A professor at Trinity College (I am told it’s Ronald Kiener, a religion professor) reports on The Jewish Ledger of Hartford, CT, slamming J Street as anti-Israel and then refusing to cover a J Street event or run a letter from Trinity professors in support of J Street. Wow. Horrifying. And I talk about free speech in the Muslim world! Further coverage of the incident here. But here’s Kiener:
Two weeks ago, [N. Richard] Greenfield published an editorial entitled “Supporting J Street Harms Israel,” signed by the owner himself. The occasion for this editorial was a planned co-sponsored event between the local Jewish Community Relations Council and J Street Connecticut, at which Colette Avital, former Consul General of Israel in New York, former Labor MK and former Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, was to speak. Claimed Greenfield: “J Street stands outside the boundaries of acceptable behavior for most Jews.” It was an extreme, beyond-the-pale bit of drivel, typical for Greenfield. Simultaneously, The Ledger published a letter from a collection of local opponents of J Street which called upon the JCRC to sever its ties with J Street and renounce the co-sponsorship.
The event went forward on June 13 to a full house (and was not covered by The Ledger). A group of colleagues at Trinity College, representing diverse positions when it comes to Israel (all supportive), sent in response a letter to the editor, which Greenfield refused to print , because (as I have known for nearly 20 years) he is an extremist ideologue who hasn’t the slightest idea how to run a respectable communal newspaper. Here is the letter…
