The annual conference of the Jewish Federations, the largest American Jewish communal organization, will be in Israel next month. The Forward’s Larry Cohler-Esses reports that the assembly will take up a lot of political issues but is avoiding all discussion of the occupation– which its leader declines to characterize as an occupation. Headline: “Debate Occupation? No Thanks, We’re Jewish.”
Another chapter in the tragedy of the American Jewish community. Let’s be clear, these folks are not just tuning out Palestinians (i.e., demonstrating racism), they’re ignoring all the Beinarts, the liberal Zionists. Cohler-Esses:
During a recent visit to the Forward’s newsroom, Jerry Silverman, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, … said [that the] GA’s 2013 program, he stressed, will emphasize the group’s openness to “dialogue” and “questions,” particularly from young Jews, with no holds barred.
“We need new thinking, new minds around the table,” emphasized Silverman, a former senior executive with the Stride Rite Corp. and Levi Strauss & Co.
But asked if the confab — one of the most important on the Jewish calendar — would include any discussion of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Silverman vigorously shook his head. His body language told a story of its own as he held his hands out in front of him as if pushing something away.
“I don’t use the word ‘occupation,’” he said. “We as an organization don’t get into the political arena.”
Yet on its website devoted exclusively to the GA, JFNA boasts that the gathering “tackles the most critical issues of the day” and brings together Jews “from North America and Israelis from across the political spectrum to discuss issues facing Israel.”
Cohler-Esses shows that the General Assembly will have many panels focusing on political questions, the delegitimization of Israel and how to make the case for Israel in the U.S. Ignoring the causes of that delegitimization.
Conference materials stress that the meeting will focus on new challenges and the search for new solutions, and clearly, occupation is pretty old. I tried some clicking to get the whiff of those new problem, and I actually did hit something that I was not familiar with. The clicking route was through a GA session on female philanthropy and a previous speaking engagement of one of the speakers.
“Jewish Federations” is a very troublesome name. They are obviously very Zionist kosher. How is a clued in Moroccan or Omani supposed to understand that Zionism is not Judaism ?
I guess they can just “talk, talk, talk among themselves”.
““We need new thinking, new minds around the table,” emphasized Silverman, a former senior executive with the Stride Rite Corp. and Levi Strauss & Co.”
This is not dialogue, this is not bending any arc toward justice, this is just piling more “feel-good” hasbara upon more hasbara.
(day-um– I wore plenty of Levi jeans and Stride Rite shoes as well)
BDS! 1S1P1V!
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/111013-the-arc-of-the-moral-universe-is-long-but-it
One more quote:
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Of course, not. There’s no occupation, just ever-creeping de facto annexation.
Major Jewish Federations refused to use the word “cancer” and insisted that Haredi prayers would protect Israel.