I am about to tell you a dramatic tale about the internecine conflicts of the Jewish philanthropic world. Here are your characters:
First, there’s the Jewish Federation–in this case the Houston branch–an umbrella Jewish fundraising organization in Israel and abroad that donates to the full gamut of Jewish causes locally, nationally, internationally and–of course–in Israel. Then we have CUFI, or Christians United for Israel, an Evangelical pro-Israel group with a very conservative, quasi-eschatological bent. Then there’s Im Tirtzu, a right-wing student’s group in Israel that’s trying to hush up people they disagree with on the left. Then there’s Ben Gurion University, a respected institution in Be’er Sheva that Im Tirtzu is trying to boycott because of said leftist professors.
Basically, here’s the story as told by the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot: After trying to smear the New Israel Fund, Im Tirtzu has launched a new campaign to discourage donations to Ben-Gurion University and limit its professors’ academic freedom because some of them are post-Zionist. CUFI has donated $3 million to Im Tirtzu, but that money got to the rightist student group through the Houston Federation and the Jewish Agency, another supposedly apolitical group that exists to support Israel. In short, umbrella Jewish organizations (who claim to be ecumenical) are funneling politically-motivated donations to an expressly political right-wing student group aiming to silence professors they disagree with. This is no good. [Yediot][Richard Silverstein]
Apparently, the latest craze in unlikely Jewish student recruitment involves colleges named after American historical figures chasing after smart, college-bound MOT’s. [Forward]
“Forget that he revolutionized physics with groundbreaking, solid theories that affect how scientists look at the world! Einstein was nothing more than a liberal conspirator!” say some idiots. [JTA]
In a bid to one-up March of the Living and other such Poland-Israel journeys, a group of Poles who recently discovered their Jewish roots is visiting Israel… and then returning to Poland. [JTA]
Remember that time when we insisted that the immoral actions of one small group of people does not implicate their entire religion (hint: the popular name of that issue rhymes with “Crowned Lear-o Shlosque”). Let’s keep that lesson in mind when talking about the sins of our own community, says Tablet. [Tablet Scroll]
