The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations veers to the right
JVL Introduction
Hias works around the world to protect refugees who have been forced to flee their homelands because of who they are, including ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities.
Founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in 1881 to assist Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe, Hias has since 2000 broadened its work to support refugees everywhere.
So, when its former Chair, Dianne Lob, was chosen as chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, this proved too much for the ultra-Zionists. They rebelled over the appointment because Lob is the chair of HIAS which, they charged, was “not a Jewish organization”, “having “primarily non-Jewish (especially Muslim) clients” .
That right-wing Jewish organisations behave in this way is unsurprising, What upsets Philp Weiss and so many of the younger generation of American Jews is how liberal Jewish organisations capitulated…
This article was originally published by Mondoweiss on Tue 28 Apr 2020. Read the original here.
Liberal Jewish orgs stay in Islamophobic umbrella group, for the sake of Israel
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What is is particularly shameful is that the murderous attack on the synagogue in Pittsburg was linked to its support for HIAS. By attacking Lob, which many saw saw as an act of solidarity after that attack, the ZOA have lined themselves up with murderous antisemites.
This stance for a very narrow perimeter around whose rights are to be respected they have displayed a vicious Islamophobia at odds with an ethic, which I thought to be a Jewish one, of a universalistic approach to rights in the footsteps of the Jewish author of the Universal Declaration, René Cassin.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a better monument to the victims of the Holocaust than all the memorials and statement buildings. It is a global way of saying never again – but this is too wide a vision for the ZOA and Adelson
The Zionist movement has long been unhappy with HIAS. During the Soviet Jewry campaigns there was also a vociferous campaign to ensure that Soviet Jews only went to Israel. Begin even went to the US to lobby Reagan not to allow Soviet Jews into the USA. Hias came under massive pressure not to provide aid or help or advice even to Soviet Jews who refused to go to Israel. This campaign eventually culminated in direct flights from Rumania to Israel. Vienna had caused difficulty by giving people options as to where to go. Hias buckled at times and stood up to the pressure at other times, mindful of the fact that the Orthodox anti-Zionist Rav Tov organisation was actively helping those who were ‘drop outs’ (the terminology for Soviet Jews who didn’t want to go to Israel.
THere has always been a tension between purely humanitarian/philanthropic organisations and the Zionist movement. The Zionist movement in the 1930’s saw groups like JDC as siphoning off contributions that properly belonged to them and saw general welfare appeals as distracting from the JNF and Keren Hayesod’s efforts.
Clearly Hias’s efforts with refugees today is anathema to the ZOA. But we should bear in mind that the ZOA has no problem with Christian Zionists who are anti-Semitic such as Stephen Bannon who was its guest of honour at its annual gala dinner. Even Sebastian Gorka, another Trump adviser and a paid up member of Hungarian fascist groups, was a guest of the ZOA.