Zionist infighting: hundreds call on apartheid ambassador to apologize for attack on J Street - Lemmygrad
>More than 500 rabbis, cantors and Jewish communal leaders have signed onto a
letter calling on Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, to
rescind and apologize for remarks describing J Street as a “cancer within the
Jewish community.” > >The letter
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h6sJpMNTazzQMd6x04l-E6hiRF5bzOE0hA9e93bL5ls/edit?tab=t.0],
which J Street shared with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Thursday, accused
Leiter, a Netanyahu appointee and former settler leader
[https://www.jta.org/?p=1873794], of using language that “dehumanizes fellow
Jews” during his remarks in Washington, D.C. [https://www.jta.org/?p=1901827],
on Monday. > >J Street is the leading liberal pro-Israel lobby, and has
increasingly staked out positions that have departed
[https://www.jta.org/?p=1887329] from other mainstream pro-Israel groups. Last
month, the group announced its opposition to continued U.S. military aid to
Israel [https://www.jta.org/?p=1899806], which Leiter decried in his remarks. >
>The signatories wrote that while Judaism embraces vigorous debate,
disagreements must be conducted with “humanity, humility and respect for the
dignity of every Jew.” > >“At this painful and polarized moment in Jewish life,
leaders on both sides of the ocean bear a heightened responsibility to lower the
flames rather than fan them further,” the letter read. “We therefore call on you
to retract your remarks and issue a public apology to the many American Jews,
rabbis, cantors and communal leaders who have been hurt by them.” > >Among the
signatories were New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, former U.S. ambassadors to Israel
Daniel Kurtzer and Tom Nides, National Council of Jewish Women CEO Jody Rabhan,
Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs and Rabbi David Saperstein,
the director emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. > >J
Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami told JTA that his initial reaction to Leiter’s
comments was “simply dismay on behalf of Israel and on behalf of the Jewish
community.” > >“It’s a shame, because Israel, right now, needs all the friends
it can get, and it really needs diplomats who seek to open doors and not slam
them in people’s faces,” Ben-Ami said. > >The Israeli Embassy did not
immediately respond to a request for comment from JTA. > >The comments from
Leiter follow a long history of criticism [https://www.jta.org/?p=1837009] of
the lobby from pro-Israel officials. In 2017, former U.S. ambassador to Israel
David Friedman called the group “worse than kapos,”
[https://www.jta.org/?p=1329504] a reference to Jews who aided the [Axis]. >
>While Ben-Ami said that the latest attack was “not new,” he felt spurred to
craft a communal rebuke of Leiter’s rhetoric because he felt it was “breaking”
not just the U.S.–Israel relationship, but the relationship between the
“American Jewish community and the Israeli Jewish community.” > >“Within 24
hours we had hundreds and hundreds of people, and I think it just shows what a
raw nerve Ambassador Leiter has touched here, and just what a big mistake it is
for the Israeli government to write off the majority of Jewish Americans who are
deeply critical of the government but supportive of the state and the people,”
Ben-Ami said of the number of signatories. > >While Ben-Ami said that J Street
had long been invited to meet with former Israeli ambassadors, he claimed that
since Leiter arrived, the group had been “blacklisted by the Embassy, and
there’s been no engagement whatsoever.” > >The letter comes as J Street has also
faced scrutiny from across the political aisle, with the Zionist Organization of
America calling for Hillels, Jewish Community Relations Councils and federations
to cease relations with the group [https://zoa.org/?p=454867], while the student
government of Sarah Lawrence College rejected an application to form a chapter
of the group on its campus [https://www.jta.org/?p=1901446]. > >“There’s going
to be people to our left who are intolerant and you know engage in similar
tactics to folks on the right who are intolerant and try to shut out those they
disagree with, and that is just as disturbing,” Ben-Ami said. > >Looking ahead,
Ben-Ami said that he hoped the letter would serve as a reminder that Jewish
leaders need to make room for ideological differences rather than treat dissent
as disloyalty. > >“The message more broadly here is, we need to embrace the
diversity of opinion,” Ben-Ami said. “We need to embrace our disagreements and
recognize that that is indeed part of Jewish tradition.”
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