.
The Joint, by the way (originally named because it was a merger of two organizations, one Orthodox) kept about a million Polish Jews alive in the period before WWII, when their fellow Poles were actively starving them out.
These theoretically ”Jewish” organizations do not represent the views of the vast majority of American Jews. They have been hijacked by Leftists & their fundraising is based on fraud, deception, & misrepresentation. And their leadership does not hesitate to vote themselves big salaries either. Many are just shills for the Democratic Party, their only function to keep the Jews on the reservation just like the Black leadership keeps the Blacks on the plantation.
I don’t know how you can say they don’t represent the opinions of American Jews – a people who overwhelmingly vote democrat no matter what. Rather I would say they truly DO represent American Jews since the democrats (being anti-Israel) have made no secret of their anti-Zionism for decades.
I don’t think that’s accurate at all. Most American Jews vote Democrat for a variety of historical reasons & Jews generally have ”liberal” opinions on most issues. But, the vast majority support Israel – they have been duped, they are uninformed, they are fooled by BS rhetoric about ”peace” & the worst is exactly the subject of this article, they are betrayed by Jewish ”leaders” including these Jewish organizations, liberal rabbis, & phoney-baloney Democrat politicians.
Not exactly, Terry. There has been steady attrition in liberal Jewish support for Israel over the past twenty years or so. In part because of images over ‘occupation’; in part because of the shift left of values of those liberal Jews which puts them in opposition to ‘settling land’ and so on, and in part because of assimilation. Of course, many still do support but it’s not like it once was.
I also think there’s been an implicit ultimatum: walk away from Zionism, or lose your standing in the left.
I regret the decision to disinvite Pam Geller. At the same time, there may also have been fear of her strong anti-Islamic views. No, I’m not justifying the fear, but it wouldn’t be surprising as Geller does go for the jugular.
As to whether the organizations are de-Zionized, ideologically at least in part. In practice, it’s less clear, Olive Trees and all. Unless Birthright and other programs are totally separate from the Federations, the labeling of the Federations collective as no-longer-Zionist seems overdone.
Sadly, I agree with both Adina Kutnicki and Larry in Israel. The “steady attrition in liberal Jewish support for Israel” that Larry refers to is one of the grimmest realities on the Jewish American scene — and it is largely attributable to what Mrs. Kutnicki calls “tikkun olam gobbledygook” — which is a mishmash of a few Jewish customs, an occasional Yiddish turn of phrase, and a vast heap of multiculturalism. It is the latter that has made many Jews on the American Left embarrasssed by, even ashamed of, Zionism as something retrogade and atavistic, which it considers all nationalisms to be. For many of these Jews, “tikkun-olamism” has become synonymous with Judaism. For true-believer tikkun-olamists, there may be 613 commandments – but the commandmemt that really counts is the 614th, which says “All nations are created equal — and thou shalt not prefer one over the other.” Many thanks to Pam Geller for her important — and depressing — report from the People’s Republic of Los Angeles.
It is a pretty tough situation. Yet there also some very strong people in various communities. But human nature is a tough nut to crack..
That’s why I can no longer support Hillel. Admittedly, these students have a very tough road. The propaganda on campus makes it extremely difficult/dangerous for them Most of the Jewish professors and Administrators are worse than useless.
The Muslims have plenty of advocates. they don’t need the Jews to advocate for their own destruction. Most of these people have the mistaken notion that if Israel goes away Jews will have peace and love in their own country and throughout the world.One has only to read history BEFORE the modern state of Israel to recognize the lie at the core of their theory.
everyone should read, ‘THE COMING: A TRUE STORY OF HORROR’ @ Amazon.com. Not only does it show what our future will soon be, this is a man fighting Islam at every turn. Proceeds from his book go to do just that.
The Jewish Federations were formed to support philanthropy, as a United Fund would do. Over the years, their Jewish awareness dwindled while their desire to pose as a communal governing body grew. So now Israel presumably has to suffer because of some Federation leaders’ ignorance + arrogance. I hope the sane remnant can bring them back down to earth.
jews are always worried about fitting in with the prevailing zeitgeist. if obama can obliterate the words “terrorist” and “muslim terrorists” then the least the Federation can do they figure is vaporize “zionist” and ism. it is all very peculiar and lost completely on the young, who don’t have much use for words one way or the other, and are unwilling or unable to read in any case.
pamela geller, by the way, does not “go for the jugular”, she merely tells the truth and is straightforward about who is the enemy, which as it happens, is islam.
I think she does go for the jugular, and I did not mean it as a criticism.
It is not too shocking about the Jewish Federations and Hillel; especially the Jewish Federation. If you want to see an American organization built along socialist lines there is no better example.
The overarching organization and not what it does is what is important, it endlessly asks for funds which are dispersed as THEY see fit. There is no accountability or oversight. The so-called leadership is an insider’s group and so much money goes to high salaries and plush offices it would almost shame the DNC. They have turned totally away from religious jews although it use to be to their credit that they were scrupulously closed on Shabbat. Now the big question is are the closed because it is Christmas or are they open because its Shabbos? (They were closed because it was Christmas).
This should not be looked at as a failure of the Jewish community but what happens when socialists (and of course the baby boomers) get in charge.
This is nothing new coming out of the Federations. As far back as Pres Reagan the JFNA has been a shill for the DNC/leftists political parties. Pro Reagan Jewish professionals were run out of the Federation and blackballed within the Jewish-American philanthropy community. The more anti-Israel the DNC gets the more anti-Israel will their Jewish acolytes. JFNA is run by Jews who are only interested in leftist political power and what it can get them. Look at how much their top givers are donating to the most anti-Israel president in history-Obama and trying to defame Romney as an anti-Semite.They are many things but philanthropists is not it. I stopped giving to JFNA decades ago,and give directly to the organizations I support both in the USA and in Israel. It is time other Jews do the same.
The Jewish Federation chapters around the country are somewhat autonomous, but with few exceptions, are worthless at best. Here in Orange County, not only have they funded the Olive Tree Initiative, a wolf in sheep’s clothing if you care about Israel, but they have covered up the problem of anti-Semitic hate speech at UC Irvine for years because they are so embedded with the university. The result is a feckless outfit that tries to keep its donors in the dark about what goes on on our campus. Kudos to geller for shining some more light on this dangerous organization.
Gary Fouse
adj teacher
UC Irvine Ext
I recommend for everyone’s consideration an Arutz Sheva article of 09 MAY 2010 by Daniel Greenfield entitled ‘Obama’s Plan to Destroy Israel’, to be found at: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/9482#.UBm_KoEyEyf
The entire article is worth reading, but one paragraph in particular relates to the issue at hand:
“American Jews – Obama has been clever about putting his Jewish appointees front and center.
“Like many minorities, some American Jews suffer from self-esteem problems that are soothed when they see a seeming acceptance. Of course what they fail to realize is that exploitation is not acceptance. And that Obama’s appointees are creatures of his backers, Nazi collaborators like Soros, who have nothing but contempt for Jews, individually or collectively.
“While outwardly courting Jews, Obama’s people have also been quietly shoving Jewish organizations and their leaders into a corner. Within the Jewish organizational world there has been a silent but deadly takeover of major Jewish groups by left wing radicals. Former alumni of the far left wing and anti-Israel groups like Breira or Coname in the 70′s have been elevated to key positions in such organizations as the UJA Federation. Behind the scenes any Jewish leaders who expressed even doubts about Obama during the primaries were intimidated and silenced.”
Greenfield does not explain how this co-opting of Jewish organizations took place. Is it because the leaders are products of the same educational system that is producing a general leftist orientation? Or is it because the leaders know that to get the attention of the administration they must lean to the left and they have no moral compunctions against doing so? It is the latter tendency that produced the capos.
I urge, as essential reading, R. Meir Kahane’s book Why be Jewish? He makes clear that the Jewish communal establishment is not merely anti-Zionist, but is actively anti-Judaism. They are extremely dangerous. Boycott them; do not support them.
We are close to the days when the Jewish federations of LA, Orange County, SF, etc will get large grants from the Saudis. Since that day is near, they dont need my contributions
Salaam
When the word Zionism becomes politically incorrect next word to scrap will be Jew.
“Jewish leadership is on the trains and thinks we will go quietly.”
So it now indeed appears. I’d guessed we’ve been living in some repeat of the 1930s and am not pleased to see yet more evidence. We have to stop these trends this time–one way or another.