When I was in elementary school, several times a year the students participated in fundraising programs. From Barton’s chocolate before Passover, to the post-high-holiday discounted books and magazine subscriptions, kids would meander around their neighborhoods knocking on doors, selling the seasonal merchandise under the banner of supporting a cause. Sometimes, the cause was student chosen, like new fiberglass backboards for the gym or an adventurous overnight class trip. Others, more Jewish in nature like new prayer books or bibles for the school. Yet, no cause was more prevalent than the plight of world Jewry and the success of the State of Israel. The organizations in America heading up these efforts were a collective of non-for-profit organizations referred to as Federations. All major cities had their own local federation, in some cases there were several, and they were represented nationally by a few unifying bodies.
The Jewish Federations were created over a hundred years ago. Some, like the Jewish National Fund were established to help support Jewish life in Ottoman, Palestine. Others, like B’nai B’rith, the oldest known federation having its roots in the mid-1800’s, were created to advocate for better conditions and lives for Jewish immigrants to America. After the Israeli State was declared, many Federations shifted the focus to include support for the new country and celebrated the emerging Israeli culture. By the 1980’s, the Federation network had reorganized and was enormous, they collectively had massive budgets fueled by grants and donations. The plight of local Jews was managed by local organizations affiliated with the Federations, and the state of National, Israeli and Global Jewry were managed by the national branches.
The work the Federations did truly helped millions of people, even with the inefficiency of spending 80% of donations on administrative expenses, by some accounts. No one can argue they did help families and save lives, they were effective to a degree. So, where is the failure? The failure is all around, most notably on college campuses and large social demonstrations. The failure can be seen in the Media and on millions of social media feeds. The failure can be seen in the credence given to groups purporting to represent Jewish causes, that work against the interest of the Jewish people. The failure is not only to the community they represent, the failure is to their own stated missions.
The missions of many of these organizations, as well as their overall structure have morphed throughout the years. It seems as a result, their effectiveness in promoting Jewish values and even their protection of the Jewish people have waned. In a 2019 world, deep-rooted and pocketed organizations have not kept up with the challenges and opposition facing the Jewish community, today. These bloated and bureaucratic organizations are being made irrelevant by a new and emerging group with a fraction of the budget and an even smaller number of members than an average national Jewish Federation. Groups like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Jews of Color and Sephardi/Mizrahi Caucus (JOCSM) and If-Not-Now are billed as Jewish advocacy groups, but often espouse opinions and take positions that serve to harm the Jewish community. These organizations and the people who run them appear on national news shows and speak for the Jewish community in denouncing Israel, calling for BDS and reviving Jewish stereotypes in common dialogue. They hold rallies and have massive social media presences. They are coordinated and inter-coordinated and extremely well organized. Far more than the traditional Jewish community.
The Jewish Voice for Peace is famously “anti-Zionist”. The organization advocates for the boycott of Israel and any entity that works with her. Rebecca Vilkomerson, JVP’s leader boasted about disrupting and infiltrating a pro-Israel LGBT group marching in the 2017 NYC Israeli Day Parade. The group, which supported Israel was surrounded and overtaken by JVP members who posed as the LGBT group while chanting anti-Israel statements along the parade route. Rebecca Pierce, who calls herself a “core member” of JOCSM identifies as Jewish yet has claimed there is a Jewish conspiracy controlling America and it comes in the form of the Israel Lobby. If-Not-Now bills itself as a Jewish advocacy group opposing Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Their focus is less on reaching out to the Jewish community, and more on lobbying democratic congressional leaders to divest American assets from Israel.
These are simply three loud voices billing themselves as the Jewish Community, there are many more and they are active. One look at the social media accounts of these organizations, and the people who lead them tells the story of how and why they are beating the Federations. JVP has 110,000 Twitter followers; If-Not-Now has 50,000. One of the oldest organizations with branches all across America is the former B’nai B’rith College group, Hillel. Hillel is on the front-lines of where this battle for Jewish identity is being fought, the campuses. And yet, Hillel has just 19,000 people following it. We can get into individual Hillel House accounts, but we will run into the same pattern when looking at local branches of JVP and the like. The fact is, as organized and structured as some of these Federation agencies are, there is no group strategy or effort. There are focus groups and panels that discuss the rise of anti-Semitism and the danger of assimilation ad nauseum, but little action.
These progressive Jewish groups, while each a niche unto itself, coordinate and share with one another. Their members are encouraged to be active, and they viscerally go after anyone criticizing the groups or their leaders. The dangers the Jewish community is facing today were predicted in the early 1990’s. The Council of Jewish Federations, a national umbrella group reported on the Jewish makeup of and assimilation into America. In the discussions that followed that report, the disenfranchisement and lack of interest amongst Jewish youth was called out. Almost 30 years of discussing that report and what it means has passed, and all the while the roots of American Jewry’s demise were being planted – and with the help of a young, loud and active community of people who identify as either full or partly Jewish, but hold little traditional Jewish values.
It is nearly a year since the Times of Israel published Debbie Hall’s piece, Wearing Jewface: The Far-Left’s new tactic . (https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/wearing-jewface-the-aftermath-and-beyond) . Debbie outlined in incredible detail and coherency the problem with the Jewish progressive groups. The article was shared and read thousands of times. Yet, seeing the way the groups have grown in size and relevance since that article, it is obvious the problem is greater than any one organization. There needs to be a realignment of Jewish community groups and Federations. While the various orthodox groups are arguing who is more orthodox, and the conservatives and reform communities’ squabble for relevance, Judaism as a whole is under attack in America, and from appearances it is from within. And few are doing anything about it.
The century old Jewish organizations that advocated for American Jewry and instilled a love of Israel must pool their resources and refocus their efforts on reclaiming what it means to be Jewish in America. They should revitalize Jewish campus life and find strategies to engage the unaffiliated Jewish teens. To continue to intellectualize the threat does little to combat it, and the more these progressive groups are allowed to engage our children on campus without any competition from traditional Jewish groups, the more likely the trend will continue. Should that happen, US support for Israel will certainly be no more.