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With the likelihood of a right-of-center coalition taking shape in Israel, advocates of religious pluralism worry about a rollback of gains made in the last two years. Staff Writer Stewart Ain has the story.NATIONAL
Religious Pluralists Fearing Rollback Of Gains
Right-wing Israeli government would likely blunt momentum on personal-status issues.
Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds coalition-building talks with charedi and center-right parties, some Jewish groups worry that pluralism — which flourished after Israel’s last election — will suffer without centrist input.
“A right-wing government is going to be an enormous setback for those trying to advance the idea of civil marriage,” said Rabbi Seth Farber, founder and director of ITIM: The Jewish-Life Information Center, a nonprofit organization that helps people navigate Israel’s bureaucracy related to marriage, birth and other major life changes. And it is expected that other strides towards pluralism made by the last Israeli government — it was the first time in a decade there were no charedi parties in the cabinet — will also be reversed. Among the first changes expected will be to the military draft.
Under the slogan of “sharing the burden,” the last government passed a new conscription law that ended wholesale army exemptions that had been granted to seminary students, who are mostly charedi. It was to be fully implemented in four years, but a right-wing government is expected to kill its provisions.
There was also some headway made by the last government in the area of conversions. Last Nov. 3, the Israeli cabinet voted to strip the Chief Rabbinate of sole control over conversions in Israel. It ordered that municipal rabbis also be permitted to perform them in the hope that some of them might impose less onerous conditions on the potential convert.
“There was a new horizon for potential converts, but it now seems that that horizon is going to close,” Rabbi Farber said.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said he, too, is concerned about the “few areas in which we were beginning to see potential progress.”
“It is impossible to imagine a new government without charedi parties,” he said, referring to the fact that Netanyahu’s Likud Party won a landslide victory with 30 seats.
But he confided that the conversion reform implemented by the last cabinet caused the Reform movement to fear that the change “might weaken our own conversion process. … We were happy it was approved, but we want something more dramatic, a change that includes [the recognition of] civil marriage and divorce and equitable funding for our rabbis.”
Despite the cabinet decision, the change was never implemented because the Chief Rabbinate refused to approve conversions performed by municipal rabbis and one of the key parties in the coalition, Jewish Home, objected to it, noted Yizhar Hess, executive director and CEO of the Conservative movement’s Masorti Movement in Israel.
He said he is convinced “the previous cabinet’s action will be canceled by the new government since it dealt only with Orthodox conversions and had no affect on non-Orthodox conversions. There will be no one to fight its cancellation … and there is no constituency to support the municipal rabbis.
“The Orthodox in Israel are governed by the more radical streams, and when it is canceled you will hear no voice of protest from the street. It is tragic.”
Hess added that had the change included conversions by the Reform and Conservative movements, there would have been some protest.
“But we were asked to keep silent,” he said. “The agreement was that it would not harm or help us. And as you see, it did not help them either.”
And with an expected right-wing government taking shape, Hess said the “conversion issue will be tabled for the near future. … unless the moderate Modern Orthodox in Israel understand that in order to make significant changes in the coercive and corrupt Chief Rabbinate regarding religion and state, nothing will happen.”
Among what Rabbi Uri Regev described as a “modest gain” by the last government that he fears may be reversed involves work on creating a new egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall.
“We were far along on this, and the question is whether this effort will be resumed or frozen in its incomplete space,” Rabbi Jacobs said.
Natan Sharansky, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, was working with the Reform and Conservative movements, as well as the Jewish Federations of North America, to develop the prayer space.
“We were working effectively for one wall for one people,” Rabbi Jacobs said. “It is possible the prime minister may still take a strong leadership position on this. We hope he does.”
As envisioned, there would be a single entrance to the Western Wall or Kotel and three separate sections: men, women and egalitarian. Currently, the egalitarian section is separate from the other two. It is hoped this arrangement would put an end to the violence that has occurred when women wearing prayer shawls and carrying a Torah attempted to pray in the women’s section.
Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center in Jerusalem, said there is also real concern that the new government may undermine the “democratic nature of Israel.” That could happen, she said, should the proposed nation-state bill be reconsidered.
“Earlier versions of the bill favored the Jewish character of the state in the narrow, Orthodox sense, rather than the democratic character of Israel,” Rabbi Sattath explained. “In our view of Judaism, there is no contradiction. But in the Orthodox view, there is a clear contradiction.”
Asked the implications of such legislation, she said: “If you are going to build a state founded on halacha [Jewish law], there would not be gender equality or equality for minorities. Many of the freedoms guaranteed in a democracy are not guaranteed in halacha. They have said the Jewish character of the state is more important to them. And it is over this bill that the last government fell.”
Rabbi Sattath said her organization would be reaching out to the center-right party that is expected to be in the coalition, Kulanu, as well as to some liberal members of Likud to enlist their help in “preventing this disastrous bill from passing.”
Naomi Paiss, a spokeswoman for the New Israel Fund, which defines itself as an American nonprofit that funds groups in Israel committed to equality and democracy for all Israelis, said such a new law would not “reflect the desire of most Israelis and would contribute to American Jewish concerns about the rights of non-Orthodox Jews in Israel.”
She pointed out that Naftali Bennett, chairman of the Jewish Home Party, has already “said such a law could be used to deport all African refugees.” And Paiss said it could also be used to “prevent family reunification among Israeli Arab citizens because they would not be allowed to marry Palestinians in the West Bank and then bring them to Israel.”
“Those supporting this bill say it would allow things Israel’s High Court keeps throwing out because they discriminate against non-Jews,” she said.
Rabbi Uri Regev, CEO of Hiddush-Freedom of Religion for Israel, said that if Netanyahu is committed to any of the pluralistic efforts initiated during his last government, now is the time for him to include them as part of his coalition government.
“During the period in which the coalition negotiations are taking place, bilateral agreements between Likud and each potential coalition member are being made and under the law they need to be disclosed before the new government is presented,” he explained.
The New Israel Fund is expressing concern also that a rightwing government would “strengthen the power of both the settler lobby and charedi hegemony over personal and religious life in Israel,” Paiss noted.
“Any reforms in the area of civil marriage would be highly unlikely, and there is a bill supported by Jewish Home that would put progressive NGOs [non-governmental organizations] out of business,” she said. “Most of the progressive NGOs get funding from Europe and sometimes from the U.S. This bill would require such funding to have defense ministry approval, something that would essentially shut down the human rights community in Israel.”
Among the groups Paiss said would be affected are the Association for Civil Rights in Israel; B’tselem; Rabbis for Human Rights, and Physicians for Human Rights, Israel.
She acknowledged that these groups are often critical of Israel, but she said they are “the eyes and ears of the world on the West Bank, and it is no wonder that the settler party wants them shut down.”
There is little likelihood that Netanyahu and his Likud Party would reach out to the centrist Zionist Union to form a unity government, according to Rabbi Regev.
“Ideally, we would like to see them work out their differences — and they are not as far apart as the public is led to believe,” he said. “But the trust between them is so great that he [Netanyahu] would rather cater to the extortion of the charedi parties rather than establish a framework that would enable a civil coalition to be established.”
A new group advocating "safe spaces" for Orthodox gays is being launched on several campuses, reports Staff Writer Hannah Dreyfus.NEW YORK
‘Safe Spaces’ For Orthodox LGBTQ Students Spreads On Campus
Program that began at YU gets new grant and intercampus launch.
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer
Rachael Fried, a 27-year-old graduate of Stern College, spent years formulating one three-word bombshell of a sentence: I am gay.
“Just being able to say it to myself, let alone others, took years,” said Fried, former student council president at Stern and current graduate student at Parsons The New School for Design. She wore a knee-length pencil skirt, button-down top, cardigan and colorful scarf, long hair falling down her back.
“I’m pretty religious, and I’m pretty gay,” Fried joked. “My story, though, is not an extraordinary one. I was a typical Stern student leader.”
Fried spoke out publicly for the first time on a recent Friday at the second session of Merchav Batuach, a recently launched “safe space” seminar for Orthodox college students. Founded in December by Stern senior Dasha Sominski, the project, whichoffers language sensitivity training and networking opportunities for gay students and their allies, is poised to expand. Campus chapters at Barnard, Columbia, NYU, Yale and Queens College are scheduled to open in the fall.
“I heard about the project though social media, and realized it would be a perfect fit for our campus,” said Sophia Adler, a sophomore at Queens College who hopes to launch the training sessions there this fall. The significant Orthodox population at Queens makes it an ideal location for the initiative, she said.
The project’s expansion follows President Barack Obama’s call last week to end reparative therapies aimed at “converting” gay, lesbian and transgender youth, amethod endorsed in certain Orthodox circles. JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing), a New Jersey-based organization that promotes reparative therapy, has protested past attempts to prohibit such therapies.
Unlike the reparative therapy model, Merchav Batuach hopes to promote a model of acceptance. The project, sponsored by Eshel, a nonprofit founded in 2013 to support gay Orthodox adults and their families, received $15,000 from the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York last month; that grant followed on the heels of a $10,000 grant from UJA-Federation of New York in January, according to Eshel’s executive director, Miryam Kabakov.
The recent training session, which attracted about 30 students, included “coming out” role play, in which two students improvised the scene of a student telling his college dorm counselor that he’s attracted to men. After a round of applause, viewers critiqued the scene for instances of insensitivity and brainstormed ways to respond effectively in a real-life situations.
“I came today to find out how to respond when a friend tells me she’s gay,” said Leora Veit, 22, a graduate of Stern College. Veit said that in the past few months, she’d discovered that several of her friends weren’t straight — “they opened up to me because they felt comfortable, and I found myself feeling flustered,” she said. “Learning how to respond was a skill I needed to learn.”
Over the past several years, LGBTQ awareness within the Orthodox community has been increasing, though slowly, given the stance of Jewish law toward homosexuality. (In a much-publicized incident, a 2009 panel on homosexuality in the Orthodox community, hosted by Yeshiva University’s social work school, led to strong blowback from university officials.) JQY, an organization founded in 2001 to promote understanding for young gay Jews, today serves over 600 LGBTQ Orthodox young adults across New York. Keshet, a national grassroots organization, provides inclusion training for LGBTQ individuals and provides families with resources and guidance. For the third year, Eshel is hosting an annual weekend retreats for parents of LGBTQ youth — this month’s retreat will host about 50 parents from Orthodox and charedi backgrounds.
Isabel Singer, a junior at Yale University, invited Sominski to speak at the New Haven campus’ Hillel in the fall.
“Being gay and Orthodox is not rectifiable in certain ways,” said Singer, who considers herself queer, “but making social space for these Jews is always possible.” Though Singer used to be Orthodox, she now considers herself an egalitarian Jew. “For me, being queer was a large piece of why I moved away from Orthodoxy,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean Orthodoxy can’t embrace those who are queer.”
“The progress is astounding,” said Fried, who said she waited until after college to come out to her peers because she feared being stigmatized. “In my time at YU, an anonymous article in the student newspaper was a big deal. Now, students are coming to seminars like this.”
Though Fried originally wanted to remain anonymous, she changed her mind after speaking at the recent seminar, which was held at the Forward’s office in Lower Manhattan. “I so badly want others to have the role model I wish I had,” she said.
Despite support among the student body (several articles in the student newspapers have been written about the initiative), a YU spokesperson said there is “no formal relationship between the program and the university.” Merchav Batuach does not receive university funding, and seminars must take place off-campus.
“To say I’m particularly welcome or appreciated on campus would be taking it too far,” said Sominski, who openly identifies as queer. Though certain staff members have expressed support for the endeavor, administrators maintain a strict distance, she said.
Still, support from peers is more important, according to Sominksi. “Last time, I personally recruited most of the people who came,” she said, referring to the first Marchav Batuach seminar, in December. “This time around, I didn’t know most of the people there. Students are coming on their own.”
“Merchav Batuach seems like a place that is educating people on how to be a supportive friend,” said Channa Silverman, 22. A junior at Stern, Silverman is Chabad and married — at the seminar, she covered her hair with a colorful scarf. “I consider myself someone who friends can talk to about all sorts of things,” she said. “This is one subject where I needed an education.”
The three-hour seminar is tailored to Orthodox students who have had little or no exposure to these issues, explained Eshel’s Kabakov, herself a gay Orthodox Jew and a Stern graduate. In one interactive exercise, students were asked to match relevant terms with their definitions — the list included “androgynous,” “biphobia,” “homophobia” and “gender binary.” One student asked Sominski for the definition of an “ally,” the term used to describe supporters of gay rights.
“We start with the basics,” said Kabakov, who said most in attendance never formally discussed these topics before. “There are no dumb questions, and no assumptions of knowledge.”
Another exercise challenged students to describe a date, without using heteronormative pronouns. Students stumbled over their words, laughing, and kept trying.
“The first place to make space for LGBTQ youth is in our words,” said Kabakov, who said the activity highlighted the prevalence of heterosexual presumptions in casual conversation.
Though most of the students were from Yeshiva University, representatives from other universities attended. Talia Lakritz, a junior at Barnard, hopes to facilitate the seminar among Columbia students.
“Language sensitivity is part of being Jewish,” said Lakritz, referring to the stringent Jewish laws against evil gossip, or lashon hara. “That translates to LBGTQ issues also.”
Though many Orthodox gay young adults are feeling more comfortable coming out to peers, coming out to their parents remains difficult.
One gay YU student, who wished to remain anonymous for privacy reasons, said his parents are still “grappling with the ramifications” of his identity. Though he came out to his parents at age 14, his mother still “isn’t ready to give up her vision of a perfect Jewish family.”
“From as far back as I can remember, I’ve lived with two truths,” he said. “I’m Jewish, and I’m gay. Both are absolute.” Though he said his parents respect his authenticity, there’s a point after which they won’t support his choices.
“It’s OK, I’m strong. But I want to help others who aren’t as far along,” he said. Despite his resilience, he often wonders about his future in the Orthodox community.
“It’s hard to feel alone. But when I come here, I realize I’m not alone,” he said, blinking hard. “This redefines not being alone.”
editor@jewishweek.org
Jewish leaders who met with President Obama at the White House this week noted his emotional comments about his commitment to Israel, Stew Ain reports.NATIONAL
Obama Termed ‘Emotional’ In Iran Meeting With Leaders
Participants describe ‘very intense’ mood in outreach sessions.
Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
President Barack Obama continued his outreach to the Jewish community in two separate meetings Monday during which he became emotional in describing his commitment to the Jewish people and the State of Israel, according to several attendees. And he vowed never to negotiate a deal with Iran that would jeopardize the Jewish state.
“I would be ashamed of myself as a human being if I didn’t side with Israel, given what the Jewish people have gone through,” he reportedly told Jewish leaders during a 70-minute White House meeting.
There was quiet in the room as Obama spoke, and one participant said later that the president “sounded sincere. … He was eloquent — very emotional. It was something I have not experienced before from him.”
Just last week, Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with many of the same Jewish leaders to explain the framework agreement reached with Iran over its nuclear program.
The Jewish Week spoke with several people who attended Obama’s meeting with Jewish leaders, as well as one Obama supporter who attended a second, two-hour meeting Obama held with major Jewish Democratic funders and supporters. Participants said they were told by Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser, that the president’s comments were off the record, and all spoke on condition that they would not be identified.
The several participants The Jewish Week interviewed who went into the meeting critical of Obama’s position on the Iran deal said they were not swayed by his remarks, though there was an impression that the president’s concern for Israel was genuine.
One of those said he left “disturbed” by the meeting, which he described as “very intense.” And he said that it was clear that the disagreements between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are more than just over policy.
According to another participant, “He [the president] said he would never, ever do to any other world leader what Netanyahu did to him — addressing another leader’s legislative body without first telling the leader of that country. It was clear that has created a deep divide. There is no question that he [Obama] is still angry and insulted by the way that happened. But he said he respects the democratic process and would work with the new Israeli government.”
Asked whether the U.S. would continue to have Israel’s back in the face of anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations, Obama was reportedly noncommittal, saying each resolution would be considered on its own merits.
“The only reason he said he is not so solid on that was that in the past there was always a peace process and the two parties were involved in peace talks,” one participant recalled, adding that Obama said Netanyahu is no longer supportive of a two-state solution.
Asked how he could still support a two-state solution given that Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, Obama gave a lengthy answer in which he reportedly said in essence that Hamas would have to be dealt with and that the U.S.-designated terror group presents an obstacle to peace.
Obama did not ask the Jewish leaders to lobby Congress regarding any Iran deal that is eventually reached. A U.S. Senate panel adopted a bipartisan bill Tuesday that gives Congress a chance to review any deal reached with Iran, and Obama said he would sign it should it pass both houses of Congress. (See Editorial, page 6.)
Although several topics were discussed, the majority of both meetings focused on Iran and the deal the U.S. is negotiating with five other world powers designed to keep Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.
Obama reportedly said that during the talks — which ended earlier this month with a framework agreement that all seven countries are committed to finalizing by June 30 — Iran revealed more information about its nuclear program than even the International Atomic Energy Agency knew. The IAEA is supposed to be the international community’s watchdog over the Iranian nuclear program, but Iran has refused to answer many of its questions.
Asked why Obama was making such a concerted effort to woo support from the Jewish community, one Jewish leader replied: “He knew he was losing the PR war and that many people don’t like him. He sees the polls, realized he had done something wrong and wanted to fix it.”
A Gallup poll released this week found that Obama’s job approval rating among American Jews has dropped from 61 percent to 50 percent in just the first three months of this year. It found also that for the first quarter of this year, 54 percent of American Jews liked the job Obama was doing as president, compared with an average of 46 percent among all Americans. That 8 percent gap is lower than the average 13-point gap through most of Obama’s years in the White House.
One of those who attended the meeting for Jewish supporters of the president said he believes Obama called the meeting because “he wants us and others to get the word out about the depth of his commitment to the Jewish community and his love for Israel. He believes an agreement with Iran could be a game changer for the future of the Middle East and that it holds a promise for everyone.”
One Jewish leader who has attended meetings with several presidents over the last 20 years said the meeting with Obama was “one of the best ever.”
“There seemed to be a universal appreciation for him calling the meeting, for how honest he was and how concerned he was about the misunderstandings that seem to be out there about his commitment to Israel,” the participant said. “And he [the president] spoke about how deeply he feels about global anti-Semitism and of his steadfast commitment to Israel and its right to thrive and live in peace. He stressed that he has no illusions about Iran and the nature of the threat it poses. He insisted that sanctions alone would not work [to stop Iran’s quest for a nuclear bomb], and said the military option is still on the table — that the military plan has been put in place.”
Said the Jewish supporter of Obama: “I’m more impressed than ever that we have a president of such high quality who is on the verge of making an agreement that is so beneficial to the world and the region in terms of a peaceful future.”
stewart@jewishweek.org
Also this week, new worry over Iran: Russian missiles for Tehran; an inside look at FEGS'financial free fall; federal judge paves the way for damages suit against Arab Bank; new Yom Ha'Atzmaut machzor helps celebrate Israeli Independence Day through prayer; and how Jewish designers helped create the "Mad Men" style of modernism.ISRAEL NEWS
Iran Focus Shifts To Weapons Deal
Russia’s move could end up favoring Hamas, Hezbollah.
Joshua Mitnick
Israel Correspondent
Tel Aviv — The recent deal between the world powers and Iran heightened the debate between Israel and the Obama administration about whether the agreement will push Tehran farther away from nuclear weapons, or leave it on the precipice of becoming the newest nuclear power.
Israeli and U.S. officials promptly began a public argument over a series of highly technical aspects of the agreement: the potential effect on the “break-out time” to build a bomb; whether or not the international community could rely on an inspection regime to monitor such a deal; what should be the fate of Iran’s existing nuclear installations; and whether Iran should have to expose to inspectors its nuclear research and development work.
But Russia’s announcement on Monday of a green light for sales to Iran of an advanced anti-aircraft missile system shifted the focus in Israel away from the bomb to a more conventional — but no less worrying — concern of the nuclear agreement: an expected boost to Iran’s regional standing and multiplying threats to Israel.
In a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complained that the arms sale will only boost Iran’s “aggression” in the region and undermine Middle East stability. “After this weapons deal, is there anyone that would still seriously claim that this agreement with Iran will boost security in the Middle East?”
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Tuesday complained that the sale of S-300 missiles to Iran — which would significantly improve its defenses against a possible Israeli or U.S. air assault — was a “direct result” of the framework nuclear deal. Yaalon and other analysts said that the deal was a signal that the regime of economic sanctions imposed on Iran by world powers was already starting to crumble.
“That’s going to have an impact by strengthening the Iranian economy, and at the same time the Iranians are continuing to arm the enemies around us,” he said in avideo posted to his Facebook account.
The fear is that once restrictions are lifted on Iran’s foreign trade, Tehran will become flush with cash and will feel emboldened to deepen its support for allies such as Hezbollah and Hamas. Yaalon complained that the framework ignored Iran’s support for militant groups around the Middle East threatening pro-Western states like the Shiite-allied Houthis in Yemen. “That isn’t even discussed,” Yaalon said. “It’s one of the biggest holes in the agreement.”
While there’s a debate in Israel about whether a strengthened Iran truly poses an existential threat to the Jewish state, as Netanyahu has argued, there’s little debate in Israel that the agreement and a détente with the U.S. is expected to enhance Iran as a regional power.
“Now they [the Iranians] take into consideration a possible confrontation with the Americans,” said Eyal Zisser, a professor of political science at Tel Aviv University. “Signing an agreement to a certain degree frees their hands; that’s something that we have to take into consideration.”
“Clearly, Iran is expanding, and trying to establish its presence all over. This is not mere speculation, it’s happening on the ground. … An agreement, the removal of the sanctions will enable them to increase more financial support to these projects. More money means more support for Hezbollah.”
More evidence of Iran’s declining isolation in the wake of the deal came with Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s recent visit to Tehran. Despite the fact that the two countries are at loggerheads over regional conflicts in Syria and Yemen, the expected lifting of sanctions could clear the way for new energy deals, said Zisser.
But Ephraim Halevy, a former chief of Israel’s Mossad, cautioned against viewing the Russian weapons deal as a part of a “domino” effect of collapsing pressure on Iran. In an interview with Israel Radio, he did say that the missile deal should be seen as a Russian move — the first of many — to bolster economic ties with Iran. Like Israeli leaders, Halevy said that fallout from the end of Iran’s economic isolation would probably boost Iranian terrorism around the region.
While the approaching nuclear deal stokes fear in Israel that Iran will get a leg up in regional power politics, Ehud Eiran, a political scientist at Haifa University, noted that Iran and Israel share a common enemy in the rise of the Islamic State. Some of the fronts that Iran is fighting on are actually good for us,” he said. “It serves our interest.”
Most Israeli officials, however, have been focusing on Iranian “encirclement’’ over the last few months, according to Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Israel sees Iranian allies sitting on its borders — Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah — getting a boost from the deal. But Syria has been especially disturbing recently, Tabler said.
That’s because Hezbollah along with Iranian officers from the Revolutionary Guards have boosted their presence in southern Syria along the border with the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. And while Israeli officials have been worried for years about the potential for a flare-up along this frontier amid the chaos of the Syrian civil war, the new operations by Hezbollah along the border are considered a strategic threat — expanding the standoff with Hezbollah from Lebanon to a new and untested arena. If some in Israel once saw Syrian President Bashar Assad as the “devil that we know,” the increased reliance on Iran and Hezbollah has alarmed many that Iran may come to fill in the power vacuum along the Golan.
A nuclear deal between world powers and Iran would only make such a development even more problematic. That may explain why Israel launched a rare and potentially strike on a convoy of Hezbollah and Iranian officers in the Syrian Golan Heights back in January — a signal by Israel that a Hezbollah-Iran presence in southern Syria will not be accepted with a business-as-usual attitude.
“Everyone realizes that the framework is about much more than nuclear program,” said Tabler. “The constellation of forces around the Assad regime are much more problematic. The movement of Assad regime forces into [the Golan border town] Quneitra is not Assad retaking territory; it’s a strategic shift in favor of Iran.”
editor@jewishweek.org
NEW YORK
Inside FEGS’ Financial Free Fall
Bankruptcy documents show vast majority of programs losing money, CFO revolving door, ballooning administrative costs.
Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
By the time executives of FEGS Health and Human Services system became aware last November of the massive financial crisis they were facing, a “top down analysis” by a new management team and restructuring consultants revealed that 74 percent of its more than 350 programs were losing money.
Compounding its financial problem was the fact that FEGS recently lost key employees — including three chief financial officers in just two years.
Although FEGS first experienced a major financial loss in 2013 of $5.5 million, that fact was apparently masked by a $4.5 million insurance settlement and gains at some of its affiliates.
When the magnitude of its 2014 loss — $19.4 million — was realized, FEGS announced it was closing and sought help to pay expenses. It contacted six traditional and non-traditional lending sources and three expressed interest. But it was able to reach agreeable terms with only one — UJA-Federation of New York — which is providing it with a cash advance of up to $10 million.
These and other revelations about the financial collapse of one of the Jewish community’s major social service agencies were revealed as part of FEGS’ bankruptcy court filing March 18.
And for the first time, Kristin Woodlock, FEGS’ CEO, spelled out the reasons one of the nation’s largest social service agencies serving 120,000 clients was forced to announce Jan. 30 that it would be shutting down and transferring its programs to other vendors over the coming months. The first transfer of 11 programs since the bankruptcy filing occurred on April 1.
“No single, but rather a confluence of factors and events have led to FEGS’ financial crisis,” Woodlock explained in a 41-page affidavit submitted to the court. “A continuing decrease in revenue without corresponding cost cuts led to substantial operating losses and escalating financial difficulties over the last several years. For example, while revenues fell between fiscal 2013 and 2014, aggregate salaries and benefits increased 7 percent.”
FEGS said in its court papers that the programs of greatest concern were those for persons with developmental disabilities, its residential programs, and some of its workforce, education and youth programs. As a result, it said, they were at the top of the list for transfer to other more financially sound service providers.
The Wellness, Comprehensive Assessment, Rehabilitation and Employment Program, for instance, a critical service for the city to meet state and federal welfare requirements, was found to have lost about $11 million last year, including projectedclose out costs. On Jan. 26, an agreement was signed to transfer the program to Fedcap Rehabilitation Services.
FEGS said it had also arranged to transfer 10 other unprofitable programs that represented a “cash flow drain.” It asked the court to authorize these transfers effective today because failure to do so would “completely undermine the continued viability of the programs to be transferred, put [FEGS’] clients safety and welfare at risk, and cost significant administrative losses … it was ill equipped to sustain at this critical juncture.”
Judge Robert E. Grossman of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip, L.I., agreed to the transfer earlier this month.
FEGS’ court papers listed the following as among the other key reasons for its demise:
♦ Given FEGS’ “historical concentration on top line growth without due concern to contract viability within [its] existing administrative framework and business models, and its inadequate financial systems and revenue cycle management which compromised its ability to timely monitor spending and accounts receivable, [FEGS] financial performance on the workforce governmental contracts was among the worst in all its business lines.”
♦ FEGS’ “financial performance under those agreements was further exacerbated by a failure to adequately reserve and plan for the repayment of significant regulatory and governmental advances and contract termination costs.”
♦ FEGS “failed to adequately reserve and plan for the repayment of significant regulatory and governmental advances and contract termination costs.”
♦ FEGS was “overburdened by multiple space obligations, which substantially exceeded [its] physical needs and financial capabilities, leading to significant unreimbursable costs … as a result of the unallocated and vacant space.”
♦ FEGS had a “an overly prohibitive administrative cost structure, which was significantly more than … industry standards, coupled with the inability to keep pace with the growing complexities of the organization as a whole.”
As of last June 30, FEGS’ total unrestricted assets were about $144 million and its liabilities totaled about $105 million. Its revenues for fiscal year 2014 were about $264 million and its liabilities about $105 million.
Woodlock said FEGS operated in more than 350 locations throughout the New York metropolitan area and Long Island with a staff of 2,217 skilled professionals, of whom 1,405 belonged to District Council 1707, Local 215 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Prior to filing for bankruptcy, FEGS gave termination notices to hundreds of employees of programs that had been transferred to other service providers. As a result, as of March 18 it employed about 1902 skilled professionals, of whom 1,203 are union members. Its biweekly payroll was about $3.6 million, including benefits.
Woodlock asked the court to allow FEGS to pay all of its current and recently terminated employees both their wages and other benefits.
“The employees will suffer undue hardship and, in many instances, serious financial difficulties without” such payments,” Woodlock said. “Without the requested relief, [FEGS’] stability would likely be seriously undermined at the outset of this [bankruptcy filing]. Any delay in paying wages, benefits, severance and deductions or expenses [of employees terminated before the bankruptcy filing] would seriously harm [FEGS’] relationship with its employees and could irreparably impair employee morale at the very time the deduction, confidence and cooperation of the employees is most critical. Nor can [FEGS] afford to jeopardize client safety by the destabilization of the employee workforce.”
Judge Grossman said he would consider that request on April 16.
Larry Cary, general counsel for District Council 1707, said that under the law, each employee terminated prior to the bankruptcy filing would receive no more than about $12,000. He said the union filed yesterday a class action grievance in their behalf over FEGS’ failure to pay them their wages, vacation and severance.
In addition, he said those employees with seniority whose programs were already transferred to other service providers should have “bumping rights” to move into FEGS’ programs not yet terminated. But, Cary said, FEGS has not provided the union with the list of senior employees.
Cary said the union would be applying to get onto the creditors’ committee because one of the benefit funds co-administered by the union shows an audited deficit of $130,000, which would make the union one of FEGS’ largest creditors.
In addition, Cary said the union is encouraging service providers who are picking up FEGS’ programs to hire FEGS’ staff. And he said the union plans to hold a job fair and invite those new service providers in the hope they would hire the former employees.
He noted that after terminated FEGS workers picketed the office of a service provider who had picked up a FEGS program without hiring any FEGS’ staff, the service provider offered jobs to several former FEGS’ employees.
This story was first published earlier this month on The Jewish Week website,thejewishweek.com.
NEW YORK
Judge Clears Way For Damages Suit Against Arab Bank
Upholds jury’s verdict holding bank liable in Hamas terror attacks.
Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
A Brooklyn federal judge has upheld a jury verdict finding Arab Bank liable for knowingly supporting terrorist attacks that killed or injured Americans in Israel from 2001 to 2004.
In his 96-page decision, Judge Brian Cogan said there was “ample” evidence for the jury to conclude last Sept. 22 that Arab Bank knew or was “willfully blind” to the fact that it was providing services to Hamas, which carried out the attacks, and routed money to charities that supported Hamas or families of Hamas suicide bombers.
“The verdict was based on volumes of damning circumstantial evidence that defendant knew its customers were terrorists,” Cogan concluded.
The judge also zeroed in on the testimony of Hamas terrorist mastermind Abbas Al-Sayyed.
“The Al-Sayyed confession is a rare, possibly unique, piece of evidence,” he wrote. “A terrorist, who has been convicted in a court of law both of planning a terrorist attack in which some plaintiffs were injured and of leading a Hamas terrorist cell, specifically tells the police that he used money transferred to his Arab Bank account from abroad to further Hamas ‘military activities.’”
Cogan then dismissed the bank’s assertion that this confession was “still not enough because the terrorist stated that he used those funds to purchase rifles rather than bombs.”
About 300 Americans filed the suit, including those injured in 24 attacks or representing family members of those killed or injured. The judge dismissed two of the claims stemming from two of the attacks, citing a lack of proof that Hamas was responsible.
Gary Osen, a lawyer for some of the plaintiffs, told The Jewish Week by phone from Israel that he viewed the judge’s decision as an “exclamation point on the jury’s verdict because it emphatically sets forth in enormous detail why the jury could reach the conclusion it did.”
He added that he was “very gratified the court took the time and trouble to lay out [the trial], and in great detail show how the case played out and why the rulings that were made were appropriate.”
In so doing, Osen said, Cogan was helping the appellate judges understand not just hisview of certain legal issues but also the impact of the testimony on the jury.
For instance, the judge cited the testimony of Beverly Milton-Edwards, an author and scholar who has written extensively on Hamas. She was called by the defense as an expert witness to give her assessment of whether 11 charitable committees were controlled by Hamas, as the plaintiffs alleged.
She said they were not, based on her fieldwork and research. But under cross-examination, she admitted she did not read Arabic.
“[The] potential spillover effect on the credibility of defendant’s entire case is … hard to overstate,” Cogan wrote.
“By that point in the trial,” he noted, “I had seen the word ‘Hamas’ in Arabic so many times that I immediately recognized it, and I suspect some of the jury may have as well. Yet the expert had to be prompted before she recognized it, and it only then came out that she could not read Arabic. This was the most dramatic, but not the only, incident of friendly fire directed at the bank by Dr. Milton-Edwards.”
The judge went on to note that her testimony regarding the charities was “directly contradicted by what she had written in her own book about Hamas. Her response to being confronted with that was flippant. She was similarly flippant when her knowledge of Hamas was tested by asking her to identify a picture of Salah Shehadah, the founder of the al-Qassam Brigades. She said she was unable to identify him because of the ‘whole big beard phenomenon,’ suggesting that all terrorists look alike to her.”
Cogan added that there was an “abundance of circumstantial evidence in plaintiffs’ case showing that defendant either had [evidence] or deliberately ignored evidence that it was dealing with Hamas operatives ... .”
The court’s decision now clears the way for a new trial to be held July 13 to determine monetary damages Arab Bank must pay the plaintiffs.
In a similar case earlier this year against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, a Manhattan federal judge found on Feb. 23 that both groups were liable for supporting six terrorist attacks in Israel between 2002 and 2004. They were ordered to pay $655.5 million — reflecting triple damages that accrue from the anti-terrorism law under which the case was brought. An appeal is expected.
Osen said representatives for Arab Bank are “sparing no expense — ours and theirs — in their day-to-day preparation for the [upcoming] damages trial. All indications are that they are in it for the long haul,” rather than trying to settle the case.
He said he expects the trial to last about a month and that the jury award might be perhaps “two or three or four times larger” than the one awarded in the PLO trial, if that case is used as a benchmark.
There are more plaintiffs in this case, he explained, thus “the bank’s legal exposure is greater.”
Osen said “most of the damages relate to non-economic issues — pain and suffering, loss of companionship, as well as the claims of the injured and their family members.”
He added of Cogan’s decision: “This is a resounding victory for all American terror victims who seek redress in American courts.”
stewart@jewishweek.org
SHORT TAKES
Celebrating Israeli Independence DayIn Prayer
Sandee Brawarsky
Culture Editor
Among the many questions with many answers about Jewish prayer is whether on Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day (April 23 this year), one adds thespecial prayers of praise and thanksgiving, Hallel, and/or omits the prayers of serious supplication, Tachanun.
The late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, whose teachings are now at the heart of Modern Orthodox thinking, believed the miraculous events of the establishment of the State of Israel merited expression in the service, and agreed to the recitation of Hallel, albeit without reciting a blessing.
Just published in time for this year’s commemorations and celebrations, The Koren Yom Ha’Atzmaut Mahzor highlights those prayers considered “optional” by some on the day in shaded areas of the page. This is the first bilingual prayer book for Israel’s national holidays, including Independence Day, Jerusalem Day, and the Day of Remembrance, presented from the perspective of centrist Modern Orthodoxy.
The order of prayers for these occasions was established by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel in 1949. It is the publisher’s hope that these holidays will fully become part of tradition in English-speaking countries.
The Hebrew prayers are translated by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Also included is new commentary on the text (at the bottom of the page) with an emphasis on the Land of Israel by Rabbis Moshe Taragin and Binyamin Lau. They include midrash, biblical references, metaphors and connections to ancient and contemporary history. The phrase “Open for me the gates of righteousness,” toward the end of Hallel, may refer to gates in Israel that haven’t always been accessible. They mention immigration quotas set by the British government in the pre-State period, and the later enactment of the Law of Return, assuring unconditional entry and citizenship to all Jews.
A contemporary version of “Al HaNissim” (“[We thank You also] for the miracles”), which is recited on Purim and Chanukah, is inserted here on a shaded page, under the rubric “some say.” This version speaks of the armies of the Middle East rising up against “your people Israel” and five alternative versions composed in Israel are also included.
There’s much to read in this machzor. In addition to the explanatory notes alongside the prayers, a section of essays at the back probes spiritual, theological and halachic topics by leading scholars and rabbis in Israel and the United States. Among the contributors are Rabbis J.J. Schachter, Jonathan Sacks and Berel Wein, as well as essays drawn from the writings of the late Rabbi Yehuda Amital and the late Rav Kook. Together, the essays are a statement of faith and practice among the Modern Orthodox.
Contributor Erica Brown, a Jewish Week columnist, addresses the challenge and dilemma of celebrating Israel’s Independence Day in the diaspora — it is “a little bit like making a birthday party where the guest of honor fails to show up. It cannot be otherwise,” she writes. Brown suggests practical approaches toward marking the day meaningfully, and to widen the focus beyond Israeli religious Zionists who have served the nation or joyously celebrate.
Mathew Miller, publisher of Koren Press, emphasizes new and more emphatic observance of these special days, following the standards of the community’s rabbinic authority. He calls on Jews everywhere to “commemorate, celebrate and give thanks. For the events of 1948 and 1967 are no less miraculous than those witnessed by Esther and Mordecai, or the Hasmoneans.”
Many of the contributors and editors recognize that the State of Israel is not yet the spiritual ideal, that there is still a long journey ahead, with much to pray for, and, at the same time, there are enormous accomplishments and miracles to acknowledge.
editor@jewishweek.org
MUSEUMS
Designs On The Modern Home
How Jewish designers helped create the ‘Mad Men’ style of modernism.
Caroline Lagnado
Special To The Jewish Week
Thanks in part to the popular television show “Mad Men,” a new generation has fallen in love with mid-century modernist design. An exhibit now on view at The Museum of Jewish Heritage called “Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism” is the first show of its kind to recognize Jews’ accomplishments and contributions to the design style that swept the nation during this “Mad Men” era. It explores the impact Jewish designers had in shaping the streamlined, less-is-more aesthetic in the United States. Not only a “who’s who” of important immigrant and first-generation Jewish designers, the exhibit also acknowledges the importance of the institutions that fostered their creativity.
“Designing Home” first opened at San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum and was guest-curated by Donald Albrecht. It features 34 artists, ranging in discipline and renown, from the Bauhaus weaver Anni Albers to architect and designer George Nelson to graphic designer Paul Rand. (Incidentally, Albrecht also curated a monographic show about Rand that is currently on view at The Museum of the City of New York, where Albrecht is curator for architecture and design.)
In “Designing Home,” Albrecht, who is not Jewish, tells the story of the American domestic landscape through modernist residential architecture, furnishings, house wares and graphic design that are presented in their social and cultural context from the 1930s until the 1960s. This period saw designers working directly with the media to promote modernism as a way of life, and instill the idea that good design is for everyone. Jewish consumers bought modernist objects as a way of assimilating into American culture, since they were new and free of the Old World. Modernism was a means of absorption into the mainstream, and the Jewish middle class was in a period of ascendancy, determined to integrate. “America then was a ‘melting pot’ not a ‘mosaic.’ People strove to fit in, assimilate, conform,” noted Albrecht in a phone interview with The Jewish Week.
As Jeffrey Shandler puts it in his essay, “Di Toyre Fun Skhoyre, or, I shop, Therefore I Am: The Consumer Cultures of American Jews,” which is featured in the exhibition catalog, “American Jewish consumer culture becomes even more expansive in the community’s extensive embourgeoisement during the post-World War II years.”
The artists featured in “Designing the Modern Home” straddle the immigrant experience. Most of the parents of the American-born artists arrived to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. “They often worked as grocers or in the fashion industry, which was good visual training for their children,” said Albrecht.
Among the foreign-born artists, many were architects and designers who took refuge in America in the years before and during the Holocaust. The Third Reich considered much of modernism to be “degenerate.”
Many Jewish artists here were supported by a network of six institutions throughout the United States, among them The Museum of Modern Art, Black Mountain College in North Carolina, the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis and The Institute of Design in Chicago, which gave them a chance to excel and fostered their creativity while other institutions openly discriminated against Jews. These “aesthetic Ellis Islands” helped the artists enter the design world and functioned as portals into mainstream America by hiring them and displaying their art.
Emigre metalworker, sculptor, and jewelry designer Victor Ries, who taught at Pond Farm artists’ colony in California, is quoted in the catalog as saying, “We did not talk about it [the war]. What for? We were not Jews at Pond Farm, we were artists.”
The question of gender is not explored in the show, though Albrecht remarked that he “imagined that women had a much more difficult time.” Three of the female artists included in the show, Elaine Lustig Cohen, Ruth Adler Schnee, and Marguerite Wildenhain “all worked alone. The women [in the exhibit] did not work for big corporations, they were independent.”
In an email interview, Lustig Cohen observed, “I was fortunate that most of my clients were not about selling products, but more cultural institutions and building identification for architects. I never had any problem with clients about being Jewish or being a woman. I imagine that one of these reasons is that I never worked in the area of advertising but in a rather closed world of cultural institutions, and most of my clients came through recommendations.”
The pieces featured in “Designing the Modern Home” represent a range of designs that many Americans owned in their homes, such as textiles, furniture, and ceramics as well as examples of graphic and logo design.
There is Henry Dreyfuss’ pink Princess Phone from 1959 as well as his circular Honeywell wall thermostat; a frenetic textile wall hanging in the vein of Paul Klee by Adler Schnee; simple wooden dormitory furnishings by Marcel Breuer; examples of George Tscherny’s innovative advertisements for the Henry Miller furniture company; and book covers designed by Elaine Lustig Cohen and her late husband Alvin Lustig.
Not surprisingly, given the importance of the home within the Jewish tradition, the exhibit displays a number of pieces of Judaica, such as menorahs, mezuzahs, and even a luminous matzah cover woven by Albers, a commission from Lustig Cohen, showing that the ethos of modernism extended even to traditional religious objects.
“Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism” is now on view at the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, 36 Battery Place, in Battery Park City. (646) 437-4202, mjhnyc.org.
Enjoy the read, and be sure to check out our website for breaking news and exclusive videos, op-eds, features and blogs.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/
http://www.thejewishweek.com/
Gary Rosenblatt
Between the Lines
Gary Rosenblatt
Between the Lines
Gary Rosenblatt
Editor and Publisher
Preparing For College? Consider The Israel FactorDear High School Senior,
The spring of your senior year is an exciting time in your life. You most likely are feeling a well-deserved sense of accomplishment on the verge of completing your high school career and, for those of you going on to college in the fall, a sense of anticipation as you look forward to campus life and a new level of independence. But there may also be a healthy dose of anxiety as to how you will fare on your own.
Many Jewish students seek out colleges with a strong Jewish presence, including a critical mass of co-religionists and an active Hillel and/or Chabad House. I wonder, though, how many of you have taken into account The Israel Factor on your intended campus.
For example, do you know the level of student activity regarding the Mideast conflict, especially at a time when the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement against Israel, much of it generated by non-students, is growing on liberal campuses around the country? Are there pro-Israel groups at the college of your choice?
These days, unfortunately, the government in Jerusalem is a target of widespread criticism, particularly regarding its Zionist ideology and its dealings with the Palestinians. I worry that too many Jewish students are not aware of what they will face and what they will be hearing in the classroom and on campus, from professors and fellow students, about Israel the oppressor, Israel the apartheid state, etc.
The tactics of the BDS advocates often are over-the-top. They are meant to shock and grab attention and they can be disturbing to encounter. You may face “die-ins,” where pro-Palestinian students play dead in protest of civilian deaths during the most recent Gaza war. You may face mock checkpoints, where you will be asked for your ID, echoing the treatment of Palestinians seeking entry into Israel proper. And you may face mock eviction notices where students find notes taped to their dorm room doors in objection to the fact that some Palestinian homes are cleared out to make room for Jewish residents.
Many of you have positive feelings about Israel in your gut, developed over the years from your home life or involvement with a synagogue and/or Jewish education in your early years. Perhaps even a trip to Israel. But you may feel less than confident if called on to explain or defend some of Israel’s controversial policies.
Is Israel is the main source of blame for the lack of a peace agreement with the Palestinians?
How is it that Israel came to control Arabs living in the West Bank?
Why does the United Nations pass so many resolutions critical of Israel?
Are the charges true that the Israeli army is brutal in its methods of warfare?
How would you respond to a BDS protest?
The Mideast is not a burning issue on many college campuses, and some pro-Israel advocacy groups exaggerate the problem so as to enhance their fundraising appeals. But Jerusalem is increasingly on the defensive as countries around the world voice support for the creation of a Palestinian state, and much of the growing anti-Israel sentiment in this country emanates from college campuses.
The truth is that successive Israeli governments have sought to make peace with the Palestinians and have been willing to make major compromises, including ceding territory to make it happen. But each effort has been rejected without a counteroffer, and Palestinian leaders have promoted or allowed violent attacks on Israeli civilians.
Yes, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is complicated, with each side clinging to parallel narratives that never seem to meet. The result is that many young American Jews, confronted with a complex history of charges and counter-charges, simply walk away from the issue rather than explore the facts. It’s especially difficult to respond to a group of passionate anti-Israel advocates on a college campus when you are unsure of what’s true and what isn’t.
That’s why in 2002 The Jewish Week launched an Israel educational program called Write On For Israel to prepare high school juniors and seniors for these types of challenges, giving them the context and confidence to make Israel’s case when they get to college. At the time the second intifada was in full force. We never anticipated that in 2015 the project, which has had more than 400 graduates, would still be necessary. The sad fact, though, is that Write On is needed now more than ever, and a number of pro-Israel education and advocacy groups have come on the scene.
Whether or not you feel you have a solid understanding of modern Israel, you should know that there is a wealth of information available online, in books and in documentary films. For a sampling of sources that offer range and depth in learning more about Israel today, you can check out websites like israeled.org, standwithus.org and myjewishlearning.com; recent best-selling and highly praised books like Yossi Klein Halevi’s “Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation” and Ari Shavit’s “My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel”; and inspiring new films on the Israel Defense Forces such as “Above and Beyond” and “Beneath The Helmet.”
Your college years are not just about academics and career paths. They are about growth on all levels, including a time to appreciate and deepen your Jewish identity and discover personal ties to the culture, people and society of our ancient homeland. You are likely to find that the rebirth of modern Israel is, if not miraculous, one of the great success stories of the 20th century. It’s about an ancient people reviving the Hebrew language and setting out to fulfill its dream of recreating a state for all Jews. It’s about establishing a safe harbor in a turbulent world, a vibrant democracy where religious tradition and cutting-edge innovation can coexist, not always easily, but with great energy and potential. And all of this taking place in a tiny land surrounded by those hostile to the very concept of a Jewish state in the region.
It’s an inspiring story, but don’t take my word for it. You owe it to yourself to see why your connection to the State of Israel should be viewed as a source of deep pride, even as we strive to see it fulfill its biblical mandate, and ours, to be a light unto the nations.
Enjoy the journey.
gary@jewishweek.org
Musings
Rabbi David Wolpe
Special To The Jewish Week
The Real Business Of SynagogueOnce Rabbi Lev Yitzchak of Bereditchev went to the marketplace in the middle of a busy weekday. There he stood and proclaimed lessons from the Torah. One of the men in the market said, “Rabbi, with all due respect, we are trying to conduct business here.” “I’m sorry,” replied the Bereditchever. “I just thought that since you always talk business in the synagogue, I could talk Torah in the marketplace.”
In theory worshippers speak of different matters in the shul than in the street. But all too often we do not adjust our attitudes at all. Even on Shabbat morning people will strike deals and gossip just as freely with a prayer book in hand.
The synagogue is, at its best, a true sanctuary, even from one’s own work. It should provide a break from the getting and spending and grasping that characterizes the market. The doors open to a place for safety and spirit. The Berditchever was right of course — there is room for Torah in the marketplace. But it serves us all well if in the shul there is a chance to retire from the rigors of work and renew one’s soul.
Rabbi David Wolpe is spiritual leader of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter: @RabbiWolpe. His latest book, “David: The Divided Heart” (Yale University Press), has recently been published.
A N.Y. Minute
Presenting Israel In film, Warts And All
THE JW Q&A
Presenting Israel In Film, Warts And All
We think of the JCC as our living room, a place to watch and discuss, says film festival director Isaac Zablocki.
Gary Rosenblatt
Editor And Publisher
Isaac Zablocki: Quality of a film, not its political message, is the main criterion.
Isaac Zablocki, 38, plays a key role in determining which Israeli films, and others dealing with the Mideast conflict, are shown in New York. As a result his choices are the subject of praise and criticism, often based more on a viewer’s politics than sense of aesthetics. Born in New York and raised in Israel before settling here, he is director of film programs at the JCC in Manhattan; director and co-founder of theReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival, which had a successful run last month; founder and director of the Israel Film Center; and executive director of The Other Israel Film Festival, which seeks to bridge the Arab-Israeli cultural divide through film. Zablocki was interviewed at the JCC. This is an edited transcript.
Q: How do you decide what films to choose for the various festivals you help put together?
A: Quality is the No. 1 issue. The message plays a part, as does a timely topic, and we’re not afraid of showing tough films [in terms of their portrayal of Israel]. But the bottom line is quality.
How do you deal with controversy regarding films, including Israelis ones, which depict Israel in a negative light?
We think of the JCC as our living room, and an appropriate place for people to come to watch and then discuss. We often have conversations after a screening, which might include talking about the context of the film. A lot depends on how you introduce the film, how you prepare your audience and set the tone for questions and answers. That can begin with the right moderator, who asks questions in a productive way. I think it’s important to see films with which you may disagree, so you can understand the other side.
Some refer to the biblical story of Jacob wrestling with an angel to describe how Jews deal with tough issues — part wrestling, part hugging.
I identify with that image, and in a sense Israel is wrestling with itself when its creative artists make these films and people come to see them. The problem will be when we stop wrestling, and stop hugging. American Jews are more afraid of that kind of wrestling than Israelis. Here in the U.S. there is a strong sense of political correctness, of staying within the boundaries. Israelis are more willing to cross those boundaries. They are more direct, more open.
Some say that Israeli films, while greatly improved in quality, are consistently left of center in their point of view. Is that accurate, and if so, why?
People often say to me, “Show me balance.” And it is true that there is a lack of well-made Israeli films with a right-wing point of view. More often the filmmakers are liberal, perhaps that’s the nature of artists. There are also too few films from an Orthodox perspective, with several notable exceptions. But at the JCC we also show mainstream, high-quality Israeli films for audiences not interested in controversy.
Are there any red lines for what films you will show?
The controversies are mostly about the depiction of minorities being mistreated, especially the Arab population. There are certain films we have chosen not to screen, like one about a Jewish Holocaust denier, or “Rachel: An American Conscience,” the 2009 documentary about Rachel Corrie, a young peace activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli tank while protesting the demolition of homes in Gaza. That film didn’t add to the conversation or debate, and it was not a quality film. It seemed intent on aggravating the audience. And the same goes for a number of Palestinian films.
The JCC doesn’t support BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel). As the lines get blurry, the JCC is constantly monitoring this situation.
Overall, I don’t try to solve problems [by showing controversial films]. I try to show good films and promote discussions.
gary@jewishweek.org
Rabbi launches LGBTQ matchmaking service in United Kingdom.
Featured on NYBLUEPRINT
British, Jewish And Gay? Here's Your Yenta
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner is not your average matchmaker.The senior rabbi of England’s Movement for Reform Judaism, Janner-Klausner is launching a matchmaking service and website that will cater to same-sex Jews, according to RNS.
The site, which will also serve heterosexual couples, is intended to serve as a “conduit” for lonely singles to meet one another. Rabbi Janner-Klausner, along with several other Reform rabbis, will be the matchmakers.
According to James Cohen, executive director of Keshet, a non-profit that serves LGBTQ Jews in the U.S., the project seems revolutionary.
“As far as I know, there aren't any comparable dating services to the one starting in England, and certainly not one started by a rabbi!” he wrote inan email.
Though no dating website exclusively for Jewish same-sex couples exists in the U.S., several dating websites, including Yenta and JDate, provide an option for LGBT couples. JSwipe, the popular Jewish dating app likened to Tinder, has a “really strong LGBT presence,” according to founder David Yarus.
“It's crazy to think that there are apps out there or other services that aren't same-sex friendly,” wrote Yarus in an email. When you sign up for JSwipe, one of the first questions you’re asking is if you’re interested in men or women, he said. “The app will dynamically adapt to your preferences and settings in real-time.”
Though he doesn’t have plans to launch an app exclusively for same-sex couples, "LGBT Jews are an important part of the online dating community", he said.
In the United Kingdom, the Reform movement is only willing to marry couples — straight or gay — if both partners are Jewish.
“The point to make is that we want to help people to meet other Jews, those who are interested in living a Jewish life,” Rabbi Janner-Klausner told RNS. “Both relationships, straight or gay, can have ‘kedusha,’ holiness.”
There are 42 Reform Judaism congregations in England, Wales and Scotland, but it is not clear how many will be involved as part of the matchmaking service or when the service will begin.
Maya Lin's black-granite Civil rights Memorial in Montgomery. Wikimedia Commons.
TRAVEL
History Amid The Magnolias
Hilary Larson
Travel WriterThe rain came down steadily, at times in torrents, other times in a chilly drizzle under leaden skies. But the legions of marchers on their way from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., to commemorate the recent 50th anniversary of that legendary civil rights march were undaunted by a little precipitation.
As my husband, Oggi, and I pulled into the Alabama state capital on our cross-country road trip, the energy was palpable. Roads were closed; signs announcing the 50th anniversary events were all over Montgomery; and local radio covered the events with pride during this Southern town’s moment in the spotlight, if not exactly the sun.
Montgomery, Alabama’s second-largest city, earned a place in history for its pivotal role in two distinctly antipodean eras. In 1861, this was the first capital of the 19th-century Confederacy, a pro-slavery rebel state; a century later, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. made history here in helping galvanize the civil rights movement, which sought to undo slavery’s lingering legacy.
Within a few minutes, you can stroll from the First White House of the Confederacy to the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered sermons as pastor in the 1950s.
There’s an obvious irony in the juxtaposition of the Confederacy and the celebration of civil rights — but also a pleasing symmetry, giving Montgomery the feel of a place that has come full circle. Adding to this sense is the ongoing revitalization of the city’s downtown along the Alabama River — including spruced-up institutions and a waterfront park — where people can not only contemplate history, but also enjoy the spring breezes in a charming Southern town.
Most of Montgomery’s noteworthy sights are located on the elegant blocks between the State Capitol and the river. These include the Dexter Avenue Church, a soaring red-brick structure, and the Rosa Parks Library and Museum, where an immersive reenactment of the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott engages visitors of all ages with the drama of protest.
Nearby, adjacent to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Civil Rights Memorial is a literal touchstone for thousands who make the civil-rights pilgrimage each year. Designer Maya Lin’s immense black-granite disc is a table that overflows with water, inviting witnesses to contemplate the names of martyrs and the dates of major events engraved there. Another wall curves upward, inscribed with King’s memorable invocation of the biblical phrase: “...until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Throughout April, visitors can join in free walking tours of Montgomery’s seminal sites, led by locals who share their personal memories of the civil-rights era. These include some Jews who recall the roles played by many of their brethren — supporting the bus boycott, sermonizing at temple in favor of integration and publicly advocating for civil rights. This Jewish involvement posed considerable risk to their own position in a majority-Christian community, with some neighbors associating Jewish civil rights supporters with Communism and other countercultural currents.
prominent in the movement, I learned, were the Sephardic temple Etz Ahayem and the Reform Temple Beth Or, both of which today remain proud exponents of the Alabama Jewish legacy. And like so much in Montgomery, the city’s Jewish history has deep roots in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Agudath Israel Etz Ahayem is the result of a 2001 merger between Etz Ahayem, a Sephardic congregation formed in 1912 by Ladino-speaking immigrants, and Agudath Israel, a Conservative temple founded in 1902. Temple Beth Or, which dates to the mid-19th century, has occupied a succession of notable buildings; its original 1862 brick edifice, now the Catoma Street Church of Christ in downtown Montgomery, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Yankee in me bristled at the idea of touring the First White House of the Confederacy, erstwhile home to President Jefferson Davis. After all, my Unionancestors fought to overthrow the movement that made first Montgomery, and then Richmond, rivals to Washington. But the White House — set amid shady trees on the city green — is an artifact of antebellum décor as well as an oddity of history. Vintage rooms exemplify the style of the period with velvet settees, lace curtains and lots of curved mahogany.Oggi and I missed the annual birthday parties for Robert E. Lee (Jan. 19) and Jeff Davis (June 3), when visitors to the White House are treated to cake and speeches in homage to Southern glory. But it was just as well. Outside, as magnolias burst into bloom and crowds gathered to celebrate a more progressive era, we could feel spring stirring in the air.
TOP STORIES
Iran Focus Shifts To Weapons Deal
Joshua Mitnick
Israel Correspondent
Russian President Vladimir Putin: Arming Iran. Getty Images
Tel Aviv — The recent deal between the world powers and Iran heightened the debate between Israel and the Obama administration about whether the agreement will push Tehran farther away from nuclear weapons, or leave it on the precipice of becoming the newest nuclear power.
Israeli and U.S. officials promptly began a public argument over a series of highly technical aspects of the agreement: the potential effect on the “break-out time” to build a bomb; whether or not the international community could rely on an inspection regime to monitor such a deal; what should be the fate of Iran’s existing nuclear installations; and whether Iran should have to expose to inspectors its nuclear research and development work.
But Russia’s announcement on Monday of a green light for sales to Iran of an advanced anti-aircraft missile system shifted the focus in Israel away from the bomb to a more conventional — but no less worrying — concern of the nuclear agreement: an expected boost to Iran’s regional standing and multiplying threats to Israel.
In a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu complained that the arms sale will only boost Iran’s “aggression” in the region and undermine Middle East stability. “After this weapons deal, is there anyone that would still seriously claim that this agreement with Iran will boost security in the Middle East?”
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Tuesday complained that the sale of S-300 missiles to Iran — which would significantly improve its defenses against a possible Israeli or U.S. air assault — was a “direct result” of the framework nuclear deal. Yaalon and other analysts said that the deal was a signal that the regime of economic sanctions imposed on Iran by world powers was already starting to crumble.
“That’s going to have an impact by strengthening the Iranian economy, and at the same time the Iranians are continuing to arm the enemies around us,” he said in avideo posted to his Facebook account.
The fear is that once restrictions are lifted on Iran’s foreign trade, Tehran will become flush with cash and will feel emboldened to deepen its support for allies such as Hezbollah and Hamas. Yaalon complained that the framework ignored Iran’s support for militant groups around the Middle East threatening pro-Western states like the Shiite-allied Houthis in Yemen. “That isn’t even discussed,” Yaalon said. “It’s one of the biggest holes in the agreement.”
While there’s a debate in Israel about whether a strengthened Iran truly poses an existential threat to the Jewish state, as Netanyahu has argued, there’s little debate in Israel that the agreement and a détente with the U.S. is expected to enhance Iran as a regional power.
“Now they [the Iranians] take into consideration a possible confrontation with the Americans,” said Eyal Zisser, a professor of political science at Tel Aviv University. “Signing an agreement to a certain degree frees their hands; that’s something that we have to take into consideration.”
“Clearly, Iran is expanding, and trying to establish its presence all over. This is not mere speculation, it’s happening on the ground. … An agreement, the removal of the sanctions will enable them to increase more financial support to these projects. More money means more support for Hezbollah.”
More evidence of Iran’s declining isolation in the wake of the deal came with Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s recent visit to Tehran. Despite the fact that the two countries are at loggerheads over regional conflicts in Syria and Yemen, the expected lifting of sanctions could clear the way for new energy deals, said Zisser.
But Ephraim Halevy, a former chief of Israel’s Mossad, cautioned against viewing the Russian weapons deal as a part of a “domino” effect of collapsing pressure on Iran. In an interview with Israel Radio, he did say that the missile deal should be seen as a Russian move — the first of many — to bolster economic ties with Iran. Like Israeli leaders, Halevy said that fallout from the end of Iran’s economic isolation would probably boost Iranian terrorism around the region.
While the approaching nuclear deal stokes fear in Israel that Iran will get a leg up in regional power politics, Ehud Eiran, a political scientist at Haifa University, noted that Iran and Israel share a common enemy in the rise of the Islamic State. Some of the fronts that Iran is fighting on are actually good for us,” he said. “It serves our interest.”
Most Israeli officials, however, have been focusing on Iranian “encirclement’’ over the last few months, according to Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Israel sees Iranian allies sitting on its borders — Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah — getting a boost from the deal. But Syria has been especially disturbing recently, Tabler said.
That’s because Hezbollah along with Iranian officers from the Revolutionary Guards have boosted their presence in southern Syria along the border with the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. And while Israeli officials have been worried for years about the potential for a flare-up along this frontier amid the chaos of the Syrian civil war, the new operations by Hezbollah along the border are considered a strategic threat — expanding the standoff with Hezbollah from Lebanon to a new and untested arena. If some in Israel once saw Syrian President Bashar Assad as the “devil that we know,” the increased reliance on Iran and Hezbollah has alarmed many that Iran may come to fill in the power vacuum along the Golan.
A nuclear deal between world powers and Iran would only make such a development even more problematic. That may explain why Israel launched a rare and potentially strike on a convoy of Hezbollah and Iranian officers in the Syrian Golan Heights back in January — a signal by Israel that a Hezbollah-Iran presence in southern Syria will not be accepted with a business-as-usual attitude.
“Everyone realizes that the framework is about much more than nuclear program,” said Tabler. “The constellation of forces around the Assad regime are much more problematic. The movement of Assad regime forces into [the Golan border town] Quneitra is not Assad retaking territory; it’s a strategic shift in favor of Iran.”
editor@jewishweek.org
NEW YORK
‘Safe Spaces’ For Orthodox LGBTQ Students Spreads On Campus
Program that began at YU gets new grant and intercampus launch.
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer
Jewish college students gather for LGBTQ “safe space” seminar, a series of training sessions for campus leaders.
Rachael Fried, a 27-year-old graduate of Stern College, spent years formulating one three-word bombshell of a sentence: I am gay.
“Just being able to say it to myself, let alone others, took years,” said Fried, former student council president at Stern and current graduate student at Parsons The New School for Design. She wore a knee-length pencil skirt, button-down top, cardigan and colorful scarf, long hair falling down her back.
“I’m pretty religious, and I’m pretty gay,” Fried joked. “My story, though, is not an extraordinary one. I was a typical Stern student leader.”
Fried spoke out publicly for the first time on a recent Friday at the second session of Merchav Batuach, a recently launched “safe space” seminar for Orthodox college students. Founded in December by Stern senior Dasha Sominski, the project, which offers language sensitivity training and networking opportunities for gay students and their allies, is poised to expand. Campus chapters at Barnard, Columbia, NYU, Yale and Queens College are scheduled to open in the fall.
“I heard about the project though social media, and realized it would be a perfect fit for our campus,” said Sophia Adler, a sophomore at Queens College who hopes to launch the training sessions there this fall. The significant Orthodox population at Queens makes it an ideal location for the initiative, she said.
The project’s expansion follows President Barack Obama’s call last week to end reparative therapies aimed at “converting” gay, lesbian and transgender youth, a method endorsed in certain Orthodox circles. JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing), a New Jersey-based organization that promotes reparative therapy, has protested past attempts to prohibit such therapies.
Unlike the reparative therapy model, Merchav Batuach hopes to promote a model of acceptance. The project, sponsored by Eshel, a nonprofit founded in 2013 to support gay Orthodox adults and their families, received $15,000 from the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York last month; that grant followed on the heels of a $10,000 grant from UJA-Federation of New York in January, according to Eshel’s executive director, Miryam Kabakov.
The recent training session, which attracted about 30 students, included “coming out” role play, in which two students improvised the scene of a student telling his college dorm counselor that he’s attracted to men. After a round of applause, viewers critiqued the scene for instances of insensitivity and brainstormed ways to respond effectively in a real-life situations.
“I came today to find out how to respond when a friend tells me she’s gay,” said Leora Veit, 22, a graduate of Stern College. Veit said that in the past few months, she’d discovered that several of her friends weren’t straight — “they opened up to me because they felt comfortable, and I found myself feeling flustered,” she said. “Learning how to respond was a skill I needed to learn.”
Over the past several years, LGBTQ awareness within the Orthodox community has been increasing, though slowly, given the stance of Jewish law toward homosexuality. (In a much-publicized incident, a 2009 panel on homosexuality in the Orthodox community, hosted by Yeshiva University’s social work school, led to strong blowback from university officials.) JQY, an organization founded in 2001 to promote understanding for young gay Jews, today serves over 600 LGBTQ Orthodox young adults across New York. Keshet, a national grassroots organization, provides inclusion training for LGBTQ individuals and provides families with resources and guidance. For the third year, Eshel is hosting an annual weekend retreats for parents of LGBTQ youth — this month’s retreat will host about 50 parents from Orthodox and charedi backgrounds.
Isabel Singer, a junior at Yale University, invited Sominski to speak at the New Haven campus’ Hillel in the fall.
“Being gay and Orthodox is not rectifiable in certain ways,” said Singer, who considers herself queer, “but making social space for these Jews is always possible.” Though Singer used to be Orthodox, she now considers herself an egalitarian Jew. “For me, being queer was a large piece of why I moved away from Orthodoxy,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean Orthodoxy can’t embrace those who are queer.”
“The progress is astounding,” said Fried, who said she waited until after college to come out to her peers because she feared being stigmatized. “In my time at YU, an anonymous article in the student newspaper was a big deal. Now, students are coming to seminars like this.”
Though Fried originally wanted to remain anonymous, she changed her mind after speaking at the recent seminar, which was held at the Forward’s office in Lower Manhattan. “I so badly want others to have the role model I wish I had,” she said.
Despite support among the student body (several articles in the student newspapers have been written about the initiative), a YU spokesperson said there is “no formal relationship between the program and the university.” Merchav Batuach does not receive university funding, and seminars must take place off-campus.
“To say I’m particularly welcome or appreciated on campus would be taking it too far,” said Sominski, who openly identifies as queer. Though certain staff members have expressed support for the endeavor, administrators maintain a strict distance, she said.
Still, support from peers is more important, according to Sominksi. “Last time, I personally recruited most of the people who came,” she said, referring to the first Marchav Batuach seminar, in December. “This time around, I didn’t know most of the people there. Students are coming on their own.”
“Merchav Batuach seems like a place that is educating people on how to be a supportive friend,” said Channa Silverman, 22. A junior at Stern, Silverman is Chabad and married — at the seminar, she covered her hair with a colorful scarf. “I consider myself someone who friends can talk to about all sorts of things,” she said. “This is one subject where I needed an education.”
The three-hour seminar is tailored to Orthodox students who have had little or no exposure to these issues, explained Eshel’s Kabakov, herself a gay Orthodox Jew and a Stern graduate. In one interactive exercise, students were asked to match relevant terms with their definitions — the list included “androgynous,” “biphobia,” “homophobia” and “gender binary.” One student asked Sominski for the definition of an “ally,” the term used to describe supporters of gay rights.
“We start with the basics,” said Kabakov, who said most in attendance never formally discussed these topics before. “There are no dumb questions, and no assumptions of knowledge.”
Another exercise challenged students to describe a date, without using heteronormative pronouns. Students stumbled over their words, laughing, and kept trying.
“The first place to make space for LGBTQ youth is in our words,” said Kabakov, who said the activity highlighted the prevalence of heterosexual presumptions in casual conversation.
Though most of the students were from Yeshiva University, representatives from other universities attended. Talia Lakritz, a junior at Barnard, hopes to facilitate the seminar among Columbia students.
“Language sensitivity is part of being Jewish,” said Lakritz, referring to the stringent Jewish laws against evil gossip, or lashon hara. “That translates to LBGTQ issues also.”
Though many Orthodox gay young adults are feeling more comfortable coming out to peers, coming out to their parents remains difficult.
One gay YU student, who wished to remain anonymous for privacy reasons, said his parents are still “grappling with the ramifications” of his identity. Though he came out to his parents at age 14, his mother still “isn’t ready to give up her vision of a perfect Jewish family.”
“From as far back as I can remember, I’ve lived with two truths,” he said. “I’m Jewish, and I’m gay. Both are absolute.” Though he said his parents respect his authenticity, there’s a point after which they won’t support his choices.
“It’s OK, I’m strong. But I want to help others who aren’t as far along,” he said. Despite his resilience, he often wonders about his future in the Orthodox community.
“It’s hard to feel alone. But when I come here, I realize I’m not alone,” he said, blinking hard. “This redefines not being alone.”
editor@jewishweek.org
Preparing For College? Consider The Israel FactorDear High School Senior,
The spring of your senior year is an exciting time in your life. You most likely are feeling a well-deserved sense of accomplishment on the verge of completing your high school career and, for those of you going on to college in the fall, a sense of anticipation as you look forward to campus life and a new level of independence. But there may also be a healthy dose of anxiety as to how you will fare on your own.
Many Jewish students seek out colleges with a strong Jewish presence, including a critical mass of co-religionists and an active Hillel and/or Chabad House. I wonder, though, how many of you have taken into account The Israel Factor on your intended campus.
For example, do you know the level of student activity regarding the Mideast conflict, especially at a time when the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement against Israel, much of it generated by non-students, is growing on liberal campuses around the country? Are there pro-Israel groups at the college of your choice?
These days, unfortunately, the government in Jerusalem is a target of widespread criticism, particularly regarding its Zionist ideology and its dealings with the Palestinians. I worry that too many Jewish students are not aware of what they will face and what they will be hearing in the classroom and on campus, from professors and fellow students, about Israel the oppressor, Israel the apartheid state, etc.
The tactics of the BDS advocates often are over-the-top. They are meant to shock and grab attention and they can be disturbing to encounter. You may face “die-ins,” where pro-Palestinian students play dead in protest of civilian deaths during the most recent Gaza war. You may face mock checkpoints, where you will be asked for your ID, echoing the treatment of Palestinians seeking entry into Israel proper. And you may face mock eviction notices where students find notes taped to their dorm room doors in objection to the fact that some Palestinian homes are cleared out to make room for Jewish residents.
Many of you have positive feelings about Israel in your gut, developed over the years from your home life or involvement with a synagogue and/or Jewish education in your early years. Perhaps even a trip to Israel. But you may feel less than confident if called on to explain or defend some of Israel’s controversial policies.
Is Israel is the main source of blame for the lack of a peace agreement with the Palestinians?
How is it that Israel came to control Arabs living in the West Bank?
Why does the United Nations pass so many resolutions critical of Israel?
Are the charges true that the Israeli army is brutal in its methods of warfare?
How would you respond to a BDS protest?
The Mideast is not a burning issue on many college campuses, and some pro-Israel advocacy groups exaggerate the problem so as to enhance their fundraising appeals. But Jerusalem is increasingly on the defensive as countries around the world voice support for the creation of a Palestinian state, and much of the growing anti-Israel sentiment in this country emanates from college campuses.
The truth is that successive Israeli governments have sought to make peace with the Palestinians and have been willing to make major compromises, including ceding territory to make it happen. But each effort has been rejected without a counteroffer, and Palestinian leaders have promoted or allowed violent attacks on Israeli civilians.
Yes, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is complicated, with each side clinging to parallel narratives that never seem to meet. The result is that many young American Jews, confronted with a complex history of charges and counter-charges, simply walk away from the issue rather than explore the facts. It’s especially difficult to respond to a group of passionate anti-Israel advocates on a college campus when you are unsure of what’s true and what isn’t.
That’s why in 2002 The Jewish Week launched an Israel educational program called Write On For Israel to prepare high school juniors and seniors for these types of challenges, giving them the context and confidence to make Israel’s case when they get to college. At the time the second intifada was in full force. We never anticipated that in 2015 the project, which has had more than 400 graduates, would still be necessary. The sad fact, though, is that Write On is needed now more than ever, and a number of pro-Israel education and advocacy groups have come on the scene.
Whether or not you feel you have a solid understanding of modern Israel, you should know that there is a wealth of information available online, in books and in documentary films. For a sampling of sources that offer range and depth in learning more about Israel today, you can check out websites like israeled.org, standwithus.org and myjewishlearning.com; recent best-selling and highly praised books like Yossi Klein Halevi’s “Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation” and Ari Shavit’s “My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel”; and inspiring new films on the Israel Defense Forces such as “Above and Beyond” and “Beneath The Helmet.”
Your college years are not just about academics and career paths. They are about growth on all levels, including a time to appreciate and deepen your Jewish identity and discover personal ties to the culture, people and society of our ancient homeland. You are likely to find that the rebirth of modern Israel is, if not miraculous, one of the great success stories of the 20th century. It’s about an ancient people reviving the Hebrew language and setting out to fulfill its dream of recreating a state for all Jews. It’s about establishing a safe harbor in a turbulent world, a vibrant democracy where religious tradition and cutting-edge innovation can coexist, not always easily, but with great energy and potential. And all of this taking place in a tiny land surrounded by those hostile to the very concept of a Jewish state in the region.
It’s an inspiring story, but don’t take my word for it. You owe it to yourself to see why your connection to the State of Israel should be viewed as a source of deep pride, even as we strive to see it fulfill its biblical mandate, and ours, to be a light unto the nations.
Enjoy the journey.
gary@jewishweek.org
Musings
Rabbi David Wolpe
Special To The Jewish Week
The Real Business Of SynagogueOnce Rabbi Lev Yitzchak of Bereditchev went to the marketplace in the middle of a busy weekday. There he stood and proclaimed lessons from the Torah. One of the men in the market said, “Rabbi, with all due respect, we are trying to conduct business here.” “I’m sorry,” replied the Bereditchever. “I just thought that since you always talk business in the synagogue, I could talk Torah in the marketplace.”
In theory worshippers speak of different matters in the shul than in the street. But all too often we do not adjust our attitudes at all. Even on Shabbat morning people will strike deals and gossip just as freely with a prayer book in hand.
The synagogue is, at its best, a true sanctuary, even from one’s own work. It should provide a break from the getting and spending and grasping that characterizes the market. The doors open to a place for safety and spirit. The Berditchever was right of course — there is room for Torah in the marketplace. But it serves us all well if in the shul there is a chance to retire from the rigors of work and renew one’s soul.
Rabbi David Wolpe is spiritual leader of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter: @RabbiWolpe. His latest book, “David: The Divided Heart” (Yale University Press), has recently been published.
A N.Y. Minute
Presenting Israel In film, Warts And All
THE JW Q&A
Presenting Israel In Film, Warts And All
We think of the JCC as our living room, a place to watch and discuss, says film festival director Isaac Zablocki.
Gary Rosenblatt
Editor And Publisher
Isaac Zablocki, 38, plays a key role in determining which Israeli films, and others dealing with the Mideast conflict, are shown in New York. As a result his choices are the subject of praise and criticism, often based more on a viewer’s politics than sense of aesthetics. Born in New York and raised in Israel before settling here, he is director of film programs at the JCC in Manhattan; director and co-founder of theReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival, which had a successful run last month; founder and director of the Israel Film Center; and executive director of The Other Israel Film Festival, which seeks to bridge the Arab-Israeli cultural divide through film. Zablocki was interviewed at the JCC. This is an edited transcript.
Q: How do you decide what films to choose for the various festivals you help put together?
A: Quality is the No. 1 issue. The message plays a part, as does a timely topic, and we’re not afraid of showing tough films [in terms of their portrayal of Israel]. But the bottom line is quality.
How do you deal with controversy regarding films, including Israelis ones, which depict Israel in a negative light?
We think of the JCC as our living room, and an appropriate place for people to come to watch and then discuss. We often have conversations after a screening, which might include talking about the context of the film. A lot depends on how you introduce the film, how you prepare your audience and set the tone for questions and answers. That can begin with the right moderator, who asks questions in a productive way. I think it’s important to see films with which you may disagree, so you can understand the other side.
Some refer to the biblical story of Jacob wrestling with an angel to describe how Jews deal with tough issues — part wrestling, part hugging.
I identify with that image, and in a sense Israel is wrestling with itself when its creative artists make these films and people come to see them. The problem will be when we stop wrestling, and stop hugging. American Jews are more afraid of that kind of wrestling than Israelis. Here in the U.S. there is a strong sense of political correctness, of staying within the boundaries. Israelis are more willing to cross those boundaries. They are more direct, more open.
Some say that Israeli films, while greatly improved in quality, are consistently left of center in their point of view. Is that accurate, and if so, why?
People often say to me, “Show me balance.” And it is true that there is a lack of well-made Israeli films with a right-wing point of view. More often the filmmakers are liberal, perhaps that’s the nature of artists. There are also too few films from an Orthodox perspective, with several notable exceptions. But at the JCC we also show mainstream, high-quality Israeli films for audiences not interested in controversy.
Are there any red lines for what films you will show?
The controversies are mostly about the depiction of minorities being mistreated, especially the Arab population. There are certain films we have chosen not to screen, like one about a Jewish Holocaust denier, or “Rachel: An American Conscience,” the 2009 documentary about Rachel Corrie, a young peace activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli tank while protesting the demolition of homes in Gaza. That film didn’t add to the conversation or debate, and it was not a quality film. It seemed intent on aggravating the audience. And the same goes for a number of Palestinian films.
The JCC doesn’t support BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel). As the lines get blurry, the JCC is constantly monitoring this situation.
Overall, I don’t try to solve problems [by showing controversial films]. I try to show good films and promote discussions.
gary@jewishweek.org
Featured on NYBLUEPRINT
British, Jewish And Gay? Here's Your Yenta
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner is not your average matchmaker.The senior rabbi of England’s Movement for Reform Judaism, Janner-Klausner is launching a matchmaking service and website that will cater to same-sex Jews, according to RNS.
The site, which will also serve heterosexual couples, is intended to serve as a “conduit” for lonely singles to meet one another. Rabbi Janner-Klausner, along with several other Reform rabbis, will be the matchmakers.
According to James Cohen, executive director of Keshet, a non-profit that serves LGBTQ Jews in the U.S., the project seems revolutionary.
“As far as I know, there aren't any comparable dating services to the one starting in England, and certainly not one started by a rabbi!” he wrote inan email.
Though no dating website exclusively for Jewish same-sex couples exists in the U.S., several dating websites, including Yenta and JDate, provide an option for LGBT couples. JSwipe, the popular Jewish dating app likened to Tinder, has a “really strong LGBT presence,” according to founder David Yarus.
“It's crazy to think that there are apps out there or other services that aren't same-sex friendly,” wrote Yarus in an email. When you sign up for JSwipe, one of the first questions you’re asking is if you’re interested in men or women, he said. “The app will dynamically adapt to your preferences and settings in real-time.”
Though he doesn’t have plans to launch an app exclusively for same-sex couples, "LGBT Jews are an important part of the online dating community", he said.
In the United Kingdom, the Reform movement is only willing to marry couples — straight or gay — if both partners are Jewish.
“The point to make is that we want to help people to meet other Jews, those who are interested in living a Jewish life,” Rabbi Janner-Klausner told RNS. “Both relationships, straight or gay, can have ‘kedusha,’ holiness.”
There are 42 Reform Judaism congregations in England, Wales and Scotland, but it is not clear how many will be involved as part of the matchmaking service or when the service will begin.
TRAVEL
History Amid The Magnolias
Hilary Larson
Travel WriterThe rain came down steadily, at times in torrents, other times in a chilly drizzle under leaden skies. But the legions of marchers on their way from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., to commemorate the recent 50th anniversary of that legendary civil rights march were undaunted by a little precipitation.
As my husband, Oggi, and I pulled into the Alabama state capital on our cross-country road trip, the energy was palpable. Roads were closed; signs announcing the 50th anniversary events were all over Montgomery; and local radio covered the events with pride during this Southern town’s moment in the spotlight, if not exactly the sun.
Montgomery, Alabama’s second-largest city, earned a place in history for its pivotal role in two distinctly antipodean eras. In 1861, this was the first capital of the 19th-century Confederacy, a pro-slavery rebel state; a century later, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. made history here in helping galvanize the civil rights movement, which sought to undo slavery’s lingering legacy.
Within a few minutes, you can stroll from the First White House of the Confederacy to the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered sermons as pastor in the 1950s.
There’s an obvious irony in the juxtaposition of the Confederacy and the celebration of civil rights — but also a pleasing symmetry, giving Montgomery the feel of a place that has come full circle. Adding to this sense is the ongoing revitalization of the city’s downtown along the Alabama River — including spruced-up institutions and a waterfront park — where people can not only contemplate history, but also enjoy the spring breezes in a charming Southern town.
Most of Montgomery’s noteworthy sights are located on the elegant blocks between the State Capitol and the river. These include the Dexter Avenue Church, a soaring red-brick structure, and the Rosa Parks Library and Museum, where an immersive reenactment of the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott engages visitors of all ages with the drama of protest.
Nearby, adjacent to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Civil Rights Memorial is a literal touchstone for thousands who make the civil-rights pilgrimage each year. Designer Maya Lin’s immense black-granite disc is a table that overflows with water, inviting witnesses to contemplate the names of martyrs and the dates of major events engraved there. Another wall curves upward, inscribed with King’s memorable invocation of the biblical phrase: “...until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Throughout April, visitors can join in free walking tours of Montgomery’s seminal sites, led by locals who share their personal memories of the civil-rights era. These include some Jews who recall the roles played by many of their brethren — supporting the bus boycott, sermonizing at temple in favor of integration and publicly advocating for civil rights. This Jewish involvement posed considerable risk to their own position in a majority-Christian community, with some neighbors associating Jewish civil rights supporters with Communism and other countercultural currents.
prominent in the movement, I learned, were the Sephardic temple Etz Ahayem and the Reform Temple Beth Or, both of which today remain proud exponents of the Alabama Jewish legacy. And like so much in Montgomery, the city’s Jewish history has deep roots in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Agudath Israel Etz Ahayem is the result of a 2001 merger between Etz Ahayem, a Sephardic congregation formed in 1912 by Ladino-speaking immigrants, and Agudath Israel, a Conservative temple founded in 1902. Temple Beth Or, which dates to the mid-19th century, has occupied a succession of notable buildings; its original 1862 brick edifice, now the Catoma Street Church of Christ in downtown Montgomery, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Yankee in me bristled at the idea of touring the First White House of the Confederacy, erstwhile home to President Jefferson Davis. After all, my Unionancestors fought to overthrow the movement that made first Montgomery, and then Richmond, rivals to Washington. But the White House — set amid shady trees on the city green — is an artifact of antebellum décor as well as an oddity of history. Vintage rooms exemplify the style of the period with velvet settees, lace curtains and lots of curved mahogany.Oggi and I missed the annual birthday parties for Robert E. Lee (Jan. 19) and Jeff Davis (June 3), when visitors to the White House are treated to cake and speeches in homage to Southern glory. But it was just as well. Outside, as magnolias burst into bloom and crowds gathered to celebrate a more progressive era, we could feel spring stirring in the air.
Iran Focus Shifts To Weapons Deal
Joshua Mitnick
Israel Correspondent
Tel Aviv — The recent deal between the world powers and Iran heightened the debate between Israel and the Obama administration about whether the agreement will push Tehran farther away from nuclear weapons, or leave it on the precipice of becoming the newest nuclear power.
Israeli and U.S. officials promptly began a public argument over a series of highly technical aspects of the agreement: the potential effect on the “break-out time” to build a bomb; whether or not the international community could rely on an inspection regime to monitor such a deal; what should be the fate of Iran’s existing nuclear installations; and whether Iran should have to expose to inspectors its nuclear research and development work.
But Russia’s announcement on Monday of a green light for sales to Iran of an advanced anti-aircraft missile system shifted the focus in Israel away from the bomb to a more conventional — but no less worrying — concern of the nuclear agreement: an expected boost to Iran’s regional standing and multiplying threats to Israel.
In a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu complained that the arms sale will only boost Iran’s “aggression” in the region and undermine Middle East stability. “After this weapons deal, is there anyone that would still seriously claim that this agreement with Iran will boost security in the Middle East?”
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Tuesday complained that the sale of S-300 missiles to Iran — which would significantly improve its defenses against a possible Israeli or U.S. air assault — was a “direct result” of the framework nuclear deal. Yaalon and other analysts said that the deal was a signal that the regime of economic sanctions imposed on Iran by world powers was already starting to crumble.
“That’s going to have an impact by strengthening the Iranian economy, and at the same time the Iranians are continuing to arm the enemies around us,” he said in avideo posted to his Facebook account.
The fear is that once restrictions are lifted on Iran’s foreign trade, Tehran will become flush with cash and will feel emboldened to deepen its support for allies such as Hezbollah and Hamas. Yaalon complained that the framework ignored Iran’s support for militant groups around the Middle East threatening pro-Western states like the Shiite-allied Houthis in Yemen. “That isn’t even discussed,” Yaalon said. “It’s one of the biggest holes in the agreement.”
While there’s a debate in Israel about whether a strengthened Iran truly poses an existential threat to the Jewish state, as Netanyahu has argued, there’s little debate in Israel that the agreement and a détente with the U.S. is expected to enhance Iran as a regional power.
“Now they [the Iranians] take into consideration a possible confrontation with the Americans,” said Eyal Zisser, a professor of political science at Tel Aviv University. “Signing an agreement to a certain degree frees their hands; that’s something that we have to take into consideration.”
“Clearly, Iran is expanding, and trying to establish its presence all over. This is not mere speculation, it’s happening on the ground. … An agreement, the removal of the sanctions will enable them to increase more financial support to these projects. More money means more support for Hezbollah.”
More evidence of Iran’s declining isolation in the wake of the deal came with Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s recent visit to Tehran. Despite the fact that the two countries are at loggerheads over regional conflicts in Syria and Yemen, the expected lifting of sanctions could clear the way for new energy deals, said Zisser.
But Ephraim Halevy, a former chief of Israel’s Mossad, cautioned against viewing the Russian weapons deal as a part of a “domino” effect of collapsing pressure on Iran. In an interview with Israel Radio, he did say that the missile deal should be seen as a Russian move — the first of many — to bolster economic ties with Iran. Like Israeli leaders, Halevy said that fallout from the end of Iran’s economic isolation would probably boost Iranian terrorism around the region.
While the approaching nuclear deal stokes fear in Israel that Iran will get a leg up in regional power politics, Ehud Eiran, a political scientist at Haifa University, noted that Iran and Israel share a common enemy in the rise of the Islamic State. Some of the fronts that Iran is fighting on are actually good for us,” he said. “It serves our interest.”
Most Israeli officials, however, have been focusing on Iranian “encirclement’’ over the last few months, according to Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Israel sees Iranian allies sitting on its borders — Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah — getting a boost from the deal. But Syria has been especially disturbing recently, Tabler said.
That’s because Hezbollah along with Iranian officers from the Revolutionary Guards have boosted their presence in southern Syria along the border with the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. And while Israeli officials have been worried for years about the potential for a flare-up along this frontier amid the chaos of the Syrian civil war, the new operations by Hezbollah along the border are considered a strategic threat — expanding the standoff with Hezbollah from Lebanon to a new and untested arena. If some in Israel once saw Syrian President Bashar Assad as the “devil that we know,” the increased reliance on Iran and Hezbollah has alarmed many that Iran may come to fill in the power vacuum along the Golan.
A nuclear deal between world powers and Iran would only make such a development even more problematic. That may explain why Israel launched a rare and potentially strike on a convoy of Hezbollah and Iranian officers in the Syrian Golan Heights back in January — a signal by Israel that a Hezbollah-Iran presence in southern Syria will not be accepted with a business-as-usual attitude.
“Everyone realizes that the framework is about much more than nuclear program,” said Tabler. “The constellation of forces around the Assad regime are much more problematic. The movement of Assad regime forces into [the Golan border town] Quneitra is not Assad retaking territory; it’s a strategic shift in favor of Iran.”
editor@jewishweek.org
NEW YORK
‘Safe Spaces’ For Orthodox LGBTQ Students Spreads On Campus
Program that began at YU gets new grant and intercampus launch.
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer
Rachael Fried, a 27-year-old graduate of Stern College, spent years formulating one three-word bombshell of a sentence: I am gay.
“Just being able to say it to myself, let alone others, took years,” said Fried, former student council president at Stern and current graduate student at Parsons The New School for Design. She wore a knee-length pencil skirt, button-down top, cardigan and colorful scarf, long hair falling down her back.
“I’m pretty religious, and I’m pretty gay,” Fried joked. “My story, though, is not an extraordinary one. I was a typical Stern student leader.”
Fried spoke out publicly for the first time on a recent Friday at the second session of Merchav Batuach, a recently launched “safe space” seminar for Orthodox college students. Founded in December by Stern senior Dasha Sominski, the project, which offers language sensitivity training and networking opportunities for gay students and their allies, is poised to expand. Campus chapters at Barnard, Columbia, NYU, Yale and Queens College are scheduled to open in the fall.
“I heard about the project though social media, and realized it would be a perfect fit for our campus,” said Sophia Adler, a sophomore at Queens College who hopes to launch the training sessions there this fall. The significant Orthodox population at Queens makes it an ideal location for the initiative, she said.
The project’s expansion follows President Barack Obama’s call last week to end reparative therapies aimed at “converting” gay, lesbian and transgender youth, a method endorsed in certain Orthodox circles. JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing), a New Jersey-based organization that promotes reparative therapy, has protested past attempts to prohibit such therapies.
Unlike the reparative therapy model, Merchav Batuach hopes to promote a model of acceptance. The project, sponsored by Eshel, a nonprofit founded in 2013 to support gay Orthodox adults and their families, received $15,000 from the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York last month; that grant followed on the heels of a $10,000 grant from UJA-Federation of New York in January, according to Eshel’s executive director, Miryam Kabakov.
The recent training session, which attracted about 30 students, included “coming out” role play, in which two students improvised the scene of a student telling his college dorm counselor that he’s attracted to men. After a round of applause, viewers critiqued the scene for instances of insensitivity and brainstormed ways to respond effectively in a real-life situations.
“I came today to find out how to respond when a friend tells me she’s gay,” said Leora Veit, 22, a graduate of Stern College. Veit said that in the past few months, she’d discovered that several of her friends weren’t straight — “they opened up to me because they felt comfortable, and I found myself feeling flustered,” she said. “Learning how to respond was a skill I needed to learn.”
Over the past several years, LGBTQ awareness within the Orthodox community has been increasing, though slowly, given the stance of Jewish law toward homosexuality. (In a much-publicized incident, a 2009 panel on homosexuality in the Orthodox community, hosted by Yeshiva University’s social work school, led to strong blowback from university officials.) JQY, an organization founded in 2001 to promote understanding for young gay Jews, today serves over 600 LGBTQ Orthodox young adults across New York. Keshet, a national grassroots organization, provides inclusion training for LGBTQ individuals and provides families with resources and guidance. For the third year, Eshel is hosting an annual weekend retreats for parents of LGBTQ youth — this month’s retreat will host about 50 parents from Orthodox and charedi backgrounds.
Isabel Singer, a junior at Yale University, invited Sominski to speak at the New Haven campus’ Hillel in the fall.
“Being gay and Orthodox is not rectifiable in certain ways,” said Singer, who considers herself queer, “but making social space for these Jews is always possible.” Though Singer used to be Orthodox, she now considers herself an egalitarian Jew. “For me, being queer was a large piece of why I moved away from Orthodoxy,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean Orthodoxy can’t embrace those who are queer.”
“The progress is astounding,” said Fried, who said she waited until after college to come out to her peers because she feared being stigmatized. “In my time at YU, an anonymous article in the student newspaper was a big deal. Now, students are coming to seminars like this.”
Though Fried originally wanted to remain anonymous, she changed her mind after speaking at the recent seminar, which was held at the Forward’s office in Lower Manhattan. “I so badly want others to have the role model I wish I had,” she said.
Despite support among the student body (several articles in the student newspapers have been written about the initiative), a YU spokesperson said there is “no formal relationship between the program and the university.” Merchav Batuach does not receive university funding, and seminars must take place off-campus.
“To say I’m particularly welcome or appreciated on campus would be taking it too far,” said Sominski, who openly identifies as queer. Though certain staff members have expressed support for the endeavor, administrators maintain a strict distance, she said.
Still, support from peers is more important, according to Sominksi. “Last time, I personally recruited most of the people who came,” she said, referring to the first Marchav Batuach seminar, in December. “This time around, I didn’t know most of the people there. Students are coming on their own.”
“Merchav Batuach seems like a place that is educating people on how to be a supportive friend,” said Channa Silverman, 22. A junior at Stern, Silverman is Chabad and married — at the seminar, she covered her hair with a colorful scarf. “I consider myself someone who friends can talk to about all sorts of things,” she said. “This is one subject where I needed an education.”
The three-hour seminar is tailored to Orthodox students who have had little or no exposure to these issues, explained Eshel’s Kabakov, herself a gay Orthodox Jew and a Stern graduate. In one interactive exercise, students were asked to match relevant terms with their definitions — the list included “androgynous,” “biphobia,” “homophobia” and “gender binary.” One student asked Sominski for the definition of an “ally,” the term used to describe supporters of gay rights.
“We start with the basics,” said Kabakov, who said most in attendance never formally discussed these topics before. “There are no dumb questions, and no assumptions of knowledge.”
Another exercise challenged students to describe a date, without using heteronormative pronouns. Students stumbled over their words, laughing, and kept trying.
“The first place to make space for LGBTQ youth is in our words,” said Kabakov, who said the activity highlighted the prevalence of heterosexual presumptions in casual conversation.
Though most of the students were from Yeshiva University, representatives from other universities attended. Talia Lakritz, a junior at Barnard, hopes to facilitate the seminar among Columbia students.
“Language sensitivity is part of being Jewish,” said Lakritz, referring to the stringent Jewish laws against evil gossip, or lashon hara. “That translates to LBGTQ issues also.”
Though many Orthodox gay young adults are feeling more comfortable coming out to peers, coming out to their parents remains difficult.
One gay YU student, who wished to remain anonymous for privacy reasons, said his parents are still “grappling with the ramifications” of his identity. Though he came out to his parents at age 14, his mother still “isn’t ready to give up her vision of a perfect Jewish family.”
“From as far back as I can remember, I’ve lived with two truths,” he said. “I’m Jewish, and I’m gay. Both are absolute.” Though he said his parents respect his authenticity, there’s a point after which they won’t support his choices.
“It’s OK, I’m strong. But I want to help others who aren’t as far along,” he said. Despite his resilience, he often wonders about his future in the Orthodox community.
“It’s hard to feel alone. But when I come here, I realize I’m not alone,” he said, blinking hard. “This redefines not being alone.”
editor@jewishweek.org
NATIONAL
Religious Pluralists Fearing Rollback Of Gains
Right-wing Israeli government would likely blunt momentum on personal-status issues.
Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
Rabbi Rick Jacobs: Concerned about progress being stalled with charedi presence in emerging coalition.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds coalition-building talks with charedi and center-right parties, some Jewish groups worry that pluralism — which flourished after Israel’s last election — will suffer without centrist input.
“A right-wing government is going to be an enormous setback for those trying to advance the idea of civil marriage,” said Rabbi Seth Farber, founder and director of ITIM: The Jewish-Life Information Center, a nonprofit organization that helps people navigate Israel’s bureaucracy related to marriage, birth and other major life changes. And it is expected that other strides towards pluralism made by the last Israeli government — it was the first time in a decade there were no charedi parties in the cabinet — will also be reversed. Among the first changes expected will be to the military draft.
Under the slogan of “sharing the burden,” the last government passed a new conscription law that ended wholesale army exemptions that had been granted to seminary students, who are mostly charedi. It was to be fully implemented in four years, but a right-wing government is expected to kill its provisions.
There was also some headway made by the last government in the area of conversions. Last Nov. 3, the Israeli cabinet voted to strip the Chief Rabbinate of sole control over conversions in Israel. It ordered that municipal rabbis also be permitted to perform them in the hope that some of them might impose less onerous conditions on the potential convert.
“There was a new horizon for potential converts, but it now seems that that horizon is going to close,” Rabbi Farber said.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said he, too, is concerned about the “few areas in which we were beginning to see potential progress.”
“It is impossible to imagine a new government without charedi parties,” he said, referring to the fact that Netanyahu’s Likud Party won a landslide victory with 30 seats.
But he confided that the conversion reform implemented by the last cabinet caused the Reform movement to fear that the change “might weaken our own conversion process. … We were happy it was approved, but we want something more dramatic, a change that includes [the recognition of] civil marriage and divorce and equitable funding for our rabbis.”
Despite the cabinet decision, the change was never implemented because the Chief Rabbinate refused to approve conversions performed by municipal rabbis and one of the key parties in the coalition, Jewish Home, objected to it, noted Yizhar Hess, executive director and CEO of the Conservative movement’s Masorti Movement in Israel.
He said he is convinced “the previous cabinet’s action will be canceled by the new government since it dealt only with Orthodox conversions and had no affect on non-Orthodox conversions. There will be no one to fight its cancellation … and there is no constituency to support the municipal rabbis.
“The Orthodox in Israel are governed by the more radical streams, and when it is canceled you will hear no voice of protest from the street. It is tragic.”
Hess added that had the change included conversions by the Reform and Conservative movements, there would have been some protest.
“But we were asked to keep silent,” he said. “The agreement was that it would not harm or help us. And as you see, it did not help them either.”
And with an expected right-wing government taking shape, Hess said the “conversion issue will be tabled for the near future. … unless the moderate Modern Orthodox in Israel understand that in order to make significant changes in the coercive and corrupt Chief Rabbinate regarding religion and state, nothing will happen.”
Among what Rabbi Uri Regev described as a “modest gain” by the last government that he fears may be reversed involves work on creating a new egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall.
“We were far along on this, and the question is whether this effort will be resumed or frozen in its incomplete space,” Rabbi Jacobs said.
Natan Sharansky, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, was working with the Reform and Conservative movements, as well as the Jewish Federations of North America, to develop the prayer space.
“We were working effectively for one wall for one people,” Rabbi Jacobs said. “It is possible the prime minister may still take a strong leadership position on this. We hope he does.”
As envisioned, there would be a single entrance to the Western Wall or Kotel and three separate sections: men, women and egalitarian. Currently, the egalitarian section is separate from the other two. It is hoped this arrangement would put an end to the violence that has occurred when women wearing prayer shawls and carrying a Torah attempted to pray in the women’s section.
Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center in Jerusalem, said there is also real concern that the new government may undermine the “democratic nature of Israel.” That could happen, she said, should the proposed nation-state bill be reconsidered.
“Earlier versions of the bill favored the Jewish character of the state in the narrow, Orthodox sense, rather than the democratic character of Israel,” Rabbi Sattath explained. “In our view of Judaism, there is no contradiction. But in the Orthodox view, there is a clear contradiction.”
Asked the implications of such legislation, she said: “If you are going to build a state founded on halacha [Jewish law], there would not be gender equality or equality for minorities. Many of the freedoms guaranteed in a democracy are not guaranteed in halacha. They have said the Jewish character of the state is more important to them. And it is over this bill that the last government fell.”
Rabbi Sattath said her organization would be reaching out to the center-right party that is expected to be in the coalition, Kulanu, as well as to some liberal members of Likud to enlist their help in “preventing this disastrous bill from passing.”
Naomi Paiss, a spokeswoman for the New Israel Fund, which defines itself as an American nonprofit that funds groups in Israel committed to equality and democracy for all Israelis, said such a new law would not “reflect the desire of most Israelis and would contribute to American Jewish concerns about the rights of non-Orthodox Jews in Israel.”
She pointed out that Naftali Bennett, chairman of the Jewish Home Party, has already “said such a law could be used to deport all African refugees.” And Paiss said it could also be used to “prevent family reunification among Israeli Arab citizens because they would not be allowed to marry Palestinians in the West Bank and then bring them to Israel.”
“Those supporting this bill say it would allow things Israel’s High Court keeps throwing out because they discriminate against non-Jews,” she said.
Rabbi Uri Regev, CEO of Hiddush-Freedom of Religion for Israel, said that if Netanyahu is committed to any of the pluralistic efforts initiated during his last government, now is the time for him to include them as part of his coalition government.
“During the period in which the coalition negotiations are taking place, bilateral agreements between Likud and each potential coalition member are being made and under the law they need to be disclosed before the new government is presented,” he explained.
The New Israel Fund is expressing concern also that a rightwing government would “strengthen the power of both the settler lobby and charedi hegemony over personal and religious life in Israel,” Paiss noted.
“Any reforms in the area of civil marriage would be highly unlikely, and there is a bill supported by Jewish Home that would put progressive NGOs [non-governmental organizations] out of business,” she said. “Most of the progressive NGOs get funding from Europe and sometimes from the U.S. This bill would require such funding to have defense ministry approval, something that would essentially shut down the human rights community in Israel.”
Among the groups Paiss said would be affected are the Association for Civil Rights in Israel; B’tselem; Rabbis for Human Rights, and Physicians for Human Rights, Israel.
She acknowledged that these groups are often critical of Israel, but she said they are “the eyes and ears of the world on the West Bank, and it is no wonder that the settler party wants them shut down.”
There is little likelihood that Netanyahu and his Likud Party would reach out to the centrist Zionist Union to form a unity government, according to Rabbi Regev.
“Ideally, we would like to see them work out their differences — and they are not as far apart as the public is led to believe,” he said. “But the trust between them is so great that he [Netanyahu] would rather cater to the extortion of the charedi parties rather than establish a framework that would enable a civil coalition to be established.” NEW YORK
Inside FEGS’ Financial Free Fall
Bankruptcy documents show vast majority of programs losing money, CFO revolving door, ballooning administrative costs.
Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
In court filing, FEGS’ CEO, for the first time, details the agency’s financial slide. Michael Datikash/JW
By the time executives of FEGS Health and Human Services system became aware last November of the massive financial crisis they were facing, a “top down analysis” by a new management team and restructuring consultants revealed that 74 percent of its more than 350 programs were losing money.
Compounding its financial problem was the fact that FEGS recently lost key employees — including three chief financial officers in just two years.
Although FEGS first experienced a major financial loss in 2013 of $5.5 million, that fact was apparently masked by a $4.5 million insurance settlement and gains at some of its affiliates.
When the magnitude of its 2014 loss — $19.4 million — was realized, FEGS announced it was closing and sought help to pay expenses. It contacted six traditional and non-traditional lending sources and three expressed interest. But it was able to reach agreeable terms with only one — UJA-Federation of New York — which is providing it with a cash advance of up to $10 million.
These and other revelations about the financial collapse of one of the Jewish community’s major social service agencies were revealed as part of FEGS’ bankruptcy court filing March 18.
And for the first time, Kristin Woodlock, FEGS’ CEO, spelled out the reasons one of the nation’s largest social service agencies serving 120,000 clients was forced to announce Jan. 30 that it would be shutting down and transferring its programs to other vendors over the coming months. The first transfer of 11 programs since the bankruptcy filing occurred on April 1.
“No single, but rather a confluence of factors and events have led to FEGS’ financial crisis,” Woodlock explained in a 41-page affidavit submitted to the court. “A continuing decrease in revenue without corresponding cost cuts led to substantial operating losses and escalating financial difficulties over the last several years. For example, while revenues fell between fiscal 2013 and 2014, aggregate salaries and benefits increased 7 percent.”
FEGS said in its court papers that the programs of greatest concern were those for persons with developmental disabilities, its residential programs, and some of its workforce, education and youth programs. As a result, it said, they were at the top of the list for transfer to other more financially sound service providers.
The Wellness, Comprehensive Assessment, Rehabilitation and Employment Program, for instance, a critical service for the city to meet state and federal welfare requirements, was found to have lost about $11 million last year, including projected close out costs. On Jan. 26, an agreement was signed to transfer the program to Fedcap Rehabilitation Services.
FEGS said it had also arranged to transfer 10 other unprofitable programs that represented a “cash flow drain.” It asked the court to authorize these transfers effective today because failure to do so would “completely undermine the continued viability of the programs to be transferred, put [FEGS’] clients safety and welfare at risk, and cost significant administrative losses … it was ill equipped to sustain at this critical juncture.”
Judge Robert E. Grossman of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip, L.I., agreed to the transfer earlier this month.
FEGS’ court papers listed the following as among the other key reasons for its demise:
♦ Given FEGS’ “historical concentration on top line growth without due concern to contract viability within [its] existing administrative framework and business models, and its inadequate financial systems and revenue cycle management which compromised its ability to timely monitor spending and accounts receivable, [FEGS] financial performance on the workforce governmental contracts was among the worst in all its business lines.”
♦ FEGS’ “financial performance under those agreements was further exacerbated by a failure to adequately reserve and plan for the repayment of significant regulatory and governmental advances and contract termination costs.”
♦ FEGS “failed to adequately reserve and plan for the repayment of significant regulatory and governmental advances and contract termination costs.”
♦ FEGS was “overburdened by multiple space obligations, which substantially exceeded [its] physical needs and financial capabilities, leading to significant unreimbursable costs … as a result of the unallocated and vacant space.”
♦ FEGS had a “an overly prohibitive administrative cost structure, which was significantly more than … industry standards, coupled with the inability to keep pace with the growing complexities of the organization as a whole.”
As of last June 30, FEGS’ total unrestricted assets were about $144 million and its liabilities totaled about $105 million. Its revenues for fiscal year 2014 were about $264 million and its liabilities about $105 million.
Woodlock said FEGS operated in more than 350 locations throughout the New York metropolitan area and Long Island with a staff of 2,217 skilled professionals, of whom 1,405 belonged to District Council 1707, Local 215 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Prior to filing for bankruptcy, FEGS gave termination notices to hundreds of employees of programs that had been transferred to other service providers. As a result, as of March 18 it employed about 1902 skilled professionals, of whom 1,203 are union members. Its biweekly payroll was about $3.6 million, including benefits.
Woodlock asked the court to allow FEGS to pay all of its current and recently terminated employees both their wages and other benefits.
“The employees will suffer undue hardship and, in many instances, serious financial difficulties without” such payments,” Woodlock said. “Without the requested relief, [FEGS’] stability would likely be seriously undermined at the outset of this [bankruptcy filing]. Any delay in paying wages, benefits, severance and deductions or expenses [of employees terminated before the bankruptcy filing] would seriously harm [FEGS’] relationship with its employees and could irreparably impair employee morale at the very time the deduction, confidence and cooperation of the employees is most critical. Nor can [FEGS] afford to jeopardize client safety by the destabilization of the employee workforce.”
Judge Grossman said he would consider that request on April 16.
Larry Cary, general counsel for District Council 1707, said that under the law, each employee terminated prior to the bankruptcy filing would receive no more than about $12,000. He said the union filed yesterday a class action grievance in their behalf over FEGS’ failure to pay them their wages, vacation and severance.
In addition, he said those employees with seniority whose programs were already transferred to other service providers should have “bumping rights” to move into FEGS’ programs not yet terminated. But, Cary said, FEGS has not provided the union with the list of senior employees.
Cary said the union would be applying to get onto the creditors’ committee because one of the benefit funds co-administered by the union shows an audited deficit of $130,000, which would make the union one of FEGS’ largest creditors.
In addition, Cary said the union is encouraging service providers who are picking up FEGS’ programs to hire FEGS’ staff. And he said the union plans to hold a job fair and invite those new service providers in the hope they would hire the former employees.
He noted that after terminated FEGS workers picketed the office of a service provider who had picked up a FEGS program without hiring any FEGS’ staff, the service provider offered jobs to several former FEGS’ employees.
This story was first published earlier this month on The Jewish Week website,thejewishweek.com.
The Jewish Week
Religious Pluralists Fearing Rollback Of Gains
Right-wing Israeli government would likely blunt momentum on personal-status issues.
Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds coalition-building talks with charedi and center-right parties, some Jewish groups worry that pluralism — which flourished after Israel’s last election — will suffer without centrist input.
“A right-wing government is going to be an enormous setback for those trying to advance the idea of civil marriage,” said Rabbi Seth Farber, founder and director of ITIM: The Jewish-Life Information Center, a nonprofit organization that helps people navigate Israel’s bureaucracy related to marriage, birth and other major life changes. And it is expected that other strides towards pluralism made by the last Israeli government — it was the first time in a decade there were no charedi parties in the cabinet — will also be reversed. Among the first changes expected will be to the military draft.
Under the slogan of “sharing the burden,” the last government passed a new conscription law that ended wholesale army exemptions that had been granted to seminary students, who are mostly charedi. It was to be fully implemented in four years, but a right-wing government is expected to kill its provisions.
There was also some headway made by the last government in the area of conversions. Last Nov. 3, the Israeli cabinet voted to strip the Chief Rabbinate of sole control over conversions in Israel. It ordered that municipal rabbis also be permitted to perform them in the hope that some of them might impose less onerous conditions on the potential convert.
“There was a new horizon for potential converts, but it now seems that that horizon is going to close,” Rabbi Farber said.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said he, too, is concerned about the “few areas in which we were beginning to see potential progress.”
“It is impossible to imagine a new government without charedi parties,” he said, referring to the fact that Netanyahu’s Likud Party won a landslide victory with 30 seats.
But he confided that the conversion reform implemented by the last cabinet caused the Reform movement to fear that the change “might weaken our own conversion process. … We were happy it was approved, but we want something more dramatic, a change that includes [the recognition of] civil marriage and divorce and equitable funding for our rabbis.”
Despite the cabinet decision, the change was never implemented because the Chief Rabbinate refused to approve conversions performed by municipal rabbis and one of the key parties in the coalition, Jewish Home, objected to it, noted Yizhar Hess, executive director and CEO of the Conservative movement’s Masorti Movement in Israel.
He said he is convinced “the previous cabinet’s action will be canceled by the new government since it dealt only with Orthodox conversions and had no affect on non-Orthodox conversions. There will be no one to fight its cancellation … and there is no constituency to support the municipal rabbis.
“The Orthodox in Israel are governed by the more radical streams, and when it is canceled you will hear no voice of protest from the street. It is tragic.”
Hess added that had the change included conversions by the Reform and Conservative movements, there would have been some protest.
“But we were asked to keep silent,” he said. “The agreement was that it would not harm or help us. And as you see, it did not help them either.”
And with an expected right-wing government taking shape, Hess said the “conversion issue will be tabled for the near future. … unless the moderate Modern Orthodox in Israel understand that in order to make significant changes in the coercive and corrupt Chief Rabbinate regarding religion and state, nothing will happen.”
Among what Rabbi Uri Regev described as a “modest gain” by the last government that he fears may be reversed involves work on creating a new egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall.
“We were far along on this, and the question is whether this effort will be resumed or frozen in its incomplete space,” Rabbi Jacobs said.
Natan Sharansky, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, was working with the Reform and Conservative movements, as well as the Jewish Federations of North America, to develop the prayer space.
“We were working effectively for one wall for one people,” Rabbi Jacobs said. “It is possible the prime minister may still take a strong leadership position on this. We hope he does.”
As envisioned, there would be a single entrance to the Western Wall or Kotel and three separate sections: men, women and egalitarian. Currently, the egalitarian section is separate from the other two. It is hoped this arrangement would put an end to the violence that has occurred when women wearing prayer shawls and carrying a Torah attempted to pray in the women’s section.
Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center in Jerusalem, said there is also real concern that the new government may undermine the “democratic nature of Israel.” That could happen, she said, should the proposed nation-state bill be reconsidered.
“Earlier versions of the bill favored the Jewish character of the state in the narrow, Orthodox sense, rather than the democratic character of Israel,” Rabbi Sattath explained. “In our view of Judaism, there is no contradiction. But in the Orthodox view, there is a clear contradiction.”
Asked the implications of such legislation, she said: “If you are going to build a state founded on halacha [Jewish law], there would not be gender equality or equality for minorities. Many of the freedoms guaranteed in a democracy are not guaranteed in halacha. They have said the Jewish character of the state is more important to them. And it is over this bill that the last government fell.”
Rabbi Sattath said her organization would be reaching out to the center-right party that is expected to be in the coalition, Kulanu, as well as to some liberal members of Likud to enlist their help in “preventing this disastrous bill from passing.”
Naomi Paiss, a spokeswoman for the New Israel Fund, which defines itself as an American nonprofit that funds groups in Israel committed to equality and democracy for all Israelis, said such a new law would not “reflect the desire of most Israelis and would contribute to American Jewish concerns about the rights of non-Orthodox Jews in Israel.”
She pointed out that Naftali Bennett, chairman of the Jewish Home Party, has already “said such a law could be used to deport all African refugees.” And Paiss said it could also be used to “prevent family reunification among Israeli Arab citizens because they would not be allowed to marry Palestinians in the West Bank and then bring them to Israel.”
“Those supporting this bill say it would allow things Israel’s High Court keeps throwing out because they discriminate against non-Jews,” she said.
Rabbi Uri Regev, CEO of Hiddush-Freedom of Religion for Israel, said that if Netanyahu is committed to any of the pluralistic efforts initiated during his last government, now is the time for him to include them as part of his coalition government.
“During the period in which the coalition negotiations are taking place, bilateral agreements between Likud and each potential coalition member are being made and under the law they need to be disclosed before the new government is presented,” he explained.
The New Israel Fund is expressing concern also that a rightwing government would “strengthen the power of both the settler lobby and charedi hegemony over personal and religious life in Israel,” Paiss noted.
“Any reforms in the area of civil marriage would be highly unlikely, and there is a bill supported by Jewish Home that would put progressive NGOs [non-governmental organizations] out of business,” she said. “Most of the progressive NGOs get funding from Europe and sometimes from the U.S. This bill would require such funding to have defense ministry approval, something that would essentially shut down the human rights community in Israel.”
Among the groups Paiss said would be affected are the Association for Civil Rights in Israel; B’tselem; Rabbis for Human Rights, and Physicians for Human Rights, Israel.
She acknowledged that these groups are often critical of Israel, but she said they are “the eyes and ears of the world on the West Bank, and it is no wonder that the settler party wants them shut down.”
There is little likelihood that Netanyahu and his Likud Party would reach out to the centrist Zionist Union to form a unity government, according to Rabbi Regev.
“Ideally, we would like to see them work out their differences — and they are not as far apart as the public is led to believe,” he said. “But the trust between them is so great that he [Netanyahu] would rather cater to the extortion of the charedi parties rather than establish a framework that would enable a civil coalition to be established.” NEW YORK
Inside FEGS’ Financial Free Fall
Bankruptcy documents show vast majority of programs losing money, CFO revolving door, ballooning administrative costs.
Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
By the time executives of FEGS Health and Human Services system became aware last November of the massive financial crisis they were facing, a “top down analysis” by a new management team and restructuring consultants revealed that 74 percent of its more than 350 programs were losing money.
Compounding its financial problem was the fact that FEGS recently lost key employees — including three chief financial officers in just two years.
Although FEGS first experienced a major financial loss in 2013 of $5.5 million, that fact was apparently masked by a $4.5 million insurance settlement and gains at some of its affiliates.
When the magnitude of its 2014 loss — $19.4 million — was realized, FEGS announced it was closing and sought help to pay expenses. It contacted six traditional and non-traditional lending sources and three expressed interest. But it was able to reach agreeable terms with only one — UJA-Federation of New York — which is providing it with a cash advance of up to $10 million.
These and other revelations about the financial collapse of one of the Jewish community’s major social service agencies were revealed as part of FEGS’ bankruptcy court filing March 18.
And for the first time, Kristin Woodlock, FEGS’ CEO, spelled out the reasons one of the nation’s largest social service agencies serving 120,000 clients was forced to announce Jan. 30 that it would be shutting down and transferring its programs to other vendors over the coming months. The first transfer of 11 programs since the bankruptcy filing occurred on April 1.
“No single, but rather a confluence of factors and events have led to FEGS’ financial crisis,” Woodlock explained in a 41-page affidavit submitted to the court. “A continuing decrease in revenue without corresponding cost cuts led to substantial operating losses and escalating financial difficulties over the last several years. For example, while revenues fell between fiscal 2013 and 2014, aggregate salaries and benefits increased 7 percent.”
FEGS said in its court papers that the programs of greatest concern were those for persons with developmental disabilities, its residential programs, and some of its workforce, education and youth programs. As a result, it said, they were at the top of the list for transfer to other more financially sound service providers.
The Wellness, Comprehensive Assessment, Rehabilitation and Employment Program, for instance, a critical service for the city to meet state and federal welfare requirements, was found to have lost about $11 million last year, including projected close out costs. On Jan. 26, an agreement was signed to transfer the program to Fedcap Rehabilitation Services.
FEGS said it had also arranged to transfer 10 other unprofitable programs that represented a “cash flow drain.” It asked the court to authorize these transfers effective today because failure to do so would “completely undermine the continued viability of the programs to be transferred, put [FEGS’] clients safety and welfare at risk, and cost significant administrative losses … it was ill equipped to sustain at this critical juncture.”
Judge Robert E. Grossman of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip, L.I., agreed to the transfer earlier this month.
FEGS’ court papers listed the following as among the other key reasons for its demise:
♦ Given FEGS’ “historical concentration on top line growth without due concern to contract viability within [its] existing administrative framework and business models, and its inadequate financial systems and revenue cycle management which compromised its ability to timely monitor spending and accounts receivable, [FEGS] financial performance on the workforce governmental contracts was among the worst in all its business lines.”
♦ FEGS’ “financial performance under those agreements was further exacerbated by a failure to adequately reserve and plan for the repayment of significant regulatory and governmental advances and contract termination costs.”
♦ FEGS “failed to adequately reserve and plan for the repayment of significant regulatory and governmental advances and contract termination costs.”
♦ FEGS was “overburdened by multiple space obligations, which substantially exceeded [its] physical needs and financial capabilities, leading to significant unreimbursable costs … as a result of the unallocated and vacant space.”
♦ FEGS had a “an overly prohibitive administrative cost structure, which was significantly more than … industry standards, coupled with the inability to keep pace with the growing complexities of the organization as a whole.”
As of last June 30, FEGS’ total unrestricted assets were about $144 million and its liabilities totaled about $105 million. Its revenues for fiscal year 2014 were about $264 million and its liabilities about $105 million.
Woodlock said FEGS operated in more than 350 locations throughout the New York metropolitan area and Long Island with a staff of 2,217 skilled professionals, of whom 1,405 belonged to District Council 1707, Local 215 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Prior to filing for bankruptcy, FEGS gave termination notices to hundreds of employees of programs that had been transferred to other service providers. As a result, as of March 18 it employed about 1902 skilled professionals, of whom 1,203 are union members. Its biweekly payroll was about $3.6 million, including benefits.
Woodlock asked the court to allow FEGS to pay all of its current and recently terminated employees both their wages and other benefits.
“The employees will suffer undue hardship and, in many instances, serious financial difficulties without” such payments,” Woodlock said. “Without the requested relief, [FEGS’] stability would likely be seriously undermined at the outset of this [bankruptcy filing]. Any delay in paying wages, benefits, severance and deductions or expenses [of employees terminated before the bankruptcy filing] would seriously harm [FEGS’] relationship with its employees and could irreparably impair employee morale at the very time the deduction, confidence and cooperation of the employees is most critical. Nor can [FEGS] afford to jeopardize client safety by the destabilization of the employee workforce.”
Judge Grossman said he would consider that request on April 16.
Larry Cary, general counsel for District Council 1707, said that under the law, each employee terminated prior to the bankruptcy filing would receive no more than about $12,000. He said the union filed yesterday a class action grievance in their behalf over FEGS’ failure to pay them their wages, vacation and severance.
In addition, he said those employees with seniority whose programs were already transferred to other service providers should have “bumping rights” to move into FEGS’ programs not yet terminated. But, Cary said, FEGS has not provided the union with the list of senior employees.
Cary said the union would be applying to get onto the creditors’ committee because one of the benefit funds co-administered by the union shows an audited deficit of $130,000, which would make the union one of FEGS’ largest creditors.
In addition, Cary said the union is encouraging service providers who are picking up FEGS’ programs to hire FEGS’ staff. And he said the union plans to hold a job fair and invite those new service providers in the hope they would hire the former employees.
He noted that after terminated FEGS workers picketed the office of a service provider who had picked up a FEGS program without hiring any FEGS’ staff, the service provider offered jobs to several former FEGS’ employees.
This story was first published earlier this month on The Jewish Week website,thejewishweek.com.
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