March 7 • 2019 31
jn
eretz
T
he two Young
Israel synagogues
in Metro Detroit
reacted swiftly when
the National Council
of Young Israel (NCYI)
president defended Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’
s invitation
to have Otzma Yehudit
(Jewish Power), a party
with roots to Rabbi Meir
Kahane’
s Kach party, join
a projected coalition after the upcoming
April 9 election.
Jewish organizations in Israel and
around the world expressed dismay at
Netanyahu’
s offer, which seems to legiti-
mize right-wing extremism.
Yet, in a Feb. 25 statement to JTA,
NCYI President Farley Weiss said,
“Prime Minister Netanyahu acted to
get right-wing parties
to merge to meet the
threshold necessary
to secure a victory in
the election … We
understand what Prime
Minister Netanyahu did,
and he did it to have
ministers of the national
religious and national
union parties in his coa-
lition.
”
In Israel, no one
party has ever won enough seats in
the Knesset to govern the country by
itself. The prime minister depends on
a coalition of disparate parties to make
up a majority. In the run-up to an
election, leaders of every party nego-
tiate with other parties to choose their
potential partners. After the election,
negotiations continue with each party
bargaining for its place.
Except that certain parties never get
invited in. In 1988, the Knesset entirely
disallowed Kahane’
s Kach party because
of its racist platform (see sidebar).
Successor parties with modified platform
versions, led by former Kach members
or their disciples, have received permis-
sion to run in Israeli elections, but they
have never been invited to form part of a
governing coalition.
Until now.
At Young Israel of Oak Park, President
David Barth, in consultation with the
executive committee and interim Rabbi
Aaron Leib, has sent a forceful mes-
sage to Weiss of the NCYI, with a list
of objections: they were not consulted
about the statement; if consulted, they
would not have agreed; that as far as they
know, this statement was issued without
consulting any YI member organiza-
tions; and that aside from the “doubtful
merits of the statement,
” they find it
inappropriate for YI to get involved in
internal Israeli politics.
On Feb. 28, the executive committee
of Young Israel of Oak Park sent an
email message to congregation members
expressing similar sentiments, adding
that YIOP does not associated itself with
Weiss’
statement and has communicated
YIOP’
s concerns to the NCYI.
Taking a lower public profile, Rabbi
Yechiel Morris revealed only that Young
Israel of Southfield has been in contact
with the NCYI to express its concerns.
Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt
responded to the statement by resigning
from her synagogue, Young Israel of
Toco Hills in Atlanta. In a Facebook let-
ter she said: “I cannot be associated with
an organization that gives such racism,
celebration of violence and immoral pol-
icies a ‘
hechsher [certification].
’
”
On Feb. 28, Weiss sent an email to
member congregations: “The short
NCYI statement released in response
to two news outlet requests concerning
Prime Minister Netanyahu represented
my personal views and that of many on
our Board but may not reflect the view
of all the Young Israel synagogues.
”
On March 1, YI rabbinic and lay lead-
ers wrote a letter, calling upon “NCYI
leadership to immediately cease making
all political pronouncements” without
consulting YI synagogue communities.
Rabbis and presidents of Metro Detroit’
s
two Young Israel synagogues put their
names to the letter that represented 21
other congregations. ■
LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Federation Locked
Kahane Out
Rabbi Meir Kahane served as a member of
Knesset from 1984-88, when his Kach party
won a single seat in the 1984 elections. The
party symbol was a clenched
fist — kach, meaning “thus”
because “only thus, by
force, can we succeed.” Its
platform included enforcing
Jewish law on Israeli citi-
zens, outlawing intermar-
riage between Jews and
gentiles and expelling Arab
citizens from Israel unless they promise
submission to Jewish rule. In 1988, Knesset
outlawed his party as racist.
The William Davidson Digital Archive of
Detroit Jewish History (djnfoundation.org)
showed that on Oct. 24, 1985, then-MK
Meir Kahane came to Detroit and the Jewish
Welfare Federation refused
to let him enter the build-
ing. The JN reported Nov.
1, 1985, that Federation
President Joel Tauber and
Executive Director Wayne
Feinstein concurred on this
decision. Tauber explained
Federation would offer “no home to Meir
Kahane and his racist ideology.”
Asked about that decision now, Tauber
said, “I do not actually recall
the specific incident right
now, but those were my
feelings ever since Meir
Kahane became a public
figure. Barring Kahane was
consistent with my belief. In
my opinion, then and now,
our tradition stands for com-
passion, understanding and improving the
world. We are in favor of Israel as a Jewish
democratic state. There is no room in the
Jewish community for what he stood for. I
feel the same way about Otzma Yehudit, the
successor to Kahane’
s party.”
Feinstein, now in San Mateo, Calif., also
defends the decision and provides context:
“It wasn’
t just the Detroit Federation. By
then, all the leading Jewish organizations
had recognized Meir Kahane’
s positions
were so far outside the mainstream that
they amounted to hate speech. We all
agreed to refuse to offer him a platform for
hate speech.”
In his Nov. 11, 1985, “Purely
Commentary” column, JN Editor Philip
Slomovitz wrote, “There has to be an under-
standing that no one will be permitted to
say that a resident in Israel who is not of
Jewish birth is to be driven out of the land.
That’
s the Kahanism for which there can
never be sanction.”
— Louis Finkelman
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Joel Tauber
Wayne
Feinstein
Rabbi Meir
Kahane
Israeli Political Turmoil
Netanyahu’
s coalition offer prompts strong reactions.