GROW UP

Following the eruption of anger at the Conference of Presidents over the nomination process that resulted in a new Chair-elect who (1) had not spent much time working in CofP governance and (2) was the immediate past Chair of a once great Jewish organization -- HIAS -- that today appears to have abandoned its Jewish roots, even after Conference leaders amended their governance to delay the election for a year of "orientation" for this incoming Chair, one might have thought the matter had been put to rest. But, anyone who thought so doesn't know Morton Klein, the lifetime (apparently, in perpetuity), well-compensated President of the Zionist Organization of America,

Klein, as anyone whose organization has found itself subject to his subjective determination that it has engaged in "anti-Israel" activities has learned, has converted his organization into a missile aimed at the heart of those organizations who, in Klein's mind, have earned his wrath. Already "censured" (or whatever the Conference calls it) for at least one very personal attack on a fellow member organization (things got so bad that cross-claims of physical attacks were made), the ZOA (and, please understand, "ZOA" and "Morton Klein" are one and the same), it has been alleged, continued its attacks on HIAS even after the vote above; although, to be perfectly fair, HIAS appeared to give as good as it got (at least up to a point). For an in-depth analysis, see Ron Kampeas's lengthy article in the Times of Israel, At Time of Racial Strife, US Jewish Groups Call to Expel ZOA from Umbrella Org, https://www.timesofisrael.com/at-time-of-racial-strife-us-jewish-groups-call-to-expel-zoa-from-umbrella-org/

Now, things have gotten more ugly. The Union of Reform Judaism's long-time CEO, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, seized on what he apparently sees as the opportunity to  vote the ZOA out of the CofP  arising out of Mort Klein's angry, vituperative attack on Black Lives Matter in the midst of the protests following the police murder of George Floyd embodied in this brief Tweet: "(BLM is) a Jew-hating, White hating, Israel hating, conservative Black hating, violence promoting, dangerous Soros fund group of haters." As reported in Jonathan Tobin's analytical opinion piece, Cancel Culture comes to the Conference of Presidents,
https://www.jns.org/opinion/cancel-culture-comes-to-the-conference-of-presidents/ the Klein assault on Black Lives Matter is but pretext for a ZOA eviction from the Conference arising out of the Klein attack on HIAS and the new Chair-elect and Mort Klein's propensity to go for the jugular at all times.

The Conference lay and professional leadership, wonderful leaders to a person, must be looking at this with an "oh no, not again; we don't need this" sense of deja vu only worse. Others will view it, as Tobin did in his JNS opinion piece, as a battle between the liberal Conference members and the Conservative -- but, it is not that (though, in a Tweet on the day this was written, Klein attacked the...ACLU). It is a simple question of how much Sturm und Drang any organization can endure from one member -- in this case ZOA. In a brilliant Tweet Thread, Shai Franklin tracks the record that led him to conclude (as did Abe Silberstein in an Editorial in The Forward on June 8, forward.com/opinion/448321) that the time has come for the ZOA to be expelled from the Conference of Presidents.

One might encourage the parties here to "just grow up," but that probably won't be possible. What will? We await the answer.

Rwexler