Jewish Federation Gave Over $1 Million to Anti-Glenn Beck Group

Alana Goodman. COMMENTARY

Jewish Funds for Justice (JFSJ), the George Soros-funded activist group that recently made headlines for its high-profile war against Fox News host Glenn Beck, has received over $1 million from the UJA-Federation of New York since 2008.

Over the past three years at least seven Federation grants have been awarded to the JFSJ, ranging from $75,000 to $219,000. Some of that money has gone toward JFSJ’s Hurricane Katrina disaster relief efforts. But, according to Federation spokesperson Samantha Kessler, the bulk of the funding has gone toward the group’s “Congregational-based Community Organizing” programs.

“Congressional-based Community Organizing” is pretty much exactly what it sounds like – Chicago-style community organizing, except in the synagogue. According to the Federation website, the JFSJ program was designed to “develop strong and effective social-justice networks in up to eight Manhattan synagogues.”

In an email, Kessler explained that the goal was to “strengthen synagogues by building meaningful relationships among their members, attracting additional Jews and Jewish families to congregational life, and developing more robust leadership for synagogues.” The Federation felt that the JFSJ “had a proven model for congregation-based community organizing that provided a unique way to accomplish this.”

The JFSJ’s community organizing expertise may explain how it was able to quickly coordinate 400 rabbis to sign an anti-Glenn Beck letter published in the Wall Street Journal in January. The letter was criticized by COMMENTARY as well as prominent members of the Jewish community, who called it a partisan attack.

“[The Anti-Defamation League] does not support this misguided attempt to embarrass Fox News,” ADL Director Abe Foxman told the Forward. “[S]urely there are greater threats to the Jewish people than the likes of Roger Ailes, Glenn Beck and Rupert Murdoch, who are professed and stalwart friends of the Jewish people and Israel.”

In a letter to the Forward, Deborah Lipstadt, professor of Holocaust Studies at Emory University, wrote that, “One need not minimize the danger of Beck’s rhetoric in order to wonder why JFSJ — which has significant credibility among progressives — has not mounted an equally passionate critique of misbegotten analogies on the left. Is this about principle, or is it about politics?”

Despite calling itself a non-partisan group, JFSJ officials and members often weigh in on politics on the organization’s blog.

In one post, the group’s Senior Vice President of Philanthropic Giving Jeremy Burton dubbed President George W. Bush “our hatemonger-in-chief,” and accused him of “spreading fear and loathing of other Americans as a tool for political gain.” In another, JFSJ’s Chief Strategy Officer Mik Moore referred to Tea Party rallies as “tea bagging protests.” Other posts supported calls to impeach Bush and labeled former Vice President Dick Cheney a racist.

Needless to say, it’s difficult to imagine the federation funding a right-wing activist group that made similar statements about President Obama or Nancy Pelosi, and ran a prominent campaign targeting MSNBC.

The appeal of Jewish Funds for Justice’s work has been rooted in their commitment to helping the poor and providing Jewish communities with a distinctive way to help. This has given them credibility and made them an attractive venue for Jewish philanthropic giving even among mainstream groups like Federation whose major donors may not share the Funds’ leftwing sensibilities.

However, their decision to go political in a big way with an attack on Beck and FOX News makes it more difficult for the group to position itself as a non-controversial forum for Jewish charitible fundraising. The point is, if they are going to be soliciting and getting huge grants from mainstream groups like federations, then maybe they should stick to what they do best and stay out of politics.

This isn’t an isolated incident. Some federations have alienated members of the Jewish community based on controversial funding decisions, such as the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington financing of the anti-Israel Theater J. And the issue isn’t just the funding, it’s also the lack of transparency. Federations are already considered to be in decline due to most donors preferring boutique causes rather than umbrella philanthropies. But unless federations reestablish trust with the Jewish community, this trend will only get worse.

Letter: UC Irvine Olive Tree Initiative Students Met with Hamas Leader in 2009 trip

A letter linked here and obtained from UC Irvine via the Freedom of Information Act, was forwarded to the Orange County Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism: We encourage you to read this revealing letter.

According to the letter dated October 8, 2009 and addressed to UCI Chancellor Michael Drake from Orange County Jewish Federation leaders, students on the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI) trip met with Aziz Duwaik , a “notable Hamas figure”, in a non-scheduled “unapproved” meeting on September 16, 2009. The letter reveals that Duwaik is considered by Hamas to be the leader in the West Bank. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the United States State Department.

Furthermore, the students were allegedly told by OTI officials not to tell anyone of this meeting with Duwaik, ostensibly: (1) “in order to avoid being detained upon entering Israel from the West Bank or being held at the airport before leaving the country.” (2) ” to avoid confrontation with anyone who would have disagreed with this meeting had they known about it in advance…”. The Letter note that “As it’s largest funder the Federation has strongly supported the concept and development of the OTI from it’s inception.” However, it suggested that Federation officials were “deeply troubled” by the Duwaik incident.

On December 28, 2010 The Orange County Independent Force on Anti-Semitism issued an Open Letter Concerning the Olive Tree Initiative at UC Irvine to leaders of the Orange County Jewish Community. In the letter we urged the Jewish Federation, The Rose Project and and Hillel to adopt the The Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties Funding Guidelines. As of this date, that letter has gone unanswered.

Orange County Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism
www.octaskforce.org

March 30, 2011 | 6 Comments »

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6 Comments / 6 Comments

  1. Georg von Starkermann says:
    My wife…cancelled her annual check to the UJA and six other charities. By the way, we never give to the Jewish Federation as there are too many anti Jews who sit on their boards of directors.

    Perhaps your wife might consider donating to one or all of the below:

    http://www.actforamerica.org/

    http://www.unwatch.org/

    http://theunitedwest.org/

    I donate to the first two and I’m a member of Act for America. I’m checking out The United West. I would
    argue that funds donated to these and similar organizations might be put to better use than the well funded establishment Jewish organizations who all too often, as noted in this article, are working against the interests of the Jewish people and Israel.

  2. Charles Martel writes:
    To quote Shy Guy: stupid Jews.

    What does this make Beck-haters like Yamit and Sharbano?

  3. Jewish goyim such as leftists of Reform, Conservative, etc. are the worst enemy of Eretz Yisroel and Am Yisroel.

  4. This is one reason among many that I refuse to allow my wife to donate any funds to Jewish charities both here in the USA and in Germany. Sometimes I think that the Jews really want to just kill themselves in any way that seems appropriate. I am truly ashamed for the Jews who act in this manner. My wife who is Jewish read this article and was so disgusted after reading it, that she cancelled her annual check to the UJA and six other charities. By the way, we never give to the Jewish Federation as there are too many anti Jews who sit on their boards of directors.