Jonathan Greenblatt, who served as chief executive of the company that oversees Good magazine and helped create All for Good, an online volunteer database, has been named the new director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.
A longtime Jewish community activist, Greenblatt was the subject of a Jonathan Greenblatt to Head White House Innovation Unit Read More »
A decision by a group within the Presbyterian Church USA to reintroduce a resolution calling for divestment from companies doing business with Israel is reopening a long-running controversy over the church’s positions on Israel.
The church’s Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment released a report Sept. 9 arguing that the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church divest from Motorola, Hewlett-Packard and Caterpillar.
“The General Assembly asked us to do everything we could to bring about change through dialogue,” said committee chair the Rev. Brian Ellison, a pastor from Kansas City, Mo., in a statement. “Today we are sadly reporting that these efforts have not produced any substantive change in company policies or practices, and that there is little reason for hope they will do so in the future. According to the Assembly’s prior directives and the church’s ordinary engagement process, we have little choice but to recommend divestment.”
The report already has sparked intense debate within the church and is likely to make more waves when it is introduced at the next biennial general assembly in July.
“There will be vigorous debate on this,” Susan Andrews, the general presbyter of the Hudson Valley, in New York, told JTA. “The church has been split on this for years.”
The call for divestment also has provoked angry reaction from some Jewish groups. The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League issued statements condemning the recommendation.
“This renewed effort by some within the Presbyterian Church to penalize Israel does not advance peace,” said Rabbi Noam Marans, AJC’s director of intergroup and interreligious relations. “On the contrary, threatening divestment undermines those who are truly committed to Israeli-Palestinian peace.”
An organization called Presbyterians for Middle East Peace released a statement condemning the report’s authors as giving a “friendly ear” to “a small group of activists within the Presbyterian Church that has relentlessly sought to punish Israel” and want “to find one party at fault in a conflict where all parties have engaged in positive or negative actions.”
Pastor John Wimberly of the Western Presbyterian Church and a co-convener of Presbyterians for Middle East Peace told JTA that the measure was unlikely to be adopted. He cited polls that show a gap between “specialized clergy”—clergy without pulpits—and other groups within the church, with the former more likely to support Israeli withdrawal from West Bank and eastern Jerusalem and less likely to support strong U.S.-Israel ties and relations between Jews and Presbyterians.
In a statement, Presbyterians for Middle East Peace promised to fight the report from being adopted.
“The general assembly would have to go against the opinion of the majority of Presbyterians,” Wimberly said. “It will be a struggle; they are determined although a very small group. We just have to make sure this small group can’t do something very big.”
In 2006, the church replaced a 2004 policy that called for “phased selective divestment” from multinational corporations operating in Israel with one that called for investment in Israel, the Gaza Strip, eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank “in only peaceful pursuits.” In 2008, the church’s general assembly instructed Presbyterians to avoid over-identifying with one side on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Presbyterians to reconsider divestment from companies in Israel Read More »
The Jewish Agency for Israel and Hillel are erecting white tents on 20 campuses throughout North America to serve as forums to discuss Israel and the Middle East.
The “Talk Israel” program will take place Sept. 20 and 21 at universities including the University of California-Berkeley, Columbia, Cornell, George Washington and the University of Maryland.
The tents will serve as campus venues for students to engage in respectful dialogue and raise questions and issues relating to the peace process and the Palestinian Authority’s statehood initiative at the United Nations.
“This is our answer to the war against Israel’s legitimacy that is being waged around the world; to bring Jewish students to Israel and to foster in them a sense of belonging, identity and pride,” Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky said in a statement.
‘Talk Israel’ tents coming to college campuses Read More »
Two 17-year-old boys admitted in juvenile court on Wednesday to vandalizing the Calabasas High School campus in April, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office.
The boys were ordered by Sylmar Juvenile Court Referee Mark Frazin to complete 100 hours of community service, pay $6,000 in restitution, attend counseling and attend a program at the Museum of Tolerance.
The graffiti, which was largely anti-Semitic in nature and included the names of a handful of students at the school and two faculty members, also included racist slurs against other ethnic groups.
A third boy, also 17, is scheduled to return to court for trial in November.
The identities of the teens are not being released.
2 teens sentenced in Calabasas anti-Semitic graffiti case Read More »
A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:
Obama’s “Jewish problem”
The national election is still over a year away, but discussion has already begun over Obama’s “Jewish messaging,” ” title=”http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/09/11/jewish-vote-democrats-obama/”>said Jonathan S. Tobin at Commentary. As usual, it all starts with Israel, and the ” title=”http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i5cIPGgmVcd_HRxqSs8uelAVh-_g?docId=e6afc16973444195959f90ee114de001″>broke into the Israeli Embassy last weekend which led the ambassador and his family to flee the country. It called relations between the two countries even more into question. “The rules of the game with Egypt have changed. The policy of winks and tacit agreements of the days of former president Hosni Mubarak is now on trial and cannot survive,” ” title=”http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904265504576566431045060822.html”>Bret Stephens wondered what it means for Israel: “No democracy in the world today lies under a darker shadow of existential dread than Israel. And the events of the past month ought to demonstrate that Israel’s dread is not of shadows only. Israel’s efforts to allay the enmity of its enemies or mollify the scorn of its critics have failed.” Remember, there’s ” title=”http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/09/mel_gibson_to_write_jewish_her.html”>reports that Mel Gibson is working on a movie that will portray Judah Maccabee, the Jewish hero. But there were some defenders, including ” title=”http://www.avclub.com/articles/mel-gibson-finally-making-a-movie-for-the-jews,61527/”>Sean O’Neal at The Onion’s A.V. Club had a sense of humor about the whole thing. “What better time than right now, considering the Jews already kind of hate him? It’s like a double jeopardy, nothing-left-to-lose, nowhere-to-go-but-up sort of thing.”
A Kosher Facebook option
For those who wish to do their social-networking free of the opposite sex, there’s ” title=”http://www.scribbal.com/2011/09/new-social-network-faceglat-caters-to-orthodox-jews-separates-men-and-women/”>asked Marieln Loveland at Scribbal. It’s definitely a different experience, ” title=”http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/the_oy_of_sex_online_SpZZQgjoO4xAiFE4WzHvBI”>reported about KosherSexToys.net, a site that caters to more religiously- and modestly-minded adults. “Can they use the battery-powered vibrators on Shabbos? Or do they need a Shabbos Goy to come turn it on for them? ” title=”http://www.jewishjournal.com/keepingthefaith/item/sex_toys_for_orthodox_jews_mazel_tov_20110912/”>said Ilana Angel in the Jewish Journal.
This week in power: Obama, Egypt, Mel Gibson, Kosher Facebook Read More »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the U.N. General Assembly on the same day that the Palestinian Authority presents its statehood bid to the Security Council.
The Palestinians will submit a bid for full membership in the Security Council of the United Nations on Sept. 23, PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki announced Thursday. Netanyahu told a news conference Thursday with Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas that he will address the issue of the statehood bid and the quest for peace in the region in his address Sept. 23.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas will make the Palestinians’ bid following his address to the General Assembly. Al-Malki said, however, that the Palestinians were still open to other offers.
The United States has said it will use its veto in the Security Council, after which the Palestinians are expected to seek an enhanced status short of statehood through the General Assembly, where the United States does not have a veto.
For weeks it has been unclear whether Netanyahu would travel to the opening meeting of the new U.N. session, during which the Palestinian statehood bid will likely take center stage.
“We have to speak the truth,” Netanyahu said at the news conference. “The first truth is that to have peace, we must have mutual respect for other peoples. This is what we seek with our Palestinian neighbors. This is what we seek with all our neighbors.
“We also believe that the way to achieve this peace is through direct negotiations. There is no way to impose peace by dictat. ”
Netanyahu said that while Israel does not get a fair hearing in the General Assembly, “I’ve decided to go there anyway—not to win applause, but to speak the truth to every nation that wants to hear the truth.”
Netanyahu U.N. address, Palestinian statehood bid on same day Read More »
Reports released by a Jewish think tank in London highlighted the need for the reform of Jewish infrastructure in Hungary and support for Orthodox and non-Orthodox alternatives in Poland.
The reports issued Thursday, published by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, assessed the development of Jewish communities in Hungary and Poland since the collapse of communism, as well as the challenges they face going forward.
Research in Hungary reveals a community reinvigorated over the last 20 years but facing the challenge of low engagement in communal life; only 10 percent of the Jewish population is affiliated with a Jewish organization. The report calls for the Hungarian Jewish communal infrastructure to be restructured to ensure that decisions on issues affecting the whole community are made in a democratic and transparent fashion. It also called for more religious pluralism and more cooperation among groups and initiatives.
The report on Poland calls for continued support for the Orthodox mainstream as well as for the development of non-Orthodox alternatives. It urges support for educational initiatives and the preservation of Jewish heritage.
Reports highlight Jewish issues in Poland, Hungary Read More »
A planned photo shoot of some 1,000 naked Israelis is in jeopardy after the regional council where the event is to be held said it had not given its authorization.
American photographer Spencer Tunick is set to photograph the installation Sept. 17 to raise international awareness of the condition of the Dead Sea, which is rapidly receding. Tunick’s website directs viewers to vote for the Dead Sea in the New7Wonders of Nature contest.
More than 3,000 Israelis signed up to participate in the project; one-third of those were invited to participate.
The exact location of the shoot has not been made public due to fears that protesters would upset the event. Tunick has said that he would like his naked subjects floating in the Dead Sea to be covered in its beneficial black mud.
No permits were requested for the event, Dov Litvinoff, head of the Tamar Regional Council, told Israeli media. Several religious lawmakers also have condemned the project.
Tunick has photographed installations of large groups of nude people In 75 locations throughout the world.
Red tape imperils naked photo shoot at Dead Sea Read More »
An Israeli soccer team arrived in Istanbul to play a Turkish team, despite tensions between the two countries.
The Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team landed Wednesday night amid heavy security. Turkish protesters waved Palestinian flags and chanted anti-Israel slogans outside the hotel in which the Israeli team is staying ahead of Thursday evening’s Europa League game against Besiktas at İnonu Stadium in Istanbul.
The team was instructed to remain inside the hotel and wait for armed escorts to take them to practice and the game.
Hundreds of Israeli fans had been expected to attend the game before rising tensions between Israel and Turkey came to a head in recent days. Only a handful of fans reportedly arrived in Turkey with the team.
Israel soccer team playing in Turkey, despite tensions Read More »
