San Francisco Jewish Community Center Still Bans JVP
Posted on January 23 2007 by Cecilie Surasky under JVP , NGOs.
JCCSF singlehandedly solves the “who is a Jew question”! Not, apparently, JVP!
In May 2005, Jewish Voice for Peace held a sold-out fundraiser at the JCC of San Francisco, the crown jewel of the Jewish community here in the city. Turns out that in February, shortly after it became public that we’d be holding our shindig there, but before the event was actually held, they rewrote their rental agreement to keep us out. It wasn’t until a year later when we went back to rent a room that they told us we might first want to check out the, ahem, new agreement. (Reportedly, at least one board member who was in the room when the change was pushed through was appalled, but no one has gone on record about what happened.)
Now, sandwiched in between minor contractual details about things like cleaning or leaving a deposit, there is a paragraph which states:
It is the right and responsibility of the JCCSF to determine eligibility, in part, based on a group’s mission and activities. Groups that…engage in Israel-related activities without an explicit commitment to Israel’s right to exist as an independent Jewish State would fall outside of the JCCSF’s rental eligibility requirements.
It wasn’t that long ago that a majority of Jews were opposed to Zionism. Many still oppose the idea of a Jewish state for a multitude of reasons.
The funny thing is, JVP is not even anti-Zionist. But our crime is that we’re not Zionist either. We have members who span the spectrum. We support the rights of Israelis and Palestinians to self-determination, and keep our focus on international human rights and ending the occupation. You can read why we don’t endorse either a one or two-state solution–it’s up to Israelis and Palestinians, not us, to negotiate what will work for them. So, we don’t pass the new litmus test.
Oh yeah, and we’re Jewish. We’re very Jewish. Many of our supporters are members of the JCCSF. But apparently, we’re not Jewish enough.
In a few days, I’ll post the words of poet Adrienne Rich at a recent Hannukah reading, sitting on the very stage that we can never return to, calling out the JCCSF for making us “unwelcome”.
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February 8th, 2007 at 11:24 am
[…] Rebecca Spence at the Forward wrote about the blog. She also cites our friend and dauntless researcher Richard Silverstein at Tikun Olam, who published our story about Adam Horowitz getting an “anonymous” harassing email at home from a high level American Jewish Congress staffer. As Richard pointed out, why was she monitoring Adam’s private emails in the first place? (Richard has done more original reporting on the story.) I should point out, however, that our biggest beef isn’t the many hate mails we get. Really, who can count them? The biggest beef is getting disinvited to speaking engagements, seeing media stories get killed (yes, it happens), getting barred from major Jewish institutions, pulling down art shows, seeing supposedly reputable Jewish organizations pressure third parties not to speak to groups like JVP or Tikkun. The list goes on and on. Not to mention the general practice of tarring and feathering of non-Jews who dare begin to speak the truth we all know about our miserable foreign policy and Israel’s shameful history of violating the human rights of Palestinians. […]
March 23rd, 2007 at 9:59 pm
JVP by its actions has shown itself an anti-Zionist organization. From information provided by ex-members, almost all the Zionist members were basically pushed out, following an issurection by Zionist JVPers.
Meanwhile, JVP consistently promotes authors such as Ilan Pappe and Norman Finklestein, works with groups like ISM and MECA, and their speakers speaking in JVP’s name such as Mitchell Plitnik and Penny Rosenwasser denounce Israel’s existence and demonize the Jewish State.
Kudos to JCCSF for standing up to JVP. There are many places where JVP can push their agenda, and they do so with no fear of being muzzled.
Meanwhile, Jewish groups like JVP (I will not comment on the “Jewishness” or lack therof of its members), Jews for Jesus, Naturei Karta, and Tight Fit Productions (hard core pornography), will not be welcome at the JCCSF just because some or most of their members may be Jewish.
March 24th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Cecelie and her fellow JVPers have finally come out clearly with what they are upset about– that they are not accepted by the organized Jewish community. It certainly can’t be that the opinions they promote don’t get widely heard in the lay press and the anti-Israel community. But, as Dan noted, just because you claim to be Jewish doesn’t give you the right to spread your point of view within private Jewish institutions that don’t agree with you and don’t welcome you.
It’s really just all about you being “dissed” by the community whose acceptance and validation you obviously crave so deeply. Sorry, JVP; you’ve chosen to stand outside the community along with those who throw rocks at us (metaphorically and literally)– ISM, MECA, al-Awda, and so on. Deal with it.