As I sat down to write this Ameinu end of year update to you, I thought back on how the year started and where we are now… hard to believe that despite the pandemic we’ve managed not only to continue our work, but to expand upon it. While our staff moved to the “work from home” mode and our lay leaders focused on their family situations, we didn’t miss a beat. We shifted to Zoom and other methods to carry out our vital activities.
Before 2020 even began, we worked with our partners in the U.S. progressive Israel community to construct the Hatikvah Slate. The Slate ran in this year’s elections to send delegates to the World Zionist Congress. From January to March we mobilized thousands of people to vote for our vision of peace and justice, while facing attempts by right wing forces to have our delegation disqualified from the Congress on bogus grounds. Their case was denied and we sent 30 delegates and alternates to the virtual Congress held in October. We formed a left-center coalition to block a power grab by the right-religious bloc of organizations, ensuring a balance in governance within international Zionist bodies. The coaltion includes members of our slate who were selected for various positions in the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency; including Nomi-Colton Max, Ameinu’s Vice President, Leah Schwartz, the outgoing mazkira (National Director) of Habonim Dror North America, Shaina Wasserman of J Street and, yours truly.
Back in February, pre-pandemic, our initiative to develop a community of young Israelis in the United States, Connect IL, organized a well-attended conference held at the Marlene Meyerson JCC in Manhattan. The conference featured Yossi Beilin, former Israeli Justice Minister, Israeli journalists and others. Soon after that event, programming moved online with a regular lineup of Israeli thought leaders, journalists and politicians meeting with Connect IL members. Most recently, Connect IL held a program to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, featuring a moving conversation with his son, Yuval Rabin. Looking forward, a very interesting dialogue has been launched between Connect IL activists and UAE based students and young professionals.
Our advocacy within the American Jewish community has continued as well. Ameinu has been working with an alliance of organizations lobbying Congress to pass the Middle East Partnership for Peace Act (MEPPA). This legislation would provide $250 million over five years for grassroots peacebuilding and economic development efforts between Israelis and Palestinians. In July it passed the House. Attention then turned to the Senate, where it needs Republican support. We succeeded in getting the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (CoP) to issue a statement in favor of the legislation. Our colleagues on Capitol Hill said this was key in getting Republicans onboard and we are now working towards passage in the Senate before the end of the year.
We are also prepared to respond to events as they occur. On June 6, Mort Klein, the president of the ZOA, tweeted, “BlackLivesMatter is an antisemitic, Israel hating, Soros funded, racist extremist Israelophobic hate group.” For good measure he added, BLM is “Jew hating, White hating, conservative Black hating and violence promoting.“ We knew that we couldn’t let this pass - and a Twitter war wasn’t a meaningful solution.
Ameinu called upon other CoP members to sign a letter of condemnation. Ultimately we recruited sixteen additional member organizations, including the Reform and Conservative movements, the National Council of Jewish Women and Na’amat. And while they didn’t sign our letter, both ADL and the JCPA put out their own statements criticizing Klein. The great coverage we received in the Forward highlighting our work generated additional support within the Jewish community.
In the campus domain, our Third Narrative initiative has been involved in a nuanced effort of their own. The Alliance for Academic Freedom (AAF), a group of over 200 liberal and progressive academics, issued a statement about a case of a Jewish USC student body vice president who was pushed out of office due to her pro-Israel identification. The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles covered the statement, and we’ve heard from faculty members that the statement has worked its way around campus, cited as exemplifying a thoughtful approach to the issue. AAF does this type of work month in and month out as situations arise.
To continue and expand these efforts, we truly need a successful end of year campaign. Your contribution now will help us begin 2021 with funding for projects that are already in the planning stages - like a virtual study mission to Israel and Palestine - as well as supporting our ongoing advocacy and programming efforts. We appreciate that this has been a difficult year for many people and we thank you in advance for your gift.
B’shalom,
