Year In Review/America
5768: America
Photo by Br ia n Hen d le r
The year of the upstarts challenging the Jewish establishment.
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Baracit Obama visited Yad Vasherri oMfy 23.
Ben Harris
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York
I
n the weeks leading up to last Rosh
Hashanah, the Anti-Defamation
League, bowing to mounting pressure
and a mini-revolt by its New England board,
reversed its longstanding refusal to recognize
the Armenian genocide.
Wary of offending Turkey — a dose ally
of both Israel and the United States — the
ADL had refused to say whether the term
genocide should be applied to the World War
I massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
But on Aug. 21, 2007, the group's national
director, Abraham Foxman, switched gears,
saying the "consequences" of the killings
were "tantamount to genocide'
The reversal capped a weeks-long standoff
that began with a ragtag group of activists in
Boston throwing down the gauntlet before
one of the most formidable organizations
in the Jewish world. Though the campaign
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began to lose steam as 5768 progressed, it set
a tone that has continued throughout much
of the past Jewish year: upstart activists and
new groups challenging the Jewish establish-
ment on an ever-widening range of issues.
•In Washington, a new Jewish organiza-
tion, J Street, was created to challenge the
dominance of the capital's pro-Israel alliance
led by the hegemonic American Israel Public
Affairs Committee.
•A massive federal immigration raid in
Iowa at the country's largest kosher meat-
packing plant spurred left-wing activists
and liberal Orthodox rabbinic students into
action and gave a powerful boost to a new
Conservative ethical kashrut initiative seek-
ing to supplement the kosher certification
industy.
•Holocaust survivors locked horns with
the top Jewish groups over a congressional
resolution that would pave the way for law-
suits against European insurers accused of
defaulting on World War II-era policies.
•And in a presidential election season
that has seen both parties nominate anti-
establishment figures, Barack Obama's team
has labored to tamp down a viral campaign
branding him a Muslim and a terrorist sym-
pathizer — a campaign that has withstood
repeated denunciations by a broad spectrum
of Jewish politicos and organizations.
"This is part of what's going on in our
society, in terms of both 24-7 news coverage
— that is no less true in terms of Jewish
media than in general society — and the
atomization of opinion that was always a
Jewish trait:' said Jeffrey Solomon, the presi-
dent of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman
Philanthropies.
"We joke about the community that has two
Jews and three synagogues. That was always
a private joke. But when you combine it with
the growth of news coverage, blogs, etc., there
is more attention being given to the various
opinions that exists outside of mainstream
organizations,"he said.
One organization getting attention in 5768
was J Street, a lobbying group and political
action committee launched in April by some
of the biggest names in the dovish pro-
Israel community. The goal, according to the
group's executive director, Jeremy Ben-Ami,
is to present an alternative to the pro-Israel
giants, particularly AIPAC, in the halls of the
U.S. Congress.
In June, the group issued its first set of
congressional endorsements, throwing sup-
port to one Republican and six Democrats,
among them a blind New Jersey psychologist
who is trying to become the first rabbi elect-
ed to Congress. It also urged the presidential
candidates to wish Israel a happy 60th
birthday by pledging to pursue a two-state
solution if elected.
J Street also has challenged the Jewish
community's willingness to partner with
evangelical Christian groups supportive of
Israel, contending that those groups oppose
any Israeli concessions, seeing them as viola-
tions of God's will.
In July, in partnership with Democracy
for America, J Street delivered a 40,000-
signature petition to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-
Conn., urging him not to address the annual
Washington-Israel summit of Christians
United for Israel, the Christian Zionist group
founded by Texas Pastor John Hagee.
Like the Armenian and Jewish activists