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28
March 31 • 2011
ewish community centers,
known for their fitness facili-
ties and child care services, are
increasingly becoming the target of pro-
testers taking issue with political over-
tones of artistic programs they offer.
In Washington, a new grass-roots
organization is calling on the local feder-
ation to adopt guidelines that will with-
hold funding from the JCC if the center's
theater puts on plays that "denigrate
Israel and undermine its legitimacy."
In New York City, a group called
JCCWatch is taking aim at the JCC in
Manhattan for partnering with such
groups as the New Israel Fund, B'Tselem
and Human Rights Watch in supporting
the Other Israel Film Festival.
In the middle of this fight stand the
Jewish federations, the community's
philanthropic backbone, torn between
their wish to maintain the artistic free-
dom of the community's beneficiary
agencies and their need to satisfy angry
donors who control the purse strings.
"I don't want to infringe on anyone's
freedom of expression, but why should
it be from my federation contributions?"
asked Louis Offen, who describes him-
self as a "significant donor" to the Jewish
Federation of Greater Washington.
Offen, a retired physician and lawyer
from Chevy Chase, Md., has demanded
that the federation put Ari Roth, artistic
director of the Washington DC JCC's
Theater J, on "a shorter leash:'
Two years ago, Offen cut back his
charitable giving to the federation
because of Theater J's reading of the
play Seven Jewish Children by British
playwright Caryl Churchill. The theater
held a critical reading of the play, which
speaks of Israeli wrongdoings toward
the Arab population, and coupled it with
"dramatic responses" from other artists
that presented Israel more favorably.
j
Pro-Israel Critics
Offen increased his donation the next
year, but said he again is threatening to
slash support for the federation.
"They should know that I and others
are dropping away:' he said. "If the feder-
ation decides it can live without donors
like me, that's fine, but I think they're
making a huge mistake Roth, a former
University of Michigan faculty member,
said that intervening in artistic content
"is not a prerogative of the donor:' The
artistic director, who made Theater J a
leading critically acclaimed company,
added that attempts to limit the theater's
freedom amount to censorship or, worse,
to blacklisting.
Citizens Opposed to Propaganda
Masquerading as Art, or COPMA — the
grass-roots Washington-area organiza-
tion seeking to rein in Theatre J — has
staged protests outside the JCC. Its
members met when they were active in
a watchdog group that monitored the
Washington Post's coverage of Israel. A
few are active as well in the organization
Holocaust Museum Watch.
In a March 6 letter to Susie Gelman,
president of the Jewish Federation of
Greater Washington, and to federation
board members, the group lists its reser-
vations over Theater J's decision to read
Seven Jewish Children.
The group also opposed the the-
ater's invitation in January to Israel's
Cameri Theater to perform Return to
Haifa, a play adapted from a novella by
Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani,
who died in a Beirut car bomb attack in
1972. Kanafani also was a spokesman
for the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine, which conducted terrorist
actions during the 1970s.
The play, which won praise from
Washington theater critics, tells the
intertwining stories of an Arab family
that fled its house in Haifa during Israel's
1948 War of Independence and a Jewish
family of Holocaust survivors now living
in the house.
"Showing it in Israel is different:'
COPMA treasurer Carol Greenwald
argued. "Showing it in any theater in
America is fine, but people don't give
money to the federation to support the
denigration of Israel:'
In its letter to federation leaders,
COPMA demanded the adoption of
guidelines "for withholding funding
from partner agencies that engage in
political propaganda and activism
denigrating Israel and undermining its
legitimacy as a strong, secure and inde-
pendent Jewish state
In response, the Washington federa-
tion provided the Forward with a written
statement saying, "Federation leadership
considers this to be a serious matter
and is taking the issue of funding guide-
lines under advisement." The federation
declined to comment on specific ques-
tions relating to funding the JCC and
Theater J.
The model suggested by COPMA
for guidelines is the one adopted early
last year by the Jewish Community
Protest on page 30