By Joan Lowenstein
What are the consequences of Israel’s recent elections and switch to a right-wing government? This was the question on the minds of many at the December International Lion of Judah Conference in Phoenix, AZ. It was the 50th anniversary celebration of the Lion of Judah, a giving category of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), representing women who make an annual gift to their local Federation of $5,000 or more. More than 1300 women, mainly from North America, attended the 3-day conference, the first held since before the pandemic. After attending this conference in person, I would like to share what I learned and experienced.
In small sessions as well as plenaries, one topic discussed multiple times by experts from Jewish organizations and government officials was that the changes in makeup of the Knesset do not necessarily affect philanthropic and humanitarian projects in Israel.
“We have been working with the government in Israel since 1914, when it was the Ottoman Empire,” said Ariel Zwang, CEO of the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). The JDC is an international Jewish humanitarian organization supported in part by Jewish Federations across North America, including the greater Ann Arbor community, through the local Annual Community Campaign. Zwang noted that the JDC’s work, which establishes pilot programs that are scaled or developed by the Israeli government, is largely with career civil servants who are not affected by who is in government. For example, with the Mafteach (“key”) program, JDC promoted job development in the Haredi (ultra-religious) community. Zwang noted that this kind of program leads to systemic, not just temporary change and is one of the many projects where money from Federations is multiplied or leveraged with Israeli government funding.
According to Dani Wassner, chair of Israel Govt relations for JFNA, the big issue in Israeli elections, like in the US, is crime. But, he said Prime Minister Netanyahu seems solely focused on a different issue: Iran. In addition, he predicted that there will be small moves under the new conservative government to legalize settlement outposts, but he did not think any major policies would change.
The opinions of Jews living outside of Israel do matter in the Jewish state, and JFNA works to make Israeli politicians aware of the interests of American Jews. The organization has funded what they call “reverse missions,” taking Knesset members to American communities. Seven years ago JFNA took the now-Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to the west coast—it was his first time on an airplane.
Interestingly, JDC funding is not exclusive to Jewish Israelis. Because obtaining government grants is a difficult bureaucratic task in any country, JDC created resource administrators to help NGOs in Israel, including Arab NGOs, apply for Israeli government funds.
The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) is another agency that is supported by Jewish Federations, does not receive core funding from the government, and does not limit funding to Israeli Jews. Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh is from the Druze village of Daliat al Carmel. She has served in the Knesset and is now the first non-Jewish envoy of the Jewish Agency, stationed in Washington, DC. She noted that JAFI is working to close income gaps in 16 Druze villages and allocates around $8.6 billion for social services in Arab villages. “Social impact is huge when JAFI supports entrepreneurship,” Kamal-Mreeh said.
She also spoke about one of JAFI’s primary obligations – immigration. In 2022, with the support of JAFI, 14,000 immigrants came to Israel from Ukraine and 33,000 from Russia. These immigrants received resettlement services that allowed them to completely rebuild their lives.
A highlight of the Lion of Judah Conference was an address (via Zoom) by Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Ambassador to the United Nations. At the time, Benjamin Netanyahu had not yet formed a government, but Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said that regardless, the United States would be pushing forward normalization agreements like the Abraham Accords, which established relations between Israel and formerly-hostile Arab countries. She also discussed the UN resolution to refer the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which she called another attempt to target Israel. She said the US would be fighting budget amendments that would facilitate ICJ involvement.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield was mostly concerned about the global food crisis, exacerbated by war in Ukraine. Egypt imports 70% of its wheat from Ukraine, and 828 million people go to bed hungry every day worldwide. Re-opening the Black Sea will be a priority, the ambassador advised. She was also proud to introduce the resolution that would kick Iran off the UN Commission on the Status of Women. (The resolution passed just a day after the conference concluded.)
In addition to Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield, Eric Fingerhut, CEO of JFNA, spoke both in the plenary and breakout sessions. He stated that support for Israel by Federations is unconditional, not affected by changes in government. However, he did not say that JFNA will remain silent no matter what. “The Federation system will not hesitate to lobby about [Israeli] legislation, including Law of Return and conversion. We will monitor regulatory decisions involving LGBTQ issues and judicial reform,” he said, noting that Jewish organizations are prepared to respond to Israeli government actions that may affect Jews in the outside world.
Turning to another pressing issue for the Jewish community, antisemitism, Fingerhut said, “Kanye isn’t a problem because he’s on your Instagram. Kanye is a problem because he could live down your street,” referring to recent antisemitic comments made by the recording artist.
Indeed, antisemitism was addressed in many of the conference sessions, including one in which Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism spoke. Her advice: “Speak out, don’t let things pass. Educate yourself: Antisemitism is part of a broader panoply of human rights concerns.” At the same time, she cautioned, “Don’t let your Jewish identity be motivated by antisemitism. I identify as a Jew because of my amazing heritage.”
Ambassador Lipstadt, as well as representatives from Hillel student organizations around the country made some observations about the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) movement, which targets Israel for human rights concerns against Palestinians. An Israeli shlichah (emissary) from Los Angeles said a covert goal of the BDS movement is to diminish Jewish students’ pride in their identities and connection to Israel.
Michael Masters, CEO of the Secure Community Network (the group that advises Jewish communities across the country about security, through JFNA), warned of an unprecedented threat level for the Jewish community. Despite the general awareness of the rise in antisemitism, he said that there is actually an underreporting of hate crimes. His organization tracked 227,000 risk events in the second half of 2022. As the only faith-based organization that refers cases to the FBI, Secure Community Network’s referrals have resulted in about one hate-crime arrest per week.
Shifting gears, many at the conference were anxious to discuss reproductive rights in the wake of the Dobbs decision and its effect on the midterm elections. Sheila Katz, CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) said that reproductive rights organizations like NCJW have discovered that the only courtroom successes for overturning state laws against abortion have been based on the idea of religious liberty. These lawsuits claim that, because Judaism does not accept the idea that life begins with conception, laws that take that approach violate the right to religious freedom.
In a move that most believe will fail, Katz said US Evangelical groups that oppose abortion are trying to lobby new Israeli MKs to try to overturn Israeli abortion protections, in order to weaken the Jewish argument in American courts. Katz urged that there’s no time like the present to stand up for human rights, including reproductive rights.
Joan Lowenstein is a former President of the Board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor and a current member of JFNA’s national Women’s Philanthropy Board. To learn more about the Federation and Women’s Philanthropy, visit JewishAnnArbor.org.