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KOACH Kallah and the Mahar Coalition

Monday, February 28th, 2011

This past weekend, I joined over 70 other Conservative Jewish college students at the KOACH Kallah, hosten by Northwestern University this year.  The Kallah is a convention to bring together Conservative Jewish leaders from coast to coast for an enthusiastic, meaningful weekend of Jewish learning, connections, and Shabbat.  This annual event brings together Jewish leaders to learn from each other, be inspired to return to their own campus with new programming ideas, and strive towards creating and nurturing a positive campus climate for Conservative and Egalitarian Jews.
mahar

Last year’s KOACH Kallah was my first official encounter with the Conservative Movement, and every since I have considered myself a Conservative Jew.  The spirited davening, the ability to connect with other Jewish individuals who are struggling with the same problems as individuals and campus leaders, and the meaningful Jewish learning all inspired me to return to Miami University of Ohio and help implement non-Orthodox learning programs, revitalize our Shabbat services, and try to engage Jewish students in more ways.  This year’s Kallah has done the same.

However, this year’s Kallah was also different, because it was potentially the last.  The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ) recently unveiled a new Strategic Plan, which will be voted on this Thursday, that has severely crippled the future of KOACH.  The USCJ Plan not only cuts over 70 percent of KOACH’s past operating budget, but also lacks any emphasis on college students and young adults being supported by the movement.

So, in response to this plan, the 70+ students at this year’s convention have formed the Mahar Coalition to provide a more viable alternative to the USCJ’s Strategic Plan.  We advocate the importance of maintaining and increasing connections with campuses that have small- to medium- Jewish populations.  We advocate the importance of Jewish learning on campuses that does not come from ultra-Orthodox groups.  We advocate for high school Jews who will be in our place in years to come.  And we advocate to make Conservative, egalitarian Judaism a viable option for the 21st century with a focus on today’s and tomorrow’s Jewish communities.

At my own university, we have benefited from KOACH through funding of our weekly learning program, invaluable Jewish resources, and Shabbat services ideas, in addition to many other less tangible ways.  Other campuses are completely supported by KOACH and have no non-Orthodox Jewish learning without their support.  Seeing these programs be cut of diminished would not only be a disappointment to college Jews, but a detriment to the long term future of non-Orthodox Jewish identity.

If you would like to support this movement, you can read the Mahar Coalition’s vision statement on their blog or join the Mahar Coalition Facebook page.

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Posted in Campus, community, Conservative, Religion | 6 Comments »

J Street Conference: Hillel Hearts J Street

Monday, February 28th, 2011

J Street may still be fighting for acceptance in the Jewish community almost three years after its founding, but there’s one place where that battle is over and the self-proclaimed “pro-Israel, pro-peace” group has emerged victorious: the college campus.

J Street U displayed its secure position in the established Jewish campus world today by organizing a panel at the J Street conference that included two J Street U college activists and two Hillel professionals. After an introduction by Yale senior Ben Alter, J Street U’s East Coast representative, each panelist spoke about his or her view on campus discourse about Israel. Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt, Hillel International’s director of campus initiatives, advocated pluralism in the campus pro-Israel conversation and stated Hillel’s much-publicized guidelines on which groups are and are not accepted in Hillel’s space. The clear implication was that J Street U, regardless of its criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights, falls within the bounds. Rabbi Lisa Goldstein, the executive director of the UC-San Diego Hillel, noted that even though Hillel does exclude certain Jewish groups (among others, JVP), every individual Jewish student is welcome in the community regardless of political affiliation. “Being part of the Jewish community does not mean you have to sign on a line that these are your values,” she said.

The J Street U panelists conveyed frustration over Hillel’s guidelines for inclusion, with one student–Princeton freshman Aliyah Donsky–noting her ambivalence about Hillel’s declaring “who was in and who was out.” Columbia freshman Cole Leiter spoke about facing tension from Hillel when the school’s J Street U chapter decided ot cosponsor a speech by John Ging, the head of UNRWA (the UN Palestinian refugee agency) in Gaza. Leiter said that the group’s board members had to sit down with Hillel staff and each state that they were Zionist, after answering a series of other questions. He added that restricting campus discourse is “un-American, undemocratic and simply not Jewish.”

But on the whole, the J Street U students seemed to have a good relationship with their respective Hillels. Donsky said that she became involved in Israel activity on campus because a staff person from her Hillel invited her to speak on a panel about the conflict. And Leiter noted that his group ultimately pulled their co-sponsorship of the Ging event because it recognized the value of staying withing Hillel’s community.

Other events speak to this recognition as well. While AIPAC won’t co-host events with J Street, a couple of months ago Leiter’s group hosted an Israel event with LionPAC, Columbia’s largest pro-Israel group. In September, Hillel President Wayne Firestone had a productive meeting with the J Street U student board.

To be sure, J Street U will face challneges in the future over its pro-Israel credentials, its commitment to regional peace or its Jewish values. Some donors to Hillel may pull their funding because of J Street U’s presence. But as it stands now, they’re in and there to stay.

This is a good sign for J Street regardless of its position on the hill. The organization has certainly placed much of its stock in college students–there are about 500 at the conference this year–and that investment looks to be paying off. We’ll see whether these student activists will end up being game changers in the American pro-Israel conversation down the line–if they aren’t already.

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Posted in Campus, Israel, j street conference | 3 Comments »

J Street Conference: Not Kosher

Monday, February 28th, 2011

Some people say J Street is too far to the left; others complain that it’s too far right. But there’s another, more basic reason for Jews to doubt J Street’s kashrut:

Its food is literally not kosher.

Of course, plenty of Jewish organizations serve non-kosher food at their events, and that’s fine. Given that the vast majority of Jews don’t keep strict, certified kosher, there’s no reason to foot that bill. But almost all Jewish organizations, and certainly all major ones, make the effort to provide kosher options for those Jews who do require a hekhsher. At the very least, they would offer kosher food for purchase.

Not so with J Street.

When I arrived at the conference this morning, before 8 a.m., I asked a staff person if the breakfast would include kosher options. She told me it would. But when the food arrived, there was nothing kosher to be found–not even fruit. I sufficed with coffee and decided to wait for lunch, when–with an hour of free time–I could rush on the metro to a kosher restaurant.

When that time came, I got ready to hurry out of the conference room only to be told by multiple J Street staffers that there were sandwiches for purchase across the building and yes, some of them were kosher.

You can guess what happened next. I arrived at the sandwich cart and requested the kosher option. I got a blank stare in return, and when I asked the manager she told me she had no idea what I was talking about. She hadn’t heard anything about kosher sandwiches. The best they could do, they said, was a regular turkey sandwich with the cheese taken off. No good. I bought a Clif bar, a Nature Valley, a Kit Kat, an apple and a banana. I filled the feast out with some mini Twix I found at a conference table.

Maybe I’m making too much of this, but I think that an intentionally Jewish organization that bases its platform on Jewish values should make more of an effort to respect a basic traditional Jewish practice. This is especially true for J Street, which emphasizes pluralism and acceptance. I think it’s great for an organization to encourage myriad political ideologies, but there needs to be space for a multiplicity of religious observances as well. And on perhaps the most practical level, I have trouble thinking about the nuances of US Middle East policy when I haven’t eaten all day.

In the future, J Street should consider doing one of the following things:

1. Providing kosher food at its conference.
2. Informing participants, ahead of time, that there will be no kosher food available.
3. Giving participants a guide to kosher restaurants in Washington DC, and enough time to go to those restaurants, eat a meal and return.

Either way, tomorrow I’m coming prepared. Immediately after arriving at my friend’s apartment tonight, I went to the Walgreen’s and picked up bread, peanut butter (JIF creamy), two blueberry muffins and a stack of Pizza Pringles.  It may not be healthy, but at least it’s food. Yes, all of it is certified kosher.

And I’ve already eaten all of the Pringles. For dinner.

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Posted in j street conference | 12 Comments »

J Street Conference: Lots of college students–no press allowed

Sunday, February 27th, 2011

There’s a blurry line here at the J Street Conference between press and participant. And between college student and press, insofar as I’m here.

J Street Us tremendous t-shirts

J Street U's tremendous t-shirts

The participants’ badges hang on black lanyards, but the press is easy to spot because of our bright orange–just go New Voices, I’m sure–lanyards ours hang on. Every time I see an orange one, I try to get a look at what press they’re from. There are a surprising number that say “Press: Freelance” or “Press: Blogger” and more still that say they’re from a particular blog with a recognizable name.

And these people are all J Street cheerleaders. It’s not as thought there are a ton of right-wing Israel bloggers here. So this class of people exists in a kind of gray area between press and participant.

J Street Press Secretary Amy Spitalnick and the rest of the J Street team have to know that this gray area exists and they have to know how sizable that contingent is because they’re the ones approving the press passes. On the other hand, J Street has made a number of sessions closed to the press.

Namely, the entire college Shabbaton the preceded the conference, tonight’s J Street U Conversation–which is fine because I wanna go to young professionals happy hour at the same time anyway–and a few other sessions, which I’ll get into below.

So why are the college events closed to the press? We asked Spitalnick about it and she said that J Street’s policy is that these are closed because they are conversations between college students. I don’t think that’s much of a reason to close the events to anyone, much less to New Voices. We are the only press outlet in the country that’s specifically for, about and by Jewish college students.

Laboring away in the press seating at the back of a plenary session, its New Voices Editor Ben Sales

Laboring away in the press seating at the back of a plenary session, its New Voices Editor Ben Sales

And to reinforce how frayed the distinction between press and not is, if just about any Jewish college student could be a New Voices writer and/or blogger, what are they doing to make sure that there are no New Voices people registered as students going into these sessions and blogging about it?

There’s a similar oddity to the non-college-specific sessions that are closed to the press. If anyone can be a member of the press now–the wordpress, I mean–by starting their own blog, how do they know there aren’t any bloggers who came as regular conference attendees in those sessions? Will they be barring people from using any electronics in those sessions at all?

Those sessions, by the way are:

Finding Your Voice: Having the Conversation on J Street and Israel in Your Community

I can’t for the life of me figure out why this one is closed to the press. Maybe because it’s a conversation among potential newcomers who won’t stay on-message while discussing how to get J Street started in their community.

Talk About Israel: “My Convictions or My Job”?: A Confidential Forum for Clergy Members

No problems, there. I get that.

Threading the Needle: Reframing the Israel Conversation

From the session description: “Inside the Jewish community and out, conversations about Israel are increasingly being shaped by campaigns built around boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) on the one hand and by efforts to counter delegitimization on the other. A number of organizations in the Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace movement–[then it lists some of them, all cosponsors of the conference]–are working collaboratively to frame the conversation differently….”

I think you only need three letters to explain why this one is closed to the press: BDS. J Street is adamantly against BDS, which is has become a major campus issue, so they want to avoid appearances to the contrary.

On the other hand, a later session called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions in 2011: Who’s Afraid of the BDS? is open to everyone, so, as with the Finding Your Voice session, it’s not clear to me why this session is closed to the press.

And, of course, all the lobbying stuff on Tuesday is closed to the press.

What confuses me is this: At the opening plenary last night, J Street head honcho Jeremy Ben-Ami said that, unlike AIPAC and other groups of the ilk, J Street’s conference is open to people who don’t totally agree with J Street, from both the right and the left. If that’s case, if a selling point of the organization is openness, dialog and transparency, why are some sessions closed to the press?

Another thing emphasized at the opening plenary was the the number of college students. If the numbers they’ve been citing are true and there are 2000 people here and 500 of them are college students, then a quarter of the conference is made up of students. They’ve been talking a lot about how this is proof that the future of the pro-Israel world is J Street and they’ve said that it’s proof that J Street’s young people are a strong, important part of the organization. Several of them were given a moment of stage time at the opening plenary itself, including J Street U President Moriel Rothman, who got the honor of introducing Peter Beinart–the subject of J Street U’s confernce t-shirts, which say “Beinart’s Army.”

So they want to put a spotlight on the faces of their students, but not on what they may actually have to say.

But we know from last year that J Street U can go off-message and can appear to far to the left of the official policies of J Street. As J Street U was just coming into existence at the last conference, the student board dropped the term “pro-Israel” from their name. If you consult their policies, you’ll see that they’re still pro-Israel, but they did make a point of dropping the term–whatever the reason for that was. (And I’m sure the reason was more innocuous than some of the more paranoid members of the community made it out to be at the time.)

Anyway, them’s my thoughts on that. Y’all got anything to add?

Posted in Israel, j street conference, Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

J Street Conference: Clapping for Hate?

Sunday, February 27th, 2011
Mona Eltahawy, second from left

Mona Eltahawy, second from left

There’s a plenary going on right now at the J Street Conference that’s exploring the present democracy movements in the Middle East. Good stuff. Something everyone–and especially the peaceniks here–can get behind. The first two panelists gave unsurprising speeches supporting democracy and the peace process, which elicited some token cheers from a mostly silent crowd.

Then Mona Eltahawy, a vocal journalist from Egypt, started speaking–and there the niceties ended. Here are some things she said about the revolution in Egypt. She began:

“This is not about Israel. None of this is about Israel.”

But this, after all, is J Street, so she started talking about Israel. Here’s what she said:

“The hatred against Israel will not end” from Egypt until the Palestinians have freedom.

Then the pro-Israel crowd started cheering. She repeated a similar statement, and the crowd cheered even more.

This is a problem. I understand that this crowd, to put it lightly, dislikes the occupation. I know they want to see a Palestinian state. But if they’re serious about being pro-Israel, or even about being pro-peace, they need to be anti-hatred.

It is wrong–for anyone–to cheer for hate. It is wrong, at a pro-Israel conference, to cheer someone who professes her hatred for Israel–not her disappointment, not her concern, but her hatred. She can hate whoever she wants. And if J Street wants her to come to their conference and speak at a major session, they can do that too. But when she comes to that pro-Israel conference, starts talking about hatred for Israel and draws the loudest cheer from the crowd, that’s bad. It’s bad for J Street and it’s bad for J Street’s supporters if they intend to show their support for the Jewish state.

I believe that J Street and most of its base are pro-Israel. I believe that its platform has the state’s best interests in mind. But hearing them cheer for hate, I can understand those who doubt J Street’s love for Israel.

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Posted in Israel, j street conference | 36 Comments »

J Street Conference: Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots! etc.

Sunday, February 27th, 2011
J Street U shot glasses: Fill to the Green Line

J Street U shot glasses: "Fill to the Green Line"

Possibly the greatest conference giveaway $5 souvenir item I’ve ever seen: The J Street U shot glass.

Unfortunately, I think it may be making the wrong point for them. If you fill these to the green line, you don’t get everything you want. So…

Posted in Israel, j street conference | 4 Comments »

J Street Conference: I found the one-man protest. And he’s a retired federal judge.

Sunday, February 27th, 2011

Herbert Grossman, retired federal judge, is stationed outside the convention center. His sign says, “J STREET: Quislings, Kapos, Appeasars, the New JUDENRAT.” I was surprised to find that there’s only the one. And that he’s a retired federal judge. I was not surprised to find that he’s a tad crotchety.

Retired federal judge Herbert Grossman

Retired federal judge Herbert Grossman

Q: What are you doing here today?

Grossman: I’m here to let people know that these Jews are selling out their own people.
Q: What are they doing that sells out other Jews?

Grossman: Well, first you have to understand who the people at J Street at. They’re Jews who believe the false stereotypes. They believe them and they think that they’re not like those Jews and the can blame the other Jews for everything.

Q: So when you hear J Street talking, what you hear is one-sided, directing all blame at other Jews?

Grossan: [Notice his avoidance of the question. He just wants to tell me what he wants to tell me. Which is fine.] They want to say that they’re not like other Jews. They say they’re humanitarians, they’re altruists, but they’re really like that. They’re more like non-Jews, really.

Between each of his sentences there’s one or two logical steps missing.

Another highlight from my chat with Grossman: ”They’re taking on the characteristics of the Ghetto Jew.”

Not one to generalize, Grossman added, “They side with the Arabs who are the most  intolerant people in the world and they just try to kill people who are different from them.”

Posted in Israel, j street conference | 4 Comments »

J Street Conference: A quarter of this conference is college students

Sunday, February 27th, 2011
The J Street U table at the conference. J Street U East Coast Organizer Ira Stup is seated on the right.

The J Street U table at the conference. J Street U East Coast Organizer Ira Stup is seated on the right.

I’m a little slow on math. Despite the fact that last night’s plenary was full of “there are 2000 people here” and “there are 500 college students here,” it didn’t dawn on me that, if these numbers are accurate, a quarter of the population of this conference is made up of college students. That’s impressive.

I’ll be interviewing some of them, and some other people of interest as the day goes on.

I found Abe Katz and Steve Dunmire from Middlebury at the J Street U table in the hallway outside the session rooms.

Q: How did y’all get involved with J Street U?

Katz: I got involved because one of founders of J Street U, [J Street U President Moriel Rothman] is a student at Middlebury and he had a lot of great education programs going at Middlebury , so I got involved that way.

Dunmire: I study Middle East politics and some friends had high praise for J Street, so I got involved.

Q: What do you think the recent cancellation of the J Street U Birthright trip by Birthright indicates?

Katz: On my Birhtright trip [through Hillel] last summer, J Street came up a couple times and our staff chaperone from Birthright openly said, “Oh, they’re crazy,” twice. Birthright definitely has a political leaning.

Katz was referring to Birthright’s assertion that Birthright is apolitical and because of that, they can’t have a J Street-sponsored trip.

Posted in Israel, j street conference | No Comments »

Live from the J Street Conference: “Nearly 500″ Jewish college students, over 2000 total

Saturday, February 26th, 2011
Rabbi David Saperstein gives an opening speech

Rabbi David Saperstein gives an opening speech

The conference is under way. Rachel Lerner, the head of the conference itself, says that there are more than 2000 people here. I’ll buy that. It’s packed. The corner nearest the press seating I chose is chock-full of college students. I wonder how many of them them are here.

Rabbi David Saperstein, head of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is giving his welcoming remarks/pep-talk. “Tikkun Olam, etc.” “In 3,000 years, our forebears have insisted that we do not continue for continuity’s sake alone.” Etc. There’s a lot of clapping.

I’ve seen Saperstein speak before. I’ve even met him in person before. And I’m still surprised by his speaking abilities. If nothing else–and there’s plenty else–he’s a powerful and persuasive speaker.

The passion in this room is palpable. Every other sentence Saperstein utters gets two or three people excited enough to start clapping. And their clapping is infectious. And so their tables clap. And then the whole room is clapping.

“Your attraction to people on the left is not that your positions are different from others on the left,” Saperstein is saying. But, he says, the attraction is in the political, realistic, mainstream cache J Street maintains. Saperstein says–and I agree–that J Street’s ability to take a radical stand when it counts come from its ability to take mainstream positions on other issues. This puts J Street, of course, in stark contrast to other Jewish lefty groups in the US.

“J Street’s pro-Israel pro-peace approach is right… is needed now more than ever,” Saperstein says. “Neither humanity, nor the countries of Middle East are the prisoners of a bitter and unremitting past.”

J Street head honcho Jeremy Ben-Ami

J Street head honcho Jeremy Ben-Ami

Now J Street director Jeremy Ben-Ami is talking. Among other groups he cites, he says that there are thousands of Jewish college students (holler!) involved through J Street U across the country.

And I just realized the J Street U Director Daniel May is sitting right next to me.

Jeremy Ben-Ami is now in apologetics mode about J Street, reinforcing adamantly that the group is pro-Israel.

And from there, he transitions into this: Israel wants all the land from the Med. sea to the Jordan, it wants to be democratic and it wants to be Jewish. “It cannot have all three,” he says. “It must give up the land to have peace.”

He is excited that there are those who disagree with J Street here, from the right and from the left. Disagreement is all a part of the Jewish tradition.

Now he mentions that there are “nearly 500″ college students here. He says that they’r–we’re–here because the spirit of open debate attracts young people. Later, some J Street U leaders take the stage and tell us that there are more than 120 college campuses represented at the conference. So take that, old farts.

And just before that, he made a little reference to Birthright’s ludicrous refusal to have J Street U Birthright trip–which we covered to death over here. I thought Daniel May’s head was gonna pop off when he said that.

There’s more to this opening plenary to come, but I’m gonna end the post here. There may be more from me later tonight. If not, Ben Sales and I will be here for the rest of the weekend reporting like there’s no tomorrow.

Posted in Israel, j street conference | 5 Comments »

Live from the J Street Conference: Why it’s called “J Street”

Saturday, February 26th, 2011

J Street, the political arm of the pro-peace, pro-peace crowd is getting ready for its second annual conference here in DC.

This is a real life college student at the J Street conference. Her name is Sydney with a Y.

This is a real life college student at the J Street conference. Her name is Sydney with a Y.

It’s 7:30 already and we haven’t started the opening plenary–set to being at 7–yet. And now they’re announcing that we’ll start in 5 minutes. Jews. Am I right?

In other news, the DC convention center–the location of the conference–is on K Street in downtown DC. Then next street over is I Street. (Well, kind of. Massachusetts Avenue screws things up. Whatever.) Anyway, DC notoriously does not have a J Street. And there are a bunch of lobbies on K Street.

So now you’re in on the joke. More to come tonight and as the weekend goes on.

Posted in Israel, j street conference | No Comments »

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