A Split Community
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JEWISH WORLD A Split Community US Jewish leaders are alarmed at the venom seeping in Jan Jaben-Eilon Atlanta N APRIL, WHEN A SMALL, BUT ly Los Angeles “Jewish Journal” in late May, someone who will make us clash on Israel?” vocal, group of US Jews attacked the The Jerusalem Report has learned. This ad Expressing similar concerns about the nomination of Rabbi Richard (Rick) “cites the positions of J Street and NIF and Reform Movement, Yvonne Baehr-Robertson, Jacobs, 55, for the position of president shows they are in direct conflict with policy a member of Temple Shalom in Newton, of the Union for Reform Judaism positions of the URJ.” Massachusetts, acknowledges that her objec- I(URJ), they made the already-strict American The ads and the ensuing debates have tion to Jacobs’s appointment has nothing to do Jewish litmus test of who is pro-Israel even reignited the smoldering, angry debate regard- with his rabbinical qualifications, but rather more demanding. ing the limits of acceptable discourse within with his connections to Israel. “I don’t know Jacobs, 55, has been the influential senior the American Jewish community. The fact that him or his background… The Reform rabbi of the prominent Westchester Reform the primary attacks against Jacobs came from Movement is moving in an unhealthy direction Temple of Scarsdale, New York, for the past members of the Reform Movement, generally for the State of Israel and the Jacobs nomina- 20 years and is involved in numerous commu- considered the most liberal stream of Judaism tion is a lightening rod.” nity efforts. A popular figure in the Reform in the US, underlines once again how deeply Indeed, a representative of J Street was and liberal communities in the US and Israel, this debate has permeated the community. And scheduled to speak at Temple Beth Avodah, he has been particularly outspoken on issues of this is raising concerns among some observers also in Newton, last November, but the pro- social justice and Jewish inclusivity. about whether the increasingly intolerant gram had to be moved to a nearby public His nomination was welcomed by many. American Jewish community will be able to school at the last minute when members of that But within weeks of the nomination, some conduct the difficult political conversations Temple expressed strong feelings against host- three dozen members of the Reform move- that are expected to be an integral part of the ing the group. ment, brought together over the Internet and upcoming 2012 presidential elections, espe- The intensity of the attacks against J Street calling themselves “Jews Against Divisive cially with regard to the US’s foreign policy and the NIF and the attempts to brand these, Leadership” (www.jadl.org), were demanding and policies towards Israel. and similar, organizations as anti-Israel and that the nomination be rescinded. even anti-Semitic, have been intensifying in In paid ads in several Jewish weeklies, the HE LOOSELY KNIT GROUP OF both Israel and the US. Yet the Reform move- group cited three reasons for their protest protesters, many of whom do not know ment was obviously caught off guard by the against Jacobs: his involvement with the three- Teach other, is led by Carol Greenwald, negative reactions to Jacobs’s appointment. year-old, left-leaning, pro-Israel J Street, an economist and investment manager from Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the current URJ president, which opposes settlements and calls for a Chevy Chase, Maryland, and was launched in tells The Report that his initial positive greater involvement by the Obama mid-April. Greenwald tells The Report that response and his perception of Jacobs as a Administration in the Israeli-Palestinian peace they hope “to convince the URJ to have Jacobs staunch Zionist indicate just how deep the process; his role on the board of directors of step down from the J Street rabbinic cabinet schisms of feelings are even within the the New Israel Fund, the umbrella funding and resign from the board of the New Israel Reform movement and how unaware the lead- group that provides funding for and conduits Fund,” which she refers to as “divisive” and ership has been. funds to most of Israel’s social action groups; outside of mainstream Jewish opinion. Jacobs has informed The Report that he and the fact that, on a recent visit to Israel, Vic Rosenthal and Stuart Weil, signees on will not speak with the media until the URJ Jacobs had participated in one of the weekly the advertisement and members of the board of trustees votes on his nomination in demonstrations held in the East Jerusalem Reform Temple Beth Israel in Fresno, mid-June. But in early May, speaking at the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah run by a loose- California, both tell The Report that they Reform Movement’s Religious Action ly organized group of left-wing activists to oppose J Street and the NIF because they are, Center’s Consultation on Conscience, Jacobs protest the takeover of Palestinian homes by in Rosenthal’s words, “inimical to the sur- declared that “leaders of the Reform Jewish right-wing settlers. vival of Israel.” Karin McQuillan of Movement must never be defined by member- “We call on the Union for Reform Judaism Congregation Beth Israel in Carmel, ship in outside organizations” – an obvious to reconsider this divisive appointment,” the California, tells The Report that “this isn’t an reference to the attacks on him due to his ad urged. “Do not drive mainstream Zionist argument about whether Jacobs is right or involvement with J Street and the NIF. Jews out of the Reform movement.” wrong, but the nomination is making Reform J Street’s President Jeremy Ben-Ami also A second ad, signed by about 100 individ- members uncomfortable… We Jews clash declined to comment for this story. But they uals, is scheduled to be published in the week- with each other so much already. Why choose are among the very few not commenting, one 28 THE JERUSALEM REPORT JUNE 6, 2011 refer to the tone and content of the ad as “tac- that Jacobs’s nomination is “problematic.” The tics of witch-hunting and demagoguery.” Reform Movement is in a statistical decline, More than one dozen presidents and lead- Sussman warns, and Jacobs’s relationships ers of the Reform Movement’s Central with J Street and NIF create a PR problem for Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the Reform Movement. “I don’t know if the largest and oldest rabbinical organization Jacobs… is a consensus-building person, but in the world, signed a letter to the editor at the starting blocks, it puts him in a difficult which expressed their enthusiastic support position,” he says. for the choice. Despite the CCAR’s support for Jacobs, Rabbi Eric Gurvis of Temple Shalom in Sussman argues that at least some of the objec- Newton, and Baehr-Robertson’s rabbi, says tion to Jacobs’s appointment stems from vest- “the campaign to discredit and delegitimize ed interests. Jacobs was among 18 rabbis of Jacobs is part of a bigger, ugly wind in the large Reform congregations around the coun- community that distresses me terribly... There try who founded a group known as the are people in the world who want to delegit- Rabbinic Vision Initiative (RVI). The group, imize Israel and now we’re trying to delegit- which became public in March and has since imize Jews because they don’t hold the ‘cor- expanded, has issued a position paper that rect’ support of Israel… We are at a precarious includes a strong critique of the URJ. Many BEN FINK SHAPIRO point, at a crossroads. And are we going to Reform rabbis are concerned, Sussman says, RABBI RICHARD JACOBS: Under fire walk to the crossroads together or walk away that the RVI, represented by large wealthy from each other?” congregations, will weaken CCAR. way or another, both inside and outside the Support for Jacob’s nomination – if not for Reform Movement. his positions – has also come from the wider N AN EXTENSIVE E-MAIL, Jewish community. A letter of support for Jonathan Sarna, professor of American N A LENGTHY INTERVIEW WITH Jacobs, published in the newsletter “eJewish IJewish history at Brandeis University tells The Report, Rabbi David Ellenson, presi- Philanthropy,” was written and signed by sev- The Report that “support for Rabbi Jacobs is Ident of Hebrew Union College-Jewish eral past and present leaders of organizations actually very broad within the Reform com- Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), the Reform with a broad range of constituents, including munity... It is widely known that the opposi- Movement’s rabbinic college, says, “I’m past presidents of the Conference of Presidents tion was organized outside the Reform move- struck virtually speechless that of anyone in of Major Jewish Organizations, rabbis from ment, not by members who are on the inside.” the world, Jacobs would be considered anti- the Conservative Movement and president and This is not really a story about Reform divi- Israel. The ad was beyond simplistic and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs sions, Sarna says. Rather, the controversy is smacked of McCarthyism.” (JCPA), Rabbi Steve Gutow. about boundaries within the American Jewish Ellenson continues, “The attack is the “Some of us identify ourselves with J community. “Once upon a time, non-support most despicable thing I’ve ever encountered Street, others with (right-leaning) AIPAC for the Israeli government put one outside the in my life in the Jewish community. This (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) boundaries of communal norms. Those days brings great shame to the Jewish community.