Report from the General Assembly

Ameinu Blog
November 28, 2006
By KENNETH BOB

On November 12-14 Ameinu participated in the United Jewish Community’s (UJC) General Assembly (GA) along with 5,000 representatives of Jewish Federations, Jewish students and other communal activists in Los Angeles. Although every year there are Israeli representatives, in the aftermath of this summer’s war, the theme of the GA was changed to "Israel," prompting a large delegation of Israeli ministers, members of Knesset and NGO representatives to attend as well.

Ameinu participated in several ways, all aimed at both raising our organizational profile and promoting issues of importance. Our well-presented booth in the expo area was staffed primarily by Jamie Levin, our executive director, and Tammy Shapiro, the director of the Union of Progressive Zionists campus activist group. Ameinu activists Judy Gelman, Bea Chankin, Norm Kane, Marty and Ettie Taft lent a welcome helping hand. We distributed materials, gathered contacts for future involvement and connected with members of the large student delegation. Besides the new contacts generated by the booth, it also served as a magnet for "our people" that are active in local Jewish communal life as they walked the expo floor.

Taking advantage of the presence of Minister of Education Yuli Tamir who participated in several formal programs, we organized a private session with the minister. Over 40 people joined us during a busy lunchtime with many conflicting events to hear her speak about the mood in Israel, her plans for the Education Ministry and what she termed as the "existential threat" Israel faces from Iran. While she understands that defense and foreign policy experts must create plans and contingencies, she has a different response. She expressed a sense of urgency to use her time in the government to work with her colleagues to create an attractive Israel, one that motivates people to stay in Israel. She spoke about fulfilling the Zionist dream by not just establishing a state but creating a socially just society.

She was, of course, asked about Labor sitting with the newly appointed right wing minister Avigdor Lieberman in the government. She answered that while Lieberman can talk a lot, Labor has the ministries to really change and improve the country. She said that while "everyone is asking how Yuli Tamir can sit in a government with Lieberman, she hopes that in a few months people will be asking him how he can sit in a government with Yuli Tamir."

As I have written in this space previously, the organized American Jewish community of late has been confronting the question of its relationship to the Israeli Arab issue. The question received additional prominence this summer when it was publicly reported that the UJC, via the Jewish Agency, funneled funds raised in the Jewish community to help Arab communities hit by the war. The Inter-Agency Task Force on Israeli Arab Issues, of which Ameinu is a member, put the topic on the agenda of the GA for the first time and Labor MK Nadia Chilo was the first Israeli Arab member of knesset to ever speak at a GA session. In addition, the Task Force organized a well attended luncheon addressed by the chair of the Jewish Agency (JAFI), the head of the Joint Distribution Committee and Minister Tamir. Vivian Silver of Ameinu partner NISPED and yours truly had an opportunity at the microphone as well. Both the commitment to this issue expressed by the speakers and the response from the audience created a sense of optimism.

In listening to plenum remarks by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livne and MK Bibi Netanyahu, the leader of the opposition, I was struck by a common theme. In general, any "saber rattling" remarks regarding Iran were greeted with greater enthusiasm than the statements from Olmert and particularly Livne about the need to pursue any peace opening with the Palestinians. Although frustrating, it was a reminder of the importance of Ameinu in such settings. Like it or not, the American Jewish community is several degrees to the right of the Israeli electorate on these questions. Coming from our strong Zionist commitment, we play an important role in both creating a place for the doves within the Jewish community as well as educating those less familiar with a more center-left position on the Israel-Palestine question.

Ameinu will continue its active participation in umbrella bodies, conferences and other venues to present our view and analysis of the challenges facing world Jewry.