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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Israeli Political Turmoil

Netanyahu’
s coalition offer prompts strong reactions.

