We Urge Rabbis and Cantors to Resign from J Street’s Rabbinic Board

ZOA Urges Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations to Remove APN From Membership

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein and ZOA Director of Research & Special Projects Liz Berney, Esq. released the following statement:

Blocking arms sales to Israel in the middle of an existential war and riding antisemitism means that more Jews will die. When Jewish groups block these arms sales, it’s downright treasonous and antisemitic. Yet, disgracefully, radical groups J Street, Americans for Peace Now (APN), T’ruah, Partners for Progressive Israel (PPI) and IfNotNow lobbied for and supported three Joint Senate Resolutions of Disapproval to block $20 billion of U.S. arms sales to Israel, sponsored by Israel-hating Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Peter Welch (D-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Brian Schatz (D-HI). (S.J. Res. 111 (to block tank munitions), 113 (mortars) and 115 (JDAM precision munitions).)

ZOA strongly urged that JCRCs and Hillels immediately remove these hostile-to-Israel groups J Street, APN and others from any official affiliation. We also urge that the Conference of Presidents remove APN from its membership. Furthermore, all rabbis and cantors on J Street’s board or advisory committees should resign in protest of their endangering Israel and Jews.

Specifically, J Street mounted a lobbying campaign urging senators to vote for the resolutions blocking arms sales to Israel. IfNotNow likewise lobbied for blocking the $20 billion in arms sales to Israel. J Street PAC also funded the recent Senate campaigns of at least six of the Senators who voted for these outrageous resolutions: Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-NM); Mazie Hirono (D-HI); Tim Kaine (D-VA); Angus King (I-ME); Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Bernie Sanders. PPI and PPI’s executive director publicly called for suspending “offensive” weapons sales to Israel, including JDAMs and tank munitions. T’ruah likewise called for the U.S. to stop transferring “offensive” weapons to Israel. And Americans for Peace Now wrote that it was “proud to support these important resolutions” to block arms sales to Israel, and was “grateful” to the Senators who sponsored and voted to block the arms to Israel.

It’s time to hold accountable organizations whose traitorous efforts to block arms sales to Israel endanger Jewish lives and Israel’s survival in the midst of the seven-front existential war launched by Iranian-supported genocidal terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah against Israel.

Here’s how we must hold these organizations accountable for their treachery:

(1) The Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative movements must demand that their rabbis and cantors must disassociate themselves from J Street and the other groups that are endangering Jewish lives, unless and until those groups publicly reverse their life-endangering calls for blocking arms to Israel. According to a 2015 study, the J Street “Rabbinic and Cantorial Cabinet” consists of over 400 Reform Rabbis; 110 Reconstructionist Rabbis and 73 Conservative Rabbis (and no Orthodox Rabbis).

Many of J Street’s rabbis and cantors may have been misled into joining J Street, based on J Street’s published, supposed “Rabbinic and Cantorial Cabinet Principles,” which recognize Israel’s “moral right to defend itself against its enemies.”

J Street’s lobbying to block arms to Israel is a blatant violation of its own stated principles!

(2) ACTION ALERT: Individual members of congregations led by J Street, etc., should urge their rabbis and cantors to disassociate themselves from J Street and similar groups until those groups publicly reverse their life-endangering calls for blocking arms to Israel. (See the list of J Street rabbis and cantors here.)

(3) The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, JCRCs and other Jewish umbrella organizations need to suspend or expel organizations calling for blocking arms sales to Israel.

(4) Hillel and JCRCs need to refuse to allow J Street and similar groups to have any official affiliation, as long as those organizations continue calling for blocking arms sales to Israel.

(5) Organizations and individuals seeking to block arms sales to Israel should not be permitted to run in World Zionist Congress elections, because blocking arms sales violates one of the basic requirements for running in the election – namely, supporting Israel’s defense.

Groups such as J Street, APN, T’ruah, etc., and the 19 Democratic Senators (almost 40% of Democratic Senators) who voted to block arms to Israel absurdly claim that they merely seek to block “offensive” weapons. But in fact, “offensive” weapons are a vital element of Israel’s defense.

Here’s why:

A “defensive” weapon, such as Iron Dome, may – or may not – destroy a terror rocket or missile in mid-air, shortly before it strikes Israeli civilians. However, such defensive weapons, in addition to tragically failing too often, such as when a Hezbollah rocket murdered 12 Israeli Druze children playing soccer – also often result in shrapnel landing in Israel and wounding or killing Israeli civilians. Just this week (on November 18), five Israelis were wounded by falling shrapnel after Israel intercepted a Hezbollah missile over a street in Ramat Gan, in central Israel (including a 54-year-old Jewish woman who was seriously injured). Another four Israelis were wounded by shrapnel from massive Hezbollah missile strikes on central Israel yesterday (November 24).

A so-called “offensive” weapon, can destroy rockets, missiles, anti-tank missiles and rocket launchers before the rockets or missiles are ever launched, saving countless lives – including the lives of Israeli civilians and troops as well as Palestinian Arabs and UN troops hit by misfired Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah missiles. For instance, a few days ago (on November 19), Hezbollah rockets injured four Italian UNIFIL soldiers. Hezbollah rockets have moreover made northern Israel into an uninhabitable wasteland, displacing 80,000 Israelis from their homes.

In sum, “offensive” weapons are absolutely necessary for Israel to defend Israeli and other lives against the genocidal terror organizations bent on murdering every Jew.

It is high time that J Street, APN (Peace Now) and other such groups should be persona non grata in the Jewish world until they change their anti-Jewish policies.