by Lori Lowenthal Marcus
http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/05/07/the-stealthy-legtimacy-of-j-street/
Did you know that J Street – which is, please, let’s acknowledge it
already, a political lobbying organization – is launching a new national
election year initiative? They have plans to train its supporters to
lobby for the candidates they support, and ensure the defeat of
candidates supported by “right-wing Republican” Jews in this year’s
presidential election. Perhaps that doesn’t surprise you, but what if
you learned that some of those political training sessions were taking
place in your local synagogues (Chicago and San Francisco), or Jewish
community centers (Nashville and Minneapolis), or even your local
Federation building (Philadelphia)? A recent email from Carinne Luck,
J Street’s Vice President for Campaigns, announced the launch of a new J
Street initiative, “Future of Pro-Israel.” Luck describes this purely
political, election year initiative as J Street’s effort to drive a new
course in “national and communal politics.” Luck labels it a direct
response to donations by two Jewish millionaires to two political
organizations of Republican candidates for US president. J Street makes
no effort to conceal where donations to counter Republican support are
supposed to go, but let’s spell it out: if you oppose people supporting
Republican candidates, including the man who is the presumptive
Republican nominee, where does one suppose your financial support is
going to go? Here’s a hint: it’s going to an eight letter word
starting with D, and it isn’t Dinosaur. This is a free country, and if J
Street reveals itself honestly as a purely political advocate for
Democratic candidates, they have the right to do so. But J Street is
succeeding in having it both ways, by doing pure politics but cloaking
itself with the hecksher of the official Jewish community – their
buildings, their patina of charity and good works – in order to advance
its purely partisan political goal. When you click on the link to find J
Street’s new initiative in your community, you learn several things:
(1) the effort is solely part of J Street’s lobbying, advocacy and campaign arms, not the one that is bound by the same rules that bind Federations, JCCs and synagogues; (2) J Street calls itself the “political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans”; (3) several of the descriptions
make it clear it is an intensive lobbying campaign to support political
candidates who share J Street’s vision; and (4) some of the places where
these intensely political, lobbying training efforts are being held are
in our Jewish communal homes, which are limited by federal law and
community consensus from engaging in lobbying or political campaigning.
For example, J Street Philadelphia is holding its Political Initiative
launch at the Philadelphia Federation building, although the event is
sponsored only by its political entities – those that are permitted to
engage in lobbying and campaigning – and not the tax-exempt arm. Not
only that, but even on its Facebook page, J Street Philadelphia labels
itself only a political organization. In most other cities, the
J Street lobbying launch is being held in private homes, which makes
sense. But while it appears only Philadelphia is allowing its
Federation building to be used to launch this lobbying effort, there are
some cities in which the Jewish Community Centers and some synagogues
have allowed these lobbying campaigns to take place. The nearly
identical language used to describe most of the local efforts focuses on
action to be taken during this “election season,” and includes training
for being “on the front lines of voter engagement in this important
election year.” Should Jewish Federations or Jewish Community Centers or
synagogues host one-sided political events or lobbying efforts? Of
course not. Those entities need to remain neutral so that all Jews feel
welcome in their communal centers. And from a financial standpoint,
those Jewish communal entities must also avoid any semblance of
political favor because the only way such entities are created, exist
and grow is through funding from donors, in exchange for which the
donors can deduct the value of the donations when reporting their income
for tax purposes. And that is why, usually, religious institutions are
loathe to allow anything that smells political, particularly when it
comes to election season, within their gates. Even the appearance of
supporting a particular politician or lobbying effort can create serious
problems. So why are some Jewish organizations allowing their
facilities to be used for J Street’s unabashedly political initiative?
The answer in Philadelphia probably reflects the thought process that
took place in other Jewish communities, which was twofold: (1) they
assumed the event was not political and (2) Jewish institutions strive
to be inclusive. Why did Philadelphia think the event was not going to
be political? Because the decision makers there, at least initially,
did not see the original announcement of J Street’s Political
Initiative, and because many think of J Street as a nonprofit,
tax-exempt organization, the same as are Federations, JCRCs, and the
other alphabet soup of Jewish organizations. You see, by originally
presenting itself as simply another Jewish organization, but with a
decidedly leftist orientation, the J Street national, and then their
local affiliates, were able to participate in Jewish communal life as if
they were just another non-profit, pro-Israel, Jewish organization.
But J Street* is now an overtly political entity, working for political
candidates who support its causes and working to create candidates who
will champion those causes. It is a lobbying effort that came in the
front door of our communities wearing its nonprofit, tax-exempt status,
but is now operating within our gates in its political, lobbying,
campaign incarnation. And that feint leaves our Jewish entities’ tax
status, and certainly its nonpartisan stance, vulnerable, while J
Street, which gave subtle but sufficient indications of what it is
really doing, with little to hide. Can you imagine any synagogue, JCC or
Federation allowing, say, the Republican Jewish Committee to launch a
lobbying efforts in their buildings? Or a Tea Party planning event? Of
course not. So if not them, then why this J Street Political
Initiative? Because it succeeded in achieving stealth legitimacy, to
our peril. * The J Street Education Fund
is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization for education and outreach,
but that arm of J Street is not involved in this new initiative. Lori
Lowenthal Marcus is the president of Z STREET and the executive
committee chair of the National Conference on Jewish Affairs
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