IN 5768, ESTABLISHMENT FACED NEW UPSTARTS
By Ben Harris
Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle
Thursday September 25th, 2008
New York (JTA) — In the weeks leading to last Rosh HaShanah, the
Anti-Defamation League, bowing to pressure and a revolt by its New
England board, reversed its refusal to recognize the Armenian genocide.
Wary of offending Turkey — a close ally of both Israel and the United
States — the ADL had refused to say whether the term "genocide" should
apply to the Ottoman Turks’ massacres of Armenians during World War I.
President George Bush, center, walks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert, left, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in
Annapolis, Md., on Nov. 27, 2007. Photo by Omar Rashidi/PPO BHI Images.
But on Aug. 21, 2007, the group’s national director, Abraham Foxman,
said the "consequences" of the killings were "tantamount to genocide."
The reversal capped a weeks-long standoff that began with a ragtag
group of activists in Boston goading one of the most formidable
organizations in the Jewish world.
Though the campaign began to lose steam as 5768 progressed, it set
a tone that continued throughout much of the Jewish year: upstart
activists and new groups challenging the Jewish establishment on a
widening range of issues.
â~@¢ In Washington, a new Jewish organization, J Street, challenged
the capital’s pro-Israel alliance led by the hegemonic American Israel
Public Affairs Committee.
â~@¢ A federal immigration raid in Iowa at the country’s largest kosher
meatpacking plant spurred left-wing activists and liberal Orthodox
rabbinic students into action, and boosted a new Conservative ethical
kashrut initiative seeking to supplement the kosher certification
industry.
â~@¢ Holocaust survivors clashed with top Jewish groups over a
congressional resolution that would help initiate lawsuits against
European insurers accused of defaulting on World War II-era policies.
â~@¢ And in a presidential election season that has seen both major
parties nominate anti-establishment figures, Democratic nominee
Barack Obama’s team faced an effort to brand him a Muslim and a
terrorist sympathizer — one persisting despite denunciations by
Jewish politicos and organizations.
"This is part of what’s going on in our society, in terms of both
24-7 news coverage — that is no less true in terms of Jewish media
than in general society — and the atomization of opinion that was
always a Jewish trait," said Jeffrey Solomon, the president of the
Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies.
"We joke about the community that has two Jews and three
synagogues. That was always a private joke. But when you combine it
with the growth of news coverage, blogs, etc., there is more attention
being given to the various opinions that exist outside of mainstream
organizations," he said.
The J Street band
J Street, a lobbying group and political action committee,
was launched in April by some of the biggest names in the dovish
pro-Israel community.
The goal, according to the group’s executive director, Jeremy Ben-Ami,
is to present an alternative to the pro-Israel giants, particularly
AIPAC, in the halls of the U.S. Congress.
In June, the group issued its first congressional endorsements,
supporting one Republican and six Democrats. It also urged the
presidential candidates to wish Israel a happy 60th birthday by
pledging to pursue a two-state solution if elected.
J Street also has challenged the Jewish community’s willingness
to partner with evangelical Christian groups supportive of Israel,
contending that those groups oppose Israeli concessions, seeing them
as violations of God’s will.
In July the group, in partnership with Democracy for America, delivered
a 40,000-signature petition to Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) urging
him not to address the annual Washington-Israel summit of Christians
United for Israel, the Christian Zionist group founded by Texas Pastor
John Hagee.
Like the Armenian and Jewish activists who challenged the ADL,
J Street plays David to AIPAC’s Goliath. The new group, which has
a four-person staff, projected its annual budget at $1.5 million,
compared to the roughly $50 million AIPAC spends.
Still, organizers promised to play tough. They are animated by belief
that most U.S. lawmakers support more intensive American involvement in
the peace process and want more done to support Palestinian moderates,
but are afraid of the political consequences of speaking out.
Thunder on the right
Meanwhile, in New York, a grass-roots campaign from the other end
of the political spectrum targeted a Barnard College anthropologist,
Nadia Abu El-Haj, who was up for tenure.
New Jersey spy? — Ben-Ami Kadish, who allegedly spied for Isarel,
leaves a federal courthouse in New York on April 22. Photo by Ben
Harris.
The campaign was led by a group of mostly Jewish Barnard alumni. It
charged that El-Haj produced shoddy scholarship and harbored animosity
toward Israel. Her defenders countered that her views are consistent
with those of many Israeli archaeologists and were twisted by
right-wing critics.
Barnard announced in November that Abu El-Haj was granted tenure.
Early in 2008, e-mails began to circulate claiming that Democratic
presidential contender Obama is a Muslim, had attended a madrasa as
a child in Indonesia and had been sworn into office on a Koran.
All three claims are false, as news media and Jewish defenders
quickly pointed out. Obama’s father was a non-practicing Muslim and
the Illinois senator embraced Christianity at Chicago’s Trinity United
Church of Christ, an association that would soon reveal a different
set of liabilities.
In January, leaders of several of the largest U.S. Jewish organizations
— among them the United Jewish Communities, the American Jewish
Committee, the Jewish Council on Public Affairs, and the Reform and
Orthodox congregational arms — signed a letter refuting the rumors
about Obama. Seven Jewish senators later signed a letter echoing the
same theme.
Still, the charges continued to circulate during the primaries and
raised doubts about Obama among some Jewish voters.
Eventually, the attack against Obama moved to more conventional
ground, with Jewish critics focusing — whether fairly or accurately
was debated — on his associates, positions and experience.
But as recently as May, The New York Times reported that Jewish voters
in the key swing state of Florida still thought that Obama is Muslim, a
member of Chicago’s Palestinian community and was endorsed by al-Qaida.
In primaries in several of the states with the largest Jewish
populations, Obama lost to his main Democratic opponent, U.S
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.). On her home turf, New York and New
Jersey, and in Pennsylvania, Obama lost the Jewish vote by sizable
margins.
But he handily won among Jews in Connecticut, 61 percent to 38 percent,
and narrowly in California and Massachusetts despite losing those
states overall.
Several polls show Obama stalled at 60 percent of the Jewish vote
in his fight against his Republican foe, U.S. Sen. John McCain
(R-Ariz.) — a significant drop from the 75 to 80 percent enjoyed
by recent Democratic standard-bearers — suggesting that the attacks
may be taking a toll.
Kosher kerfuffle
Establishment organizations say they are the victims of smear campaigns
as well — the ADL by Armenian activists, AIPAC by its liberal critics
and Hagee by those who portray him as a sexist and a homophobe.
Aaron Rubashkin outside his Brooklyn butcher shop on June 3. Photo
by Ben Harris.
That sort of back and forth — with both sides charging they are being
unfairly tarred by their adversaries — also characterized perhaps
the biggest Jewish news story of the year: the controversy surrounding
Agriprocessors, the largest kosher meat producer in the United States.
In May, federal authorities conducted the largest immigration raid
in U.S. history at the company’s packing plant in Postville, Iowa,
netting 389 illegal workers and prompting a flood of allegations
against the company from former employees.
A grand jury is investigating and the Iowa attorney general is
considering criminal charges in 57 cases of alleged child labor. No
senior managers have yet been charged.
The company’s owner, Brooklyn butcher Aaron Rubashkin, has denied
wrongdoing. His defenders allege a witch-hunt by the United Food and
Commercial Workers Union, abetted by liberal Jews and the news media.
The critics say the company has a history of flouting government
regulations and seeks to maximize profits on the backs of immigrant
laborers.
Both sides accuse the other of failing to live up to the high-minded
ideals they espouse.
As recriminations flew, the episode boosted the Conservative movement’s
upstart food certification, Hekhsher Tzedek, which aims to label as
kosher food produced in an ethical and environmentally responsible
manner.
The brainchild of a Conservative rabbi in Minnesota, Morris Allen,
Hekhsher Tzedek released its guidelines in late July. This represents
the first attempt by non-Orthodox Jews to influence the kosher
food market.
While Allen insists his certification is meant to coexist with
existing certifications, established kosher agencies cast wary eyes
on his efforts.
"What does somehow trouble me a little is the fact that they are
devoting all their efforts to kosher food companies," said Rabbi Avrom
Pollak, the president of Star-K, a kosher certifier that works with
more than 1,500 manufacturers. "I think it should be a much broader
effort. All the services that we use and buy should also be subject
to the same scrutiny."
A group of workers walk out of Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in
Postville, Iowa, along with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agents on May 12. Photo by John Gaps III/Des Moines Register.
As the outcry over Agriprocessors’ conduct grew, a coalition of
25 Orthodox rabbis traveled to Postville to conduct their own
inspection. They issued the company a clean bill of health.
But critics were quick to point out that Agriprocessors paid for
their trip and they did not meet with former workers who alleged
mistreatment. The rabbis spent three hours in the plant.
Though the Orthodox community largely rallied to the company’s defense,
an Orthodox social justice group, Uri L’tzedek, broke ranks and called
for a boycott of Agriprocessors products.
The boycott was quickly called off — too quickly, some said —
after the company hired a compliance officer and took other measures
to ensure its workers were treated fairly.
Though dismissed by right-wing Orthodox figures as a fringe group
with a tiny following, Uri L’tzedek was thrust into the public eye by
the controversy, raising its profile in a way that will likely boost
its potency down the road. Some critics charged it had seized on the
Postville situation for precisely that reason.
A right to sue
Though most upstart-establishment battles split the community along
religious, political or generational lines, one fight transcended
all three.
This was over a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would
give Holocaust survivors the right to sue European insurance companies
over World War II-era policies.
The Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act is still making its way
through congressional committees.
Samuel Dubbin, the Florida attorney and former Department of
Justice official pushing the bill, contends that the right to sue is
fundamental and should not be abridged.
He also charges that the official body created to resolve the insurance
issue, the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims,
or ICHEIC, was a failure, paying only a fraction of the estimated
value of Jewish insurance policies held before the war.
Not surprisingly, the European insurance industry has lobbied to
defeat the bill. But Dubbin and his client, the Holocaust Survivors
Foundation, also engaged in legislative combat with the largest Jewish
groups and the Claims Conference, the principal Jewish organization
for Holocaust restitution.
Those groups claim that the flood of potential lawsuits would do little
to help survivors and would jeopardize restitution negotiations with
European companies and governments.
The fight has grown increasingly acrimonious. An official of the Claims
Conference accused Dubbin of unrealistically raising the survivors’
expectations in the hopes of reaping millions in legal fees.
Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), a backer of the bill, wondered at a
congressional hearing in February how Jewish leaders could sleep while
preventing survivors from being compensated for defaulted policies.
Advocates for the legislation have said the bill would benefit needy
Holocaust survivors, many of whom may find themselves with even less
communal support in the coming year if the faltering economy hits
the Jewish philanthropic world as hard as some expect.
Economic tzuris
Economic concerns have risen to the forefront of the Jewish agenda
as 5768 draws to a close.
After the March collapse of Bear Stearns, a major Wall Street bank
and a significant source of Jewish charitable financing, philanthropy
professionals worried that a continued slide in stock and real estate
markets could force them to cut their allocations significantly.
At the annual gathering of the Jewish Funders Network, held in April
in Jerusalem, philanthropists and foundation professionals expressed
concern that a philanthropic recession was coming.
"People are beginning to be nervous, especially in places where the
economy is so based on banking and real estate," Richard Marker,
an independent philanthropy adviser and a professor of philanthropy
at New York University, told JTA then.
"And I don’t think that the Jewish community is going to be exempt,"
Marker continued. "There is going to be tremendous pressure on both
the philanthropists and the nonprofit world."
At the same time, the dollar’s decline hit Jewish groups operating
overseas as well as Israeli nonprofits.
In July, for example, the Reform movement announced that because of
the faltering dollar, its Israel center was facing a major budget
shortfall. The movement said it needed $500,000 to "save" its Israel
operation, which was facing a decline of more than 30 percent in
its budget.
"We’re going to find out who the strong and the weak were. It’s an
almost Darwinian survival of the fittest," said Jonathan Sarna, a
professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University. "We’ll
only find out which Jewish institutions are severely undercapitalized
if the recession deepens."
Though the faltering economy shadows the waning days of 5768, the
year had some celebrations. One in particular provided a reminder that
grassroots challenges to authority have yielded some of U.S. Jewry’s
greatest moments.
In November, the community marked the 20th anniversary of the struggle
for Soviet Jewry, a campaign that mobilized thousands of Jews across
the country on a scale unequaled before or since.
What began as a student-led effort in the 1960s blossomed into a
worldwide movement, leading to the largest Jewish exodus in history
and, some say, playing a role in the ultimate fall of the Soviet Union.
According to Henry Feingold, the author of a recently published book
on the struggle: "It was probably American Jewry’s finest hour."
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