Jewish Community Members Against Jews Against Divisive Leadership calls for the end of divisiveness through a divisive public statement
Jewish, New York — In a surprise move another group of Reform Jews came out not so much in support of Rabbi Rick Jacobs, who has recently endured attacks over his approach to Zionism, but rather against Jews Against Divisive Leadership.
“All of a sudden there is this ad in the print edition of the Jewish paper and we are supposed to see that?” asks youth leader David Stern-Cohen-Burg, a member of Congregation Peace Love and Tzedek who is heading up Jewish Community Members Against Jews Against Divisive Leadership. “But when JTA published that divisive op-ed the other day and it popped up in my Twitter feed, I couldn’t get a group together fast enough through Facebook so I had to actually email a bunch of people.”
This group, mostly of younger Jews who fit into the models that have been presented after actual research (and not edict from traditional community leaders) that note young Jews have trouble associated with a more theocratic and anti-Arab Israel, have called upon the 35 member strong organization against divisiveness, to “shut up.”
“We don’t agree with how these people think on one topic so we don’t want them in a position of leadership,” said Stern-Cohen-Burg. “Since when does a minority opinion mean anything in Judaism anyway?”
JADL has lamented that the URJ would choose someone with unimpeachable congregational and community credentials to lead a congregational organization that focuses on building Jewish community in North America, according to the above mentioned JTA op-ed.
Jews Against Divisive Leadership couldn’t be reached for comment because they are not a real organization but rather a group of about 35 people across the country with significant reading comprehension issues. According to the resume dismissed by JADL in the JTA op-ed, Rabbi Jacobs “served as a member of the boards of ARZA and the World Union for Progressive Judaism [and] in 2000, he was named the recipient of ARZA’s International Humanitarian Award for his dedication to strengthening the relationship between Israel and the Reform Movement in North America.”
JCMAJADL stated during its only public interview it will dissolve upon achieving its goal of a hypocrisy free Jewish community organization structure.
I don’t know who Carol Greenwald is — the author of the scurrilous JTA op-ed — but anyone who has the chutzpah to compare the settlers to the chalutzim immediately establishes herself as outside the pale of decency.
I don’t know Rabbi Jacobs personally, but I will be called upon in June as a member of the URJ Board to ratify the recommendation of the Search Committee to elect him President of the Union to succeed Eric Yoffie (whose views on Israel, as far as I can see, are very similar to those of Jacobs). I will vote cheerfully for Rabbi Jacobs, encouraged by his involvement with J-Street and New Israel Fund, as well as with ARZA and WUPJ.
The JTA op-ed follows by a few days an ad that appeared in the LA Jewish Journal also branding Rabbi Jacobs as “anti-Zionist” because he is anti-settler and pro-two-states. I haven’t seen the ad, only seen the responses to it from the Reform establishment — but I would be curious to know who the signatories are.
I admit to being a genetic liberal and a genetic Zionist, so maybe it’s my bias, but it seems to me that huge gulfs of disagreement meet with the Left telling the Right, You’re wrong, and the Right telling the Left, You’re Evil.
Out there in Reform congregation-land, I don’t think politics is monolithic, either regarding the U.S. or Israel. But the consensus among the leadership of the Reform movement and the leadership of its congregations was perhaps most clearly demonstrated at the Houston Biennial in 2005 when the assembly in a very lopsided vote passed a resolution opposing Justice Alito’s confirmation to the Supreme Court — with an overwhelming number of the delegates voting their approval of the Union taking a stand, and a similarly overwhelming number agreed on what that stand should be. Again, the rank and file consensus may not be as broad as the leadership consensus, and the leadership consensus may be narrower than usual because of some of J-Street’s excesses, but a difference of opinion is not in and of itself divisive.
How can I join this group?
As Executive Director of JDeadEnd and JDeadEndU(nemployable), the political home of pro-Israel in pro-pieces Americans, and our over 500 billion online members I condemn this attempt to copy my basic idea, sort of.
As a member of of the Jewish Alliance for Divisiveness, I denounce both the JADL and JCMAJADLfor claiming to to be against our primary cause. Divisiveness is good for the Jews. Its how we can purport to be the good guys even when we’re not. Its how we can scapegoat and stooge the people we don’t like while proclaiming our people’s unity. Its good to tell those idiots over there that they dont know what they’re talking about and only we do…
But back to the rant. We also denounce David Stern-Cohen-Burg, a money grubbing attention whore if ever we met one. We don’t denounce him for that, but for once standing up in the middle of a school lunchroom food fight and saying, “hey guys, can’t we all just get along?” Anyone who can’t find something wrong with someone else, or at least create an organization that in naming itself, does, is not truly a Jew.
Kol v’Chomer, anyone who is not pro-Divisiveness is quite simply, anti-Aemitic and not a lover of Zion. Or Cheese. Because cheese is made by separating curd from liquid, which is a form of divisiveness. Come to think of it, so is Shabbes. See?
Doesn’t the ridiculousness smack just a little too much of Moe Larry and Curly? “GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON I SHOULDN’T COME OVER THERE AND GIVE THE BOTH OF YA’S A FAT LIP?!”
Wise guys, eh?
Divide! Divide! Divide!
Boistrousness, Divisiveness and Stupidness!
FREE, FREE Divisiveness!
עם ישראל לחלק
More food for thought: Carol Greenwald is on the board of “Holocaust Museum Watch,” an organization which targets Holocaust museums that do not feature exhibits on “Islamo Nazism.”
http://www.hmwatch.org/
Her treatment by the Jewish press as a person worthy of attention is no different from the recent attention given to Richard Allen, the one man “JCC Watch,” who has been attacking the JCC in Manhattan for its Other Israel Film Festival due to that festival’s links to New Israel Fund and other institutions that promote Palestinian civil rights.
Gary Rosenblatt wrote something of a mea culpa recently after giving Richard Allen the undue attention he so desperately craves, noting the dangers of giving spotlights to lone maniacs standing on soapboxes.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial_opinion/gary_rosenblatt/advocacy_gone_awry
Sadly, it seems the rest of the Jewish news media failed to get the message.
And I said so much to JTA’s managing editor when I saw him last night at JTA’s digital archive launch (which, BTW, is awesome).
Jacobs’ defenders include several former leaders of the Conference of Presidents, the present head of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and the founder of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Israel.
Meanwhile, Carol Greenwald isn’t even a Reform member! From the NY Jewish Week:
Let’s ask the woman herself. Here’s her email address.
We can give her all the attention she undeservedly craves:
Contact: Carol Greenwald,
chairman, Holocaust Museum Watch
[email protected]
I think it’s hilarious that in the process of trying to bring some heat to Carol Greenwald’s inbox, you take care to protect her from spammers 🙂
I think WordPress does that automatically.
I just cut and pasted it from her own website.