So, the "leadership" of the Conference of Presidents, upon further review of its decision to nominate as its next Chair the immediate past Chair of HIAS, once an important Jewish organization and today neither important nor Jewish, decided to double down. As if its Nominating process wasn't sufficiently screwed up, that CoP "leadership" determined to (a) extend the term of its sitting Chair and (b) create the position of "Chair-elect" so that the Conference members might "get comfortable with" the nominee.
That not being enough, the same "leadership" decided that it would characterize the opposition to the nominee as being part of a "right wing" conspiracy, the easier to brush off legitimate concerns with the Chair nominee having led HIAS at a time of some incredibly bad institutional and political choices. And, of course, the outspoken opposition by the Zionist Organization of America and that entity's voice, Morton Klein, made it easier for the CoP to engage in sophism to divert attention from the sad choices it had made in process and substance. Regrettably, some reporters have bought into the sophistry lock, stock and barrel. See, e.g., Melissa Weiss writing of "...an uproar from right-wing groups" in JewishInsider -- even going so far as to accept the HIAS CEO's self-characterization of HIAS as a "Jewish organization" which it once was but is no longer and hasn't been for a long time.
Bottom line, HIAS, once among the most critical Jewish organizations of any when it was the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, decided to eliminate Hebrew from its name and its work and evolved into just plain old HIAS, an acronym without meaning, and thereupon ceased being a Jewish organization with a non-Jewish refugee client base -- it had ceased being a major organization years earlier.
Some day there will be some analysis of how an organization, with great professional leadership and some important lay leaders, could have put the organization in the position it finds itself, followed by the decision to mischaracterize all of those opposed to this nomination as being of "right wing groups."
Whatever the end of this chapter may be; there is little chance that it will end well.
Rwexler
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9 comments:
Seems more than sufficiently American Jewish to me. And far, far more significant. Far moreso than a group like JINSA or American Friends of Likud.
https://www.hias.org/who/history
To anon 1:33:
Neither of the two organizations you cite are members of COP.
Perhaps you should actually do some research before commenting.
Clearly, you show your political colors.
If I am not mistaken, Richard’s comments were clearly non-partisan.
HIAS is a Jewish organization only in terms of its desire to tap Federation spigots. It is Jewish only in distant memory. It removed the word “Hebrew” from its name and hasn’t felt an obligation to help a Jewish client in over a decade, and likely hasn’t serviced a Jewish Client in three decades since the last of the Soviet immigrants to the US in the late 80’s.
And HIAS is just as partisan as the organizations you name. They advertise that they are against “Trump”, not that they are against his policies. Therefore, they are breaking the law as a 501(c)3 is restricted by the IRS from any partisan involvement. That doesn’t stop HIAS and its supporters, until, of course, the IRS finally gets around to auditing them.
Your blog. Your opinions. You're entitled. However dwelling on the acronym is a bit disingenuous as another great Jewish organization with no J in their name - ORT is often justifiably touted in your posts. (Kol Hakavod).
As a personal observation I would add that HIAS is one of the few mainstream Jewish organizations that can consistently attract passionate support from young Jews precisely because both their history and mission speak to Jewish values and the American Jewish DNA. But as I said, your blog...
To Anon 6:51
The names of those two organizations referenced were taken from the the COP's own website:
https://www.conferenceofpresidents.org/about/members
Daroff only came aboard in February and he's featured on the site. If the organizational listing is not updated, that's on the COP, not me--where else would one look for information about it? It's not exactly the most transparent entity around.
Agreed with Hyfler about HIAS. They also had a Refugee Shabbat last year that our synagogue participated in. Our community is involved with assisting a new Syrian refugee family sponsored by HIAS. Remember the stranger. How much more Jewish can you get than that?
I rarely find myself in disagreeemnt with my friend Bob Hyfler -- and I agree with him "my Blog, my opinions." Responding to Bob"s Comment: I do embrace ORT's work, comparisons with HIAS are odious. Yes, ORT is another acronym organization, but, no, it did not become ORT by dropping the word Hebrew from its name and then bragging about it. And, I have not seen any evidence that HIAS has attracted "passionate support" from young Jews.
And, while I with most/all readers of this Blog embrace the very Jewish tenet that we care for and about the stranger, let's not pretend that only caring for the stranger is also "more Jewish." HIAS is no longer a Jewish organization except when it somes to pursuing Jewish donations : by its own choice.
Dear Anon 6:51
Ignoring observable facts and arguing against them is called fake blogging.
https://www.conferenceofpresidents.org/about/members
JINSA and American Friends of Likud are members according to the COP website. The fact that there are organizations with maybe a thousand members is another issue altogether
The real issue that is being raised is significant. What makes an organization Jewish today?
ORT gives out some laptop computers and smart boards in Israel and runs a few Jewish Schools. The overwhelming majority of its work is serving non-Jews. The member World ORT is not even an American Organization.
In most cities 40-70% of members of JCCs are not Jewish by any definition.
Most Jewish Family Services have opted for government funding and the overwhelming majority of their case load is not Jewish.
But let’s face the fact that the COP has become nothing but a playground for its participants.
A recent HIAS job post on JewishJobs.com
https://jewishjobs.com/jobs/view/55995
To Anon at 9:28 you should note your own opening sentence about observable facts. Your statements about ORT are inaccurate in numerous ways. ORT does not give out computers and smart boards for the sake of giving the out. These are tools that are used in Israel and elsewhere to strengthen the education of the people who benefit from them. In Israel they work directly thru the Ministry of education identifying the most vulnerable schools and neighborhoods. Yes, some of the students in a given school in Israel may not be Jewish but that is the nature of Israel and not the fault of ORT. In the FSU they operate 17 Jewish Day schools in partnership with the local government that allows Jewish education in public schools. There are over 8,000 students in those Jewish day schools that are getting the best education because of ORT which is what brings them to the Jewish school in the first place - not the Jewish education. Yes, there are some non-Jews in these schools because they are publicly supported schools, but they ALL participate in the Jewish subjects and holidays under the guidance of the Israeli Ministry of Education that helps design the Jewish curriculum (and pays for it). In Argentina 80% of the kids getting a Jewish education get it from ORT. Yes, among the 8,000 students a small percentage are not Jewish but again the schools are supported by the government. ORT operates other private Jewish day schools in Brazil, Chile, Peru, Columbia, Uruguay, Panama, Mexico City, Singapore, Madrid, Rome, Milan....... In France ORT operates several Jewish day schools with about 8,000 students. Yes again there may be a small percentage of non Jews in some of these but ORT is there at the request of the local Jewish community because without ORT their Jewish day schools were losing the battle for Jewish education in competition with other local schools that did not offer Jewish education. More than 60,000 students, are enrolled in ORT schools around the world on a full time basis. All of them have a curriculum that is Jewish based beyond what is required by the local government. You should also know that there are thousands of students who benefit from an ORT education on a parttime basis, are in Israeli pediatric hospitals for more than 3 days because the Israeli government mandates that kids in hospitals for three days or longer get an ongoing education. ORT operates the entire network in 27 pediatric hospitals that last year saw over 100,000 children who got their education for some days in those hospital schools. Sure there were some non-Jews but again that is the nature of Israel. They really don't discriminate who gets treated in the hospital and thus who benefits from the education. As to World ORT not being a US organization and by implication not elgiible ORT America (OA) is the organization that represents ORT at the COP. OA is the merger of Women's American ORT and American ORT (the men's organization) which have been US organizations since the 1920's. OA today has thousands of members in the US. The reason it is called World ORT is that there are other "friends" of ORT organizations in Canada, Switzerland, UK, .... All of them represent World ORT in their local country. Isn't that essentially the same criteria that allows Hadassah or any other organization that has "friends" organizations in other countries still to be a member of COP and to use the "parent" organization name rather than "Friends of Hadassah"? ....
Like the people that believe HIAS is a proper representative of the center of American Jewery, the folks that disparage ORT or believe it isn’t sufficiently Jewish are just so open minded that everything has fallen out.
Now, the COP has another year to make themselves seem relevant, when they unfortunately aren’t.
It is just a society of narcissists
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