Long focused on acting as the unified voice to the American Jewish community, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is facing its biggest test yet amid an escalating dispute among several longtime member organizations stemming from the selection of Dianne Lob as its next chairperson. The main actors are HIAS (formerly the […]

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and the Coalition for Jewish Values—a Jewish organization and rabbinical group respectively—have criticized presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden’s proposal to resume U.S. economic funding and security assistance to Palestine. Conversely, a coalition of anti-war groups sent Biden an open letter on Monday, signed by 51 organizations, urging him […]

Should Jewish communal organizations aim to achieve consensus above all or bear witness to the truth? Both in the Diaspora and in Israel, Jews are divided over politics, religion and worldview. These arguments, moreover, generally carry an emotionally fraught sub-text; that the opposing side threatens to undermine Jewish security and the existence of the Jewish […]

The Zionist Organization of America hosted a webinar on Monday evening about the recent controversy over the new chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Featured were ZOA national president Mort Klein and chairman Mark Levenson, who talked in detail about concerns regarding former HIAS chair Dianne Lob, who was elected on April […]

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), a prominent group associated with the right-wing of the Zionist movement, criticized former vice president and presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s suggestion to resume US funding of the Palestinian Authority (PA), arguing that it violates American law, according to a Cleveland Jewish News report.  “It is utterly immoral to fund […]

Jewish-run nonprofit HIAS, which resettles refugees, has come under fire from Jewish groups, especially the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), which alleges HIAS is in bed with figures and organizations associated with anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. The Jewish Journal spoke with HIAS CEO Mark Hetfield and ZOA president Morton Klein about some of the accusations against […]

After six weeks of writing only about the coronavirus, finally, I can sink my teeth into a good-old-fashioned Jewish controversy. The controversy, as I see it, is this: For a Jewish organization such as HIAS, what is the appropriate balance between helping Jews versus non-Jews? The issue caught my eye because of a related controversy: […]

This past April 17th, Democratic Party frontrunner and presumptive presidential candidate, Joe Biden, enthusiastically accepted J Street’s endorsement for the upcoming presidential election. The endorsement read as follows: “At a time” when the threats to our core values both at home and abroad have never been more serious, all of us in the pro-Israel, pro-peace community know that […]

Apparently, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is sensitive to criticism. Over the past week, it received enormous – and well-deserved – flak after it announced the decision of its nominating committee to select former HIAS chairman Dianne Lob to serve as the Conference’s next chairman. In what is largely viewed as […]

Opponents of the recent nomination of Dianne Lob as the next chairperson of the Conference of Presidents charge that the nomination of the former HIAS chairwoman to the Conference’s top position was made following multiple violations of both the letter and spirit of detailed organizational bylaws. A widely distributed letter to Conference leadership and member […]