O-blog-dee-o-blog-da

By Melanie Nathan, May 08, 2024,

“Do not be fooled by the misappropriation of  Jewish values, religion, culture or the pretense at asserting Jewish values. You cannot expound or purport to be following Jewish values when your work props up those who support and commit genocide against Jews!”  

Jewish Voices for Peace do not represent the Jewish people and certainly do not represent Jewish students. They represent an organization, with their own ‘eradicate Israel’ agenda, purporting to be grassroots that deceives just by virtue of their name. There is nothing peaceful or Jewish about JVP. This is evidenced by the following and much more than I have time to upload here:

1. Most people who belong to the organization are not Jewish. Their alliances on campuses include very few Jewish students. Most their organizing involves non-Jewish and pro-Palestinian students. Screenshot:

Caveat emptor – if you join JVP  apparently your FIRST STEP is to stand for Palestinian freedom – Screenshot:

2. Most glaring is all that emanates from the JVP website, as admissions of who and what they are:

3. From their website they declare they are ANTI-ZIONIST – and hence are organizing contrary to what the Jewish students on Campus, by majority represent.  JVP Website says:

” JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE is the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world;”
Screenshot:

The Jewish students of Columbia, in their own voice, are proud of their Zionism and put out a letter asking to speak for themselves. The letter starts, immediately addressing ZIONISM and pushing back against the JVP dicta. Most Jewish students at Columbia and other universities are not members of JVP. Most of their membership include outsiders, yet they “organize” usurping the name of jewish students, on campuses (see below).

Here is an extract showing how the students start their letter: These Jewish students at Columbia do NOT want JVP speaking for them:

“In Our Name: A Message from Jewish Students at Columbia University:Over the past six months, many have spoken in our name. Some are well-meaning alumni or non-affiliates who show up to wave the Israeli flag outside Columbia’s gates. Some are politicians looking to use our experiences to foment America’s culture war. Most notably, some are our Jewish peers who tokenize themselves by claiming to represent “real Jewish values,” and attempt to delegitimize our lived experiences of antisemitism. We are here, writing to you as Jewish students at Columbia University, who are connected to our community and deeply engaged with our culture and history. We would like to speak in our name.

Many of us sit next to you in class. We are your lab partners, your study buddies, your peers, and your friends. We partake in the same student government, clubs, Greek life, volunteer organizations, and sports teams as you.

Most of us did not choose to be political activists. We do not bang on drums and chant catchy slogans. We are average students, just trying to make it through finals much like the rest of you. Those who demonize us under the cloak of anti-Zionism forced us into our activism and forced us to publicly defend our Jewish identities.

We proudly believe in the Jewish People’s right to self-determination in our historic homeland as a fundamental tenet of our Jewish identity. Contrary to what many have tried to sell you – no, Judaism cannot be separated from Israel. Zionism is, simply put, the manifestation of that belief.”

4. I would go so far as to assert that if an organization is designed to tout anti-Zionism, which targets Jews, resulting ultimately in violence against Jews, that such organization is surely an HATE GROUP. Especially with the stated mission that targets and demonizes a minority! It is worse when you purport to do it in the name of that very minority… What a paradox -insidiously surreptitious and overt at the same time.

The question is will  Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) take this important leap? JVP fits the criteria. Currently SPLC considers the following hate groups: Groups are categorized as Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi, White Nationalist, Racist Skinhead, Christian Identity, Neo-Confederate, Black Separatist, Anti-LGBTQ, Anti-Muslim, Anti-Immigrant and General Hate. I do not see antisemitism in their categories. However their methodology is: “A hate group is an organization that—based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities—has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. We do not list individuals as hate groups, only organizations. The organizations on the SPLC list vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity—prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines. ” Here.

5. JVP advocates for a one state solution and that one state is for the Palestinians: This is further evidenced by the chants at their sit ins and rallies.

6. Nowhere on their website do they assert Israel has a right to exist and nowhere do they promote or even suggest a two state solution:

THIS IS THER OPENING WEBPAGE HERE – Does this look Jewish? Screenshot:

7. JVP asserts criticizing Israel is not antisemitic – but they fail the context. YES it IS antisemitic if you deny THAT Israel has a right to exist. Yes, it is anti semitic to criticize Israel. What is NOT antisemitic is to criticize a particular administration such as the Netanyahu administration. But they do not do that. Their criticisms go to the root of Israel’s existence and rights to defend itself against annihilation and genocide. They twist and subvert the genocide against Israel and Jews by never admitting it. They have never criticized or called out the HAMAS charter. They did not condemn the October 07 barbaric massacre by Palestinians, governed by Hamas.

8. According to JVP they are active in Campus organizing: SEE WEBPAGE HERE and have the chutzpah to have what they term an academic advisory council.

9. JVP admit their relationship with SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine), now banned from some campuses as inciters of antisemitism though unlawful protests where they have broken the law and caused violence against Jewish students.

10. JVP denies antisemitism on Campuses

11. JVP completely re-contextualize Israel’s history over the past 75 years leaving out key and critical data that serves to demonize Israel. There is zero balance of truth and reality in their one-sided version. Imagine, its like reading ONLY the odd chapters in a book and leaving out the even ones. It is so blatant that if a student were to rely on their version they would actually have a good excuse for their failed critical thinking abilities.

You will see all this for yourself when you explore their website.

12. JVP has actively participated in the antisemitism experienced by Jews on campus and yet have not said a single word about it, other than to deny anti-semitism. 

THIS YOU-TUBE REFLECTION BY A STUDENT AT UD IN TEXAS IS JARRING – HERE

13. WHO is funding the campus encampments:

I think you should peak at JVP. Their IRS 990’s for past years shows they receive on average over 3.5$Million USD per annum.

Look at Part 1.Number1-they tell the IRS that their mission is ADVOCACY AND PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS – at least here they are honest – but you will NOT see that on their website as they purport its about being Jewish and Jewish values. You will notice their mission carries totally different wording on their website. Fooling who?

14. NOW WHO FUNDS JVP:

That is easy to find… but it is who funds the funders that one must explore, and that is somewhat more buried.

We know that Fidelity Trust, Vanguard, Schwab and Morgan Stanley all have designated donor funds directed at JVP.

15. Jewish Voice for Peace’s Funding Network

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is a U.S.-based political organization, which refers to itself as the “Jewish wing” of the Palestinian solidarity movement. JVP provides the façade of Jewish support for BDS and other forms of demonization, including on university campuses and in churches, while also seeking to “drive a wedge” within the American Jewish community and generate polarization over Israel.Jewish Voice for Peace is not transparent about its funding sources. Limited financial information is available through public IRS documents, which report total income of $3,959,130 in FY2021 (July 2021-June 2022; latest available), $2,882,791 in FY2020, and $3,332,837 in FY2019.For 2019-2021, in total, NGO Monitor was able to identify $3,395,329 in donations and grants to JVP. Donors include private foundations that disburse funds at the discretion of directors, as well as foundations that act as conduits for private giving (“donor advised”). Most of the information for 2022 is not currently available, but NGO Monitor found $48,700 (many nonprofits have not yet published their financial statements for that year).

In 2019-2021, the largest known private donations were provided by:

• Kaphan Foundation ($441,510)
  • The Kaphan Foundation was established by Sheldon J. Kaphan. It “primarily funds grantmaking related to policy and civic action, digital rights, education and youth, the environment, health, and global causes.”
  • Kaphan has also provided funding for the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), an ideological NGO that promotes demonization of Israel. CCR is active in lawfare suits against Israel and Israeli officials;, promotes BDS campaigns; urges the U.S. government to stop providing military aid to Israel; and repeatedly accuses Israel of  “war crimes,” “crimes against humanity,” and other such allegations.
• Rockefeller Brothers Fund ($340,000)
  • The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) has also awarded grants to other -BDS  and anti-Israel NGOs, including Defense for Children International – Palestine (a member of the PFLP’s  NGO network), Palestinian Medical Relief Society, Al-Shabaka, and Adalah Justice Project.
  • According to RBF’s funding database, RBF has approved an additional $150,000 in 2023-2026 for JVP.
• Quitiplas Foundation ($200,000)
  • Quitiplas Foundation is registered in Wilmington, Delaware.
  • The Foundation only lists one employee, Thomas M Scruggs Jr., who claims to have “extensive experience in community media and leftist organizing.”
• Matthew G Krane Foundation ($198,000)
  • The grants to JVP appear to be the only major donation by the foundation in 2019-2021.
  • In 2011, Krane was sentenced to 32-months in prison “in connection with a fraudulent tax shelter scheme.”
• Open Society Policy Center ($150,000)
  • The Open Society Policy Center, part of the Open Society Foundations (OSF, Soros family), “engages in advocacy aimed at influencing public policy on domestic and international issues, including civil rights and liberties, criminal justice reform, immigration, public health policy, and the promotion of government accountability.”
  • OSF provided grants to a number of highly politicized NGOs, including Al-Haq, Al Mezan, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence, and Yesh Din.
• Vivian & Paul Olum Charitable Foundation ($117,500)
  • Distributes grants to organizations involved in: arms control, diseases and conditions, education, human rights, human services, international peace and security, international relations, nuclear non-proliferation, and sports and recreation.
  • Provided funding to Amnesty International, International Crisis Group, Oxfam America, T’ruah, and the New Israel Fund.

In 2019-2021, anonymous donor-advised funds were provided through:

• Schwab Charitable Fund ($654,233)

• Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund ($260,705)

• Morgan Stanley Global Impact ($175,600)

• Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program ($98,650)

• Tides Foundation ($75,000)

• National Philanthropic Trust ($13,300)

• American Endowment Foundation ($8,500)

PART 2 AND PART 3 OF THIS ARTICLE WILL DELVE MORE INTO FUNDING AND LEADERSHIP OF JVP a glimpse into Stefanie Fox et all, as well which Rabbis that belong to JVP actually have a pulpit? 

**THE FULL STUDENT LETTER – I HAVE LEFT OFF THE LONG LIST OF HUNDREDS SIGNATORIES BUT LEAVE THE LAST WORD TO THE REAL JEWISH VOICES  FOR PEACE….. **

“In Our Name: A Message from Jewish Students at Columbia University

To the Columbia Community:

Over the past six months, many have spoken in our name. Some are well-meaning alumni or non-affiliates who show up to wave the Israeli flag outside Columbia’s gates. Some are politicians looking to use our experiences to foment America’s culture war. Most notably, some are our Jewish peers who tokenize themselves by claiming to represent “real Jewish values,” and attempt to delegitimize our lived experiences of antisemitism. We are here, writing to you as Jewish students at Columbia University, who are connected to our community and deeply engaged with our culture and history. We would like to speak in our name.

Many of us sit next to you in class. We are your lab partners, your study buddies, your peers, and your friends. We partake in the same student government, clubs, Greek life, volunteer organizations, and sports teams as you.

Most of us did not choose to be political activists. We do not bang on drums and chant catchy slogans. We are average students, just trying to make it through finals much like the rest of you. Those who demonize us under the cloak of anti-Zionism forced us into our activism and forced us to publicly defend our Jewish identities.

We proudly believe in the Jewish People’s right to self-determination in our historic homeland as a fundamental tenet of our Jewish identity. Contrary to what many have tried to sell you – no, Judaism cannot be separated from Israel. Zionism is, simply put, the manifestation of that belief.

Our religious texts are replete with references to Israel, Zion, and Jerusalem. The land of Israel is filled with archaeological remnants of a Jewish presence spanning centuries. Yet, despite generations of living in exile and diaspora across the globe, the Jewish People never ceased dreaming of returning to our homeland — Judea, the very place from which we derive our name, “Jews.” Indeed just a couple of days ago, we all closed our Passover seders with the proclamation, “Next Year in Jerusalem!”

Many of us are not religiously observant, yet Zionism remains a pillar of our Jewish identities. We have been kicked out of Russia, Libya, Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Poland, Egypt, Algeria, Germany, Iran, and the list goes on. We connect to Israel not only as our ancestral homeland but as the only place in the modern world where Jews can safely take ownership of their own destiny. Our experiences at Columbia in the last six months are a poignant reminder of just that.

We were raised on stories from our grandparents of concentration camps, gas chambers, and ethnic cleansing. The essence of Hitler’s antisemitism was the very fact that we were “not European” enough, that as Jews we were threats to the “superior” Aryan race. This ideology ultimately left six million of our own in ashes.

The evil irony of today’s antisemitism is a twisted reversal of our Holocaust legacy; protestors on campus have dehumanized us, imposing upon us the characterization of the “white colonizer.” We have been told that we are “the oppressors of all brown people” and that “the Holocaust wasn’t special.” Students at Columbia have chanted “we don’t want no Zionists here,” alongside “death to the Zionist State” and to “go back to Poland,” where our relatives lie in mass graves.

This sick distortion illuminates the nature of antisemitism: In every generation, the Jewish People are blamed and scapegoated as responsible for the societal evil of the time. In Iran and in the Arab world, we were ethnically cleansed for our presumed ties to the “Zionist entity.” In Russia, we endured state-sponsored violence and were ultimately massacred for being capitalists. In Europe, we were the victims of genocide because we were communists and not European enough. And today, we face the accusation of being too European, painted as society’s worst evils – colonizers and oppressors. We are targeted for our belief that Israel, our ancestral and religious homeland, has a right to exist. We are targeted by those who misuse the word Zionist as a sanitized slur for Jew, synonymous with racist, oppressive, or genocidal. We know all too well that antisemitism is shapeshifting.

We are proud of Israel. The only democracy in the Middle East, Israel is home to millions of Mizrachi Jews (Jews of Middle Eastern descent), Ashkenazi Jews (Jews of Central and Eastern European descent), and Ethiopian Jews, as well as millions of Arab Israelis, over one million Muslims, and hundreds of thousands of Christians and Druze. Israel is nothing short of a miracle for the Jewish People and for the Middle East more broadly.

Our love for Israel does not necessitate blind political conformity. It’s quite the opposite. For many of us, it is our deep love for and commitment to Israel that pushes us to object when its government acts in ways we find problematic. Israeli political disagreement is an inherently Zionist activity; look no further than the protests against Netanyahu’s judicial reforms – from New York to Tel Aviv – to understand what it means to fight for the Israel we imagine. All it takes are a couple of coffee chats with us to realize that our visions for Israel differ dramatically from one another. Yet we all come from a place of love and an aspiration for a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

If the last six months on campus have taught us anything, it is that a large and vocal population of the Columbia community does not understand the meaning of Zionism, and subsequently does not understand the essence of the Jewish People. Yet despite the fact that we have been calling out the antisemitism we’ve been experiencing for months, our concerns have been brushed off and invalidated. So here we are to remind you:

We sounded the alarm on October 12 when many protested against Israel while our friends’ and families’ dead bodies were still warm.

We recoiled when people screamed “resist by any means necessary,” telling us we are “all inbred” and that we “have no culture.”

We shuddered when an “activist” held up a sign telling Jewish students they were Hamas’s next targets, and we shook our heads in disbelief when Sidechat users told us we were lying.

We ultimately were not surprised when a leader of the CUAD encampment said publicly and proudly that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and that we’re lucky they are “not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

We felt helpless when we watched students and faculty physically block Jewish students from entering parts of the campus we share, or even when they turned their faces away in silence. This silence is familiar. We will never forget.

One thing is for sure. We will not stop standing up for ourselves. We are proud to be Jews, and we are proud to be Zionists.  

We came to Columbia because we wanted to expand our minds and engage in complex conversations. While campus may be riddled with hateful rhetoric and simplistic binaries now, it is never too late to start repairing the fractures and begin developing meaningful relationships across political and religious divides. Our tradition tells us, “Love peace and pursue peace.” We hope you will join us in earnestly pursuing peace, truth, and empathy. Together we can repair our campus.

Signed: …..”

BY MELANIE NATHAN

Posted by Melanie Nathan
SPEAKER: www.melnathan.com
www.AfricanHRC.org
ABOUT Melanie

An Open Letter to Student Protesters

April 28, 2024

By Melanie Nathan, April 28, 2024 My introduction to Rabbi Daniel Levin’s letter (below): As graduation and the end of this school year barrels toward us, American Jewish parents may find themselves in quandary. Their student children have been “got to” by the agenda-wielding anti-Zionists, anti-Israel BDS promotors, all of whom, knowingly or ignorantly, intent … MoreAn Open Letter to Student Protesters