Benjy Cannon is the head of a liberal Zionist student organization, J Street U. His group got a meeting with Eric Fingerhut, the head of Hillel International, after Fingerhut pulled out of J Street’s national conference in March because a Palestinian leader was speaking there and J Street U swarmed his offices in protest and got him to agree to meet.
Well, the meeting was very disappointing. The young liberal Zionists asked Fingerhut to come address a group of 125 student leaders. Fingerhut was noncommittal. And: “We asked to be put in touch with some of Hillel’s donors who might misunderstand who we are,” Cannon reports. Again, Fingerhut made no commitment.
Cannon issues a challenge about Fingerhut’s “powerful donors”:
Right now, Hillel faces a choice. Will they align themselves with the students they seek to serve? Or will outside stakeholders define their agenda? Many American Jewish communal institutions face a similar choice, caught between a small but powerful group of donors with views that are significantly right-of-center, and the vast majority of their constituents who make up a large, moderate middle.
I applaud Cannon’s courage. Steven Salaita addressed the same issue frankly in his lawsuit against the University of Illinois. I’ve sought to document the power of conservative Jewish donors in American politics: just look at the farce inside the Republican Party over kissing up to Israel, look at Obama’s commitment to Israeli control over Jerusalem during the presidential race in 2012, look at the two Haaretz writers who have likened the Jewish bosses to the anti-semitic forgery, the protocols of the elders of Zion.
This is not the first time Cannon has bewailed the dead hand of the past, using money to control Jewish political life. Last week in Haaretz, Cannon said that Sheldon Adelson’s money was dooming the fight inside the Zionist community against BDS. “[N]o amount of money or secret conferences” would stem the progressive Jewish flight to BDS, he said. Only ending the occupation will do that. “If they are serious about defeating BDS, American Jewish leaders must forfeit Adelson’s money for the sake of engaging in honest conversations that generate positive results.”
That secret conference in Las Vegas produced commitments to spend $20 million to fight BDS. What a joke. It won’t work. BDS calls on young Jews’ idealism; while the establishment leaders believe that everyone can be bought.
And by the way, liberal Zionist groups like Cannon’s, which are actually conservative, are stuck in the middle here. Fingerhut doesn’t want them, and neither does the progressive Jewish left. As this battle becomes more polarized, many liberal Zionists will leap to our side, and call for a principle they uphold in the U.S., one person, one vote.
“Many American Jewish communal institutions face a similar choice, caught between a small but powerful group of donors … , and the vast majority of their constituents …”
As Mondoweiss has repeatedly documented, this small group of powerful donors also finances the widespread suppression of facts and discussion. This immediately raises a significant question about their integrity. Do they have ulterior motives? Do they personally profit from the crimes they are covering up? Are they operating from a moral high ground, or a moral swamp? Are they manipulating and using the greater Jewish community as pawns in a high stakes game of greed?
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that’s the message; NO SALE
the dam is breaking more people are hearing the truth
people who can not be bought
people who see themselves in those who are made to suffer injustice
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what are the odds on
one ‘billionaire’ v one billion people
this one picks the people
after all they/we made the billionaire and they can unmake ‘him’
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NOT FOR SALE
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G-d Bless
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liberal Zionist groups like Cannon’s, which are actually conservative, are stuck in the middle here. Fingerhut doesn’t want them, and neither does the progressive Jewish left. As this battle becomes more polarized, many liberal Zionists will leap to our side, and call for a principle they uphold in the U.S., one person, one vote.
yeah, it’s inevitable. i don’t see many of them swinging rightward.