Israel Politics Leads Federation to Cut Funding to Student Voices
Money is power.
And it’s a shame when quallity journalism is shuttered because it doens’t meet the party lines.
So it’s even worse when the two collide and money is pulled form innovative projects such as New Voices magazine, published by the Jewish Student Press Serivce, recent selectee of the highly-competitive Slingshot award.
Check the article about New Voices’ funding woes in today’s Forward which stems from a conservative funder who took issue with the open freedom of writers to plumb the controversial depths of real Israeli life.
Slamming the reciever down when the voices of young people rings is a great way to (a) piss off the caller and (b) to lose the very involvement and interest in community of those on whom the greater community spending millions on “continuity” efforts. It’s a great chance for us to send in letters about why New Voices is a good thing, not a boring/anti-Semitic thing, and deserves institutional support.
In the words of one of New Voices’ writers:
The naked fact is that New Voices has gotten me interested in Israel and is responsible for perhaps a third or a half of what I currently know about Jewish traditions and history and current events (sad but true). I just sent in a letter to [email protected]. I think somebody else should write one that says, in [New Voices’ editor] Ilana’s words, “why it’s important that NV’s material gets out there: that the material the J community makes available to J college students is so one-sided in support of Israel that they are ill-equipped to engage in a substantive discussion and debate with more critical peers.”
Here is a sample letter to use:
To the Editor:
I was distressed to read in this week’s Forward about the Solelim Fund’s decision to cut funding for New Voices magazine (“Student Magazine’s Funding Cut,” October 20, 2006).
New Voices is one of the great magazines for it’s Jewish student life and Middle East coverage, distinguished by the quality of its writing and its wide editorial range. Few magazines available in this country, let alone on college campuses, offer coverage as thoughtful and engaged as New Voices, which publishes first-hand reports from locations throughout the world and campuses across the country. With its small staff and shoestring budget, it manages to achieve what no glossy literature published by an advocacy organization can do: it engages the interest of an increasingly diverse and geographically scattered generation of Jews and their peers. In that sense, it does more to strengthen our Jewish identity and interest in Israel than a million Birthright trips ever could.
The Solelim Fund’s decision to cut funding for the magazine and compromise its editorial standards is regrettable, and I hope it will reconsider. Failing that, I hope other Jewish organizations will step forward to allow New Voices to continue promoting awareness of the Middle East and engaging young Jews in the challenges facing their community.
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
Or send your support to Ilana Sichel and Sarah Braunstein by subscribing for your free issue and checking the full content oneline at www.newvoices.org!
I’m not sure I see the problem here. If the Federation’s money is set aside for pro-Israel advocacy, and said recipient is engaging in activies that are not what the donor feels is pro-Israel advocacy, then the money gets pulled. Welcome to the real world boys and girls, there’s no such thing as free and money comes with strings.
As far as only giving Zionist neophytes a one-sided view of Israel, well why not? The goal of Birthright is not to provide a complex and nuanced view of the Israel-Arab conflict, rather it’s an attempt to induce young Jews to fall in love with Israel. There’s nothing wrong with that. On my first date with my wife I did not feel the need to tell her that I snore and fart in bed. There was plenty of time to find that out later as the relationship progressed.
The same with Israel and Birthright participants. Most of them are just looking for a free 10 day party, and if they come out of it with some kind of connection to Israel stronger than when they got there, great (call it a second date). If they have a deeper sense of their Jewish identity, even better (they got to second base!). And if they reach a point in their relationship with Israel that they are able to explore the nuanced and complicated reality of Israel (and the conflicts with her neighbors), that’s ideal (a relationship!)
The bone I have to pick with many of those who define themselves as Progressives is that they seem to have a guilt complex that manifests itself in slamming Israel. How sad it is that there are those who define their Jewish identity through criticizing Israel and/or its policies. Even sadder when they truck with those who are not content with criticizing Israel’s policies, but Israel’s existence (see any Jewish member or friend of the International Solidarity Movement et al). I am loathe to use the term “self-hating” in any context, but this would seem to get mighty close to an apt use of it.
If it was up to me, I would not pull the funding. There is a place in our community for serious reflection on the policies of Israel’s government and the nature of Israeli society. I would, however, call out these would be lovers of Zion that if they are going to criticize Birthright for presenting a simplistic and one-sided rosy view of Israel, they need take a long, hard look at the simplistic and one sided negative view of Israel they themselves espouse.
“I would, however, call out these would be lovers of Zion that if they are going to criticize Birthright for presenting a simplistic and one-sided rosy view of Israel, they need take a long, hard look at the simplistic and one sided negative view of Israel they themselves espouse.”–randy
Dude, have you READ a whole issue of New Voices before? Has New Voices published articles that were unflattering to Zionism or opinions that were pretty much anti-Zionist? Yes. Have the published articles that made Zionism look purty and opinions extolling the State of Israel for its strengths? Yes.
I aint got the money to fund a magazine, but if i did, I would, b/c after a few years of reading New Voices I feel like the publication is very good at presenting several sides to most issues that concern young Jews.
Yes, I have been reading the magazine for a number of years.
You know, I’m pretty right wing. I vote Likud. I made aliya. I work for an unnamed right-wing advocacy organization.
And I read New Voices in college, I agree with some of it and I disagree with some it, and I STRONGLY STRONGLY STRONGLY agree with the issue that students are so ill-equipped to deal with their more critical peers because the material available is so one-sided and this is something that New Voices helps.
Assuming New Voices followed whatever conditions were set down initially in accepting the money in the first place, then the cutting of funding of a quality student magazine is not only disgusting but also hurts the Jewish community and Jewish involvement. Not that I agree with everything in NV but this one-sided reflexive “pro-Israel” (I would argue, as someone living in Israel, that knee-jerk “Israel is perfect and the Arabs are all evil terrorists” from the US Jewish community is seriously damaging to Israel) hurts Israel.
This is a blessing in disguise. If NJ can secure it’s own funding without strings attached, it will be strong and have more credibility.
RANDY. To suggest that the Jews who join ISM are perhaps self hating or against Israel’s existence is mostly false. I say mostly, because it’s true that some of them are, and some of them become that way after spending time living with Palestinians, exposed to the full brutality of the occupation.
But it’s also true that the ISM works with Israelis whose patriotism manifests itself in brave work to end the occupation, or at the very least to stand with the victims of said occupation. You may disagree…. but this is the wild west, the Zionist frontier in the battle to secure Israel’s future. Dump the labels for a moment and see how much love and committment is needed for those folks, those Jewish folks, to stand up to Israeli soldiers and tanks. They are heroes, destined to be honored and recognized in future generations for preserving some of our national dignity.
Randy wrote:
“On my first date with my wife I did not feel the need to tell her that I snore and fart in bed.”
OK, well, on the other hand, you didn’t pay a marching band to testify to your sweet-scented silence, either.
And besides, QUIT FARTING IN BED. It’s nasty. And you can, too, help it.
“On my first date with my wife I did not feel the need to tell her that I snore and fart in bed.”
Now fast forward 40 years and picture yourself desperately trying to maintain the illusion that you don’t snore or fart.
That a more realistic analogy to the rationale behind yanking New Voices funding.
Now fast forward 40 years and picture yourself desperately trying to maintain the illusion that you don’t snore or fart.
That a more realistic analogy to the rationale behind yanking New Voices funding.
No, actually it’s a poor analogy. A couple points. The first is that the donor(s) to New Voices have the right to decide what kinds of viewpoints their money goes to support. As I wrote, all money comes with strings attached.
Second, my marriage analogy was directed at those who critique Birthright for being one-sidedly positive. Birthright is simply a first date with Israel for most American Jews. To criticize it for not pointing out all of Israel’s faults is ridiculous.
Of course Israel has serious problems, and absolutely yes those need to be discussed and dealt with. Although I have been involved both professionally and as a lay person in supporting Israel, I have never shied away from speaking. I simply believe that there is a time and place for everything. Just as there are things you talk about when you are deep in to a relationship that you would not discuss on a first date. Timing (and context) are everything.
OK, well, on the other hand, you didn’t pay a marching band to testify to your sweet-scented silence, either.
And besides, QUIT FARTING IN BED. It’s nasty. And you can, too, help it.
I didn’t pay a marching band, but i did put on a nice shirt. And i shaved. And I was sweet and charming. And I didn’t fart. It was the first date. The goal was simply to get to find out if she was worth pursuing for a second date. We didn’t talk about deep and complex issues. Now that we’re married of course we know each other, farts and all. It’s a committed relationship and within that commitment lies the safety and freedom to tackle the tough issues.
Good for New Voices in not letting this silence you and for getting this story out there! Enough is enough of silencing varied perspectives in Jewish communities about Israel and Palestine. I commend your work in taking risks, and it is a shame, and yet a testament, to the realities of the nonprofit world that many of the organizations that take risks are cut by funders, and the need for grassroots support for initiatives like these. Thank you thank you thank you.
It might be just as well if this publishing endeavor shuts down. If I want to get professional journalism from Israel, I can get it unfiltered directly from Israel now that both Ha’aretz and the Jerusalem Post have on-line versions in English. Or I can fo to the online Hebrew versions if I want to practive my Hebrew.
I wonder what these Federation machers would think if they read what’s written in the Israeli press about Israel?
If the students want to write their own commentary, they can start a blog, and for that thyey don’t need to waste their time applying for grants from funding agencies that have agendas that may not full match with those of the recipient.
“They are heroes, destined to be honored and recognized in future generations for preserving some of our national dignity.”
They may be heroes to the anti-Zionist far left but to most Jews members of the ISM are either:
1) enablers of terrorism
2) the “useful idiots” of terrorists
3) the “fellow travellers” of terrorists
Since when did the opinion of ‘most Jews’ matter over the long term? I love the story about the Rabbi who smuggled himself out of Jerusalem to collaborate with the Romans to establish the great Yeshiva in Yavneh. (did I get that right?) I wonder what ‘most Jews’ in Jerusalem thought of him before they were slaughtered by the sikrikim and the Romans?
R’ Yochanan Ben Zakkai.
And Judaism is a religion that supports, nay, extolls, the speaking of one’s mind. Think Avraham Avinu and the KBH at S’dom and Amorrah. And that wasn’t criticizing Israel. It was criticizing God! While independant funders may have the right to yank funding from anyone they want, let us not be myopic enough to think it is a Torah value.