For those who do not know, the giving of charitable contributions or the doing of good works, is a significant part of Judaism’s moral code. It is so important that when a Jewish baby boy is circumcised, or a Jewish baby girl is named, part of the prayer for the baby’s future, is that they may be blessed with knowledge of Torah (the five books of Moses), Chuppah (marriage) and Tzedakah (good deeds). The giving of charity and doing good works is right up there alongside following the commandments of the Eternal One, and continuing the human species, it really is that important.
Every Friday night before the Sabbath starts, and before every Jewish religious festival, there is an acknowledgement that there is a G-d given commandment to do good works, even if it’s only shoving some change in a collecting tin, and it’s been that way for thousands of years. Contemporary Rabbinic Judaism is, because of the destruction of the Temple by the Romans and the forced diaspora of the Jews, significantly different from the Temple Judaism of the 1st and 2nd centuries BCE. However, if Moses the Lawgiver could time-travel into a modern Jewish home, one of the few things he may recognise would be a charity box, into which the family would put money for good causes
Over the centuries Jews have communally contributed money that has funded hospitals, schools, medical research, university endowments, libraries and whole lot else, which has not just benefited Jews, but the whole world. In more recent years Jews throughout the world have contributed money to Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel in order to turn worthless scrub and desert land into productive agricultural land, and have turned a backward oppressed and almost forgotten part of the Ottoman Empire into one of the world’s leading technological and scientific research hubs.
It’s good and right, to do things that are good and right, it’s as simple as that. Unfortunately, in today’s world, Jewish charitable causes, have become just as likely to be infiltrated and corrupted by Left wing ideologues as are Christian and secular charitable causes, and one particular Jewish charity that may been corrupted in this way is the New Israel Fund.
The New Israel Fund was set up in 1979 and has a distinctly liberal flavour, and although that is not altogether a bad thing, some of the causes that it has championed and groups they have funded could give some cause for concern. Although it has done some really good work such as helping to set up Israel’s first rape crisis centre and has worked for the rights of women and also assisted non-Orthodox Jews (who are a minority of religious Jews in Israel) it has attracted criticism from those on the political right and from members of the Islamosceptic community.
Recently Jews of the political Right both from within Israel and from the Diaspora have attacked the New Israel Fund for funding groups who make consistent attacks on both Israel’s right to self-defence, and on members of the Israeli Defence Forces. The Israeli politician Naftali Bennett has laid into the actions of the New Israel Fund describing some of the things they have said about the IDF and its members as ‘slander’.
Mr Bennett, writing on his Facebook page said:
“Members of the New Israel Fund, listen carefully: Whoever harms, slanders and persecutes Israeli soldiers are not my brothers.
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In recent days NIF and “Haaretz” have attacked me over my decision to cancel my participation in an NIF-sponsored event at the upcoming Haaretz convention.
Here are a few direct quotes: “blow to democracy”, “ignoring the weak sectors”, “violation of the rights of minorities”, and all that jazz.
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I’ve had enough, my friends.
Don’t touch our soldiers.”
It is the right of every nation to defend itself from aggression aimed at it, and self defence in the face of an aggressor is one of the few loopholes allowed in the Biblical commandment that says: ‘thou shalt not kill’. The Talmud, that wonderful compendium of extra-Biblical debate, discussion and disagreement itself, says that ‘if someone comes to you with the intention of killing you, then get up earlier and kill them first’. My own personal opinion on the question of should I support those who wish to protect my life, or those who want to take my life, is that I’ll support those who wish to protect my life, not my enemy’s life. It’s really a no-brainer for me. I wish there were friends and not screaming, genocidal nutjobs as Israel’s neighbours, but unfortunately that is the hand that history has dealt Israel.
Members of the counter-jihad community have also attacked the actions of the New Israel Fund mostly because of NIF’s support of those who indulge in knee-jerk criticism of the actions of the Israeli Defence Forces and allegations that NIF is funding organisations that either seek to de-legitimise the State of Israel or which call for Israel to be boycotted. Pamela Geller has been quite vocal in drawing attention to the activities of NIF although she has used the sort of inappropriate, intemperate language, that I’m wary of using, in referring to NIF as ‘neo-Kapos’. That said however, she has helped to highlight the fact that NIF has become a far Leftist organisation and has funded far Leftist causes.
Pamela Geller said:
“Many organizations supported by the New Israel Fund play an active role in promoting the delegitimization of Israel in general and the IDF in particular. In this campaign, each organization operates in its own field (legal, media, etc.), often in cooperation with other NIF organizations. This combined effort poses a real danger to Israel’s Zionist vision.
The NIF has broad influence in a wide range of fields in Israel and operates in various ways to fulfill its goals, mainly via establishing and funding social organizations. Some of the NIF’s organizations also receive budgets from the European Union and foreign governments. A few NIF organizations even receive indirect grants from Arab countries and Palestinian funds.”
Ms Geller then went on to say:
“Furthermore, since Operation Cast Lead in January 2009, Israeli organizations and bodies have joined calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel and Israeli companies, and sometimes these calls have even been led by Israeli organizations. Prominent among the Israeli organizations and activists that support and promote the boycott against Israel are organizations and activists affiliated with the NIF. “
In fairness to NIF, it is not suggested that NIF itself is involved in BDS, and NIF has done a lot of work in helping women who are serving in the IDF but it is worrying if there is crossover of activists involved in BDS who are also involved in organsations funded or supported by NIF.
In a Jerusalem Post article from 2010, quoted by Ms Geller it emerges that Ms Geller and her associates are not the only ones concerned about the activities of NIF
The Pamela Geller site said:
“The brouhaha over allegations raised against the New Israel Fund in a report released this week by the Zionist student group Im Tirtzu has spread to the Knesset, where a number of initiatives to investigate the funding of NGOs and non-profit organizations operating in Israel have been broached.
After details of the Im Tirtzu report – which lays direct blame for the United Nations’ Goldstone Report on the IDF’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza last winter on the NIF – were printed in an article in Ma’ariv last Friday, MKs Yisrael Hasson and Tzachi Hanegbi, both from the Kadima Party and members of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, announced that they would push for a special hearing on the matter in that committee, in which the report’s claims would be investigated thoroughly.
According to the report, 92 percent of the negative citations used in the Goldstone Report criticizing the IDF’s conduct in Gaza last year came from 16 Israeli NGOs, which Im Tirtzu has alleged received some $7.8 million in financial support from the NIF in 2008-2009.
But Hasson and Hanegbi were not the only ones demanding answers this week. MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima), also a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that he was pushing for government authorization to create a parliamentary investigative committee to look into the funding and activities of the NIF, the organizations it finances and other NGOs operating in Israel, with the hopes of establishing well-defined lines that would not be crossed in the future.
The creation of a parliamentary investigative committee would be a significant step up from the other committee hearings possibly facing the NIF, and would also have broader powers, which would be decided upon at the time of the committee’s creation.
While Schneller said he had hoped to bring the committee’s creation up for a decision in the Knesset on Wednesday, he had opted to delay the decision until next week in order to “solidify a broad consensus on the matter.”
In his conversation with the Post, however, Schneller refuted the idea that such an investigation would be an affront to freedom of speech, and said the allegations surrounding the NIF had “made it clear that red lines needed to be identified.”
“I’m not interesting in shutting people up,” Schneller told the Post. “I’m interested in establishing boundaries and limits.”
“There’s a certain limit to what is legitimate and what is not,” he continued. “If you have [Israeli] organizations that are actively working against the State of Israel, well then wait a minute – that’s not legitimate, and enough is enough.”
It’s right that individuals and groups within a nation should be able to challenge the actions of the government of that nation, but supporting those who call for the destruction of the nation does cross the line. To a certain extent, Israel is a special case, because it is a nation that is on the front line in the fight against Jihadism, and any attack on the troops who defend Israel weakens that nation’s ability to fight back. If there is any truth in the allegations by Ms Geller and others about the actions of some of the groups that NIF is involved with, then it is analogous to Oswald Mosley taking funds from Nazi Germany during World War II, in order to denigrate and undermine the United Kingdom. It is right that a line should be drawn in what is acceptable and what is not and backing those citizens of a country who believe that their own country should be starved of investment or boycotted would seem to many to be an unacceptable way to behave. We in Britain would quite rightly be upset if money from a general charitable fund was spent on Leftist half-wittery or on traitors like Anjem Choudhary and I can understand how Jews of the Right are concerned about the groups NIF may be funding and supporting.
There is also a considerable amount of animosity from Ms Geller not just to the organisations that NIF funds and supports, but the Jewish communal philanthropic organisations that themselves fund NIF. Some of those individuals and foundations that fund NIF do have a distinctly anti-Israel and far Left flavour, and it is legitimate to ask whether they have an influence on the sort of groups and projects that NIF funds?
To put the other side of the story, as in fairness I must, NIF has come out fighting and has refuted the allegations, and has put out rebuttals to the allegations by Ms Geller and others. They have clarified their position on BDS and have stated that they do not fund groups that call for BDS and did, in 2011, drop support for the ‘Coalition of Women for Peace’ group that did call for BDS. However they admit that some of those associated with NIF have called for boycotts of goods from Jewish majority towns (settlements) on the West Bank.
NIF have emailed all of their supporters and donors from around the world (see addendum at bottom of article), and have called Ms Geller a ‘far rightist’, and those associated with her people who are on extreme right fringe of Israeli politics. Unfortunately they have shot themselves in the foot badly by basing the ‘far right’ claim on information supplied by the left-wing and increasingly discredited Southern Poverty Law Centre. The SPLC is one of those groups who as well as attacking genuinely ‘far right’ or racist entities such as the KKK, also classify anybody who objects to Jihadism or Islam as ‘far right’. Pamela Geller and her style may not be to everybody’s personal taste, but she has been proved correct when speaking about certain issues, especially the issue of Islamic Jew-hatred, and how deeply embedded such hatred is within the ideology of Islam itself.
The great shame about this furore is that as well as NIF’s questionable associations and supported groups, NIF has done great work in supporting non-Orthodox Jews in Israel. It has campaigned for Progressive Rabbonim to be given the same level of state support and be treated with the same respect as Orthodox Rabbonim are. It has also supported the fight to keep those with an extremist, literalist view of Judaism from imposing their views on others who do not share their views. Unfortunately supporting NIF because of its work for equality and religious freedom means that supporters of NIF are also propping up the whole package which includes working with questionable left-wing groups and those who want to encourage a boycott of goods from the Judea and Samaria areas of Israel (aka the West Bank). It’s a bit of a bind for those who support Israel, support equality, support religious freedom etc but who are sceptical about left-wing lunacy.
Maybe one way round this would be for those who want to support the good stuff such as equality, religious freedom and better rights for non-Orthodox Jews but don’t want to support the more wilder shores of what NIF supports would be to donate directly to the causes that they prefer, and bypass NIF altogether. If you support, for example, Israeli women’s causes or support progressive Jews in Israel, then why not donate directly to those causes, and not give to NIF who as well as supporting these causes, may also be supporting other more worrying or dodgy things? Why should a person’s charitable donation that they intend to be used for one thing be used for something else, something that the donor may completely disagree with?
The situation re NIF very similar to that of Comic Relief in the United Kingdom. I don’t give to Comic Relief on the grounds that I suspect much of the money goes to approved Lefty causes which I don’t agree with, and if I want to support a children’s charity or an overseas aid charity then I can and will do this directly. I can’t see why those who would normally donate to NIF but disagree with extreme left wingery cannot do similar?
Donor power is extremely effective, maybe it is time for progressive Jews and others who don’t buy into extreme left wing claptrap to start to exercise that power? There is a possible compromise here for those who support equality but also support security for Israel and that is to talk straight to the organ grinder and bypass the allegedly self-hating monkey’s of organisations aligned with or sympathetic to the far left.
It may well end up being the case that Ms Geller’s more shrill attacks on the work of NIF turn out to be as groundless and offensive as her opponents say they are. However, looking at some of NIF’s major funders, which appear to range from supporters of the far-left to the European Union (which has never been a friend of Israel), then it is at least right to ask what negative influence are these funders having on the work of groups that NIF fund and work with?
So, in the run up to Passover this year, why not think carefully about where your Tzedakah donation is going to and act accordingly, being guided by both knowledge and your own conscience.
Links
Naftali Bennett’s Facebook page
https://m.facebook.com/bennettnaftalienglish/posts/596847613779874:0
From the Pamela Geller website
http://pamelageller.com/2015/03/stop-the-new-israel-fund.html/#sthash.4ATp1knJ.dpuf
http://pamelageller.com/2015/03/stop-the-new-israel-fund.html/
http://pamelageller.com/2015/03/israeli-mks-called-for-new-israel-fund-probe-in-2010.html/
Website of the New Israel Fund
http://www.nif.org/
Wikipedia page on NIF
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Israel_Fund
Rebuttal email sent out worldwide to current NIF supporters and donors
“I am emailing to let you know about recent attacks against the New Israel Fund.
As you know, our support for liberal democracy, freedom of expression, and human and civil rights have made us a target for the far right in Israel. In this election season — when so many incumbents are running from their records — tarring NIF can serve as a convenient distraction. Several hardline politicians backed out of a conference on democracy run by Haaretz because of NIF’s co-sponsorship, prompting the publisher of Haaretz to print this two-page spread praising our work. Both the Likud and the Jewish Home campaigns have directly gone after us, (although a lawyer for the Likud later issued an apology). A settler group also produced this slick and disgusting video alleging that we are funded by anti-Semites.
Sadly, these baseless attacks have spread to the United States as well, where right-wing blogs have posted articles that twist NIF’s record and malign specific donors.
I would very much like to ignore these articles rather than give them undeserved publicity. However, we’ve seen the smears escalate in the past week, in which Pamela Geller — the leader of a hate group profiled by the ADL — announced that she would run bus ads in New York City naming a series of NIF donors, falsely stating that NIF supports BDS, and abusing Holocaust imagery.
Given what’s happening, I thought it was important to share some details of this campaign with you.
Click here for a fact sheet about the campaign.
You should know that NIF is on top of this. We’ve been in touch with all of the donors named. We are pursuing a sophisticated media strategy to keep these lies from reaching the mainstream press. And we are continuously examining our legal options.
You should also know that I’ve directed our staff not to let these smears distract us from our core work here in the United States: to bring together tens of thousands of people who care about Israel and believe in progressive values, to pool their resources, and to invest in critical work on the ground — work to realize Israel’s founders’ vision of Israel as a liberal democracy.
And while the campaign’s clear intent is to shame our supporters into quitting NIF, our adversaries underestimate the passion and character that underlies our community. Donors who have been singled out for attack have taken this opportunity to express their affection for and commitment to NIF. One donor told me, “If they weren’t going after you like this, then it would be a sign that you weren’t doing your job.”
Other supporters have seen elements of this campaign online and have taken to social media to show their support. Here’s one of my favorite posts by Rabbi Michael Adam Latz:”
