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Ken Knoppow: "You can be
part of Agenda and not agree
with all of the Agenda
approach."
silence poses dangers of its own.
"Silence is not neutral," she says.
"Silence has been used by the Israeli
right wing as our agreement with
their policies. We are almost com-
manded: 'Keep your mouth shut and
your pocketbook open! "
Members of Agenda say the group
is perceived — mistakenly — as anti-
Israel because it is willing to criticize
Israel government policies. "We are
all concerned with a flourishing,
peaceful Israel," Aronson says. "We
remain very tied to Israel?'
Jews must deal with the practical
question of how to make peace with
the Palestinians in the territories,
says Ken Knoppow, an attorney and
co-chairman of Agenda's Middle East
committee.
"Some in Agenda feel the PLO
must be part of negotiations. Others
feel the PLO must make statements
first," Pintzuk explains. "It's all
within the general framework of
`Let's get on with peace negotia-
tions? "
New Jewish Agenda's national
platform calls for mutual recognition
between Israel and the Arab world
and the Jewish right to national self-
determination in the State of Israel.
It also affirms the Palestinian right
to self-determination, including a
state in the territories.
Local Agenda members are struck
by the "bitter irony" — in the words
of one — that, while discussion of the
Palestinian issue is largely suppress-
ed in the American Jewish communi-
ty, it is an integral part of the free-
wheeling political discussion in
Israel.
"In Israel, they can speak more
freely than we can here," Pintzuk
says.
A
genda members have come to
the organization by one of two
paths, Ken Knoppow says.
Loose Cannon?
s
ome critics of New Jewish
Agenda can give their objec-
tions to the organization in two
words: Al Fishman.
Privately, several members of
the group say they are "embarrass-
ed and outright angry" that the
organization is being associated
with some of Fishman's public
statements on Israel and Soviet
Jewry. lb many, Al Fishman is a
loose cannon.
But, on principle, they refuse to
sever relations with a person who
endorses the Agenda platform and
bows to majority rule within the
group.
"The notion of a loyalty oath
went out with (Sen. Joe) McCarthy,"
Ron Aronson says. "We reject all
McCarthyism and accept anyone
who agrees with us."
While careful to separate his opi-
nions from his New Jewish Agenda
membership when the two do not
agree, Fishman, 60, nevertheless
has contributed to Agenda's image
as a radical leftist organization. The
opinions he expressed in this article
are his own and not necessarily
those of Agenda.
Returning from a visit to the
Soviet Union in 1986, Fishman gave
the country a glowing report that
was published in Soviet Life
magazine.
"I didn't see any discrimination
or anti-Semitism in the Soviet
Union," Fishman was quoted as say-
ing. "I found that any religious per-
son has the opportunity to pursue
his or her religious preferences pro-
viding enough compatriots support
that view."
Today, Fishman calls that article
one-sided. He insists, though, that
his words were not used for Soviet
propaganda. He feels the article was
merely bad journalism.
"It only said the positive things
without mentioning the intense and
unending discussions we had with
Soviet officials on emigration, inter-
nal passports and Hebrew culture?'
He remains steadfast in his
belief that the Soviet Jewry issue is
being used by both the United
States and American Jewry as a
weapon in the continuing cold war.
"It has been distorted out of all
sense of reality. For people to claim
that there are 400,000 Jews who
want to leave, they would have to be
almost sick?' he says.
While Soviet anti-Semitism does
exist, he adds, the situation is more
serious in the United States and is
getting worse.
Fishman says his parents were
Zionists and that he grew up in a
Al Fishman: "If you truly love someone,
you don't want them to be committing
immoral and criminal acts.
home where "Roosevelt was like a
god:'
For him, Jewish support for Nix-
on and Reagan were signs that the
wind was blowing the wrong way.
"When one moves in that direction,
there is an alienation from other
progressive struggles. That is
anathema to Jewish morality."
Fishman says that concern for
Jewish morality compelled him
publicly to castigate Israel for allow-
ing Christian Lebanese to massacre
Palestinians in the Sabra and
Shatila refugee camps in 1982.
"I want to end the shame of
Israel behaving like the murderers
"We have people coming from the left
and finding Judaism in their leftness.
Others come from a Jewish
background and want to pursue a pro-
gressive (leftist) Israeli solution?'
According to Francine Rosemberg
Ballard, who chairs the group, Agen-
da celebrates Jewish holidays and
holds cultural activities in addition to
its political work. Agenda's political
committees include social and
economic justice, disarmament,
feminism and Central America. The
machinery of the organization, like in
most groups, is propelled by a dozen
or so core group members.
The group is a coalition of obser-
vant and secular, of Zionist and non-
Zionist. Common to all is a "fierce
consciousness about being Jewish,"
Ron Aronson says.
Aim Arbor has a New Jewish
Agenda chapter about the size of the
Detroit group.
Knoppow speaks of Detroit Agen-
at Babi Yar," he said about the
massacre during his Soviet visit.
"You cannot ignore when Israel
is going wrong," he says today. "If
you truly love someone, you don't
want them to be committing im-
moral and criminal acts?'
While voicing support for the
State of Israel, Fishman declares
himself an anti-Zionist. "At the core
of Zionism is the belief that non-
Jews are inherently and permanent-
ly anti-Semitic. I consider that to be
racist."
Fishman is an activist in the
disarmament movement. "We sup-
port the concept of a nuclear-free
world by the year 2000." That
translates into support of the In-
termediate Nuclear Forces treaty
and opposition to the Strategic
Defense Initiative.
The arms race is a waste of
resources and talent in the United
States as well as in the Soviet Union
and the third world, he says. Disar-
mament would benefit us all.
"We've got a lot of work to do in
this country," he says. "There's
poverty, homelessness, unemploy-
ment. Too many people are flipping
hamburgers for pizza makers and
making pizza for people flipping
hamburgers?'
— David Holzel
THE-DETROIT-JEWISH NEWS
25