Guest Post About Kohelet Policy Forum -

This is a letter I have sent to the Washington Post about their full page article about the right-wing Israeli think tank Kohelet. To the editor, Washington Post. The Washington Post has performed a notable public service by publishing the important article, “The Secretive Israeli Think Tank Behind Netanyahu’s Judicial Overhaul.” This think tank, Kohelet Policy Forum, has long advocated for annexation of the West Bank, gender segregation inside Israel, and a weaker Supreme Court. It has contempt for non-Orthodox streams of Judaism and for the rights not only of Palestinians but of the LGBTQ community and of women. It is largely financially supported by ultra-Orthodox Jewish Americans. The policies of Israel’s far-right government have been rejected by the overwhelming majority of American Jews, including such traditional supporters of Israel as Abraham Foxman, the long-time leader of the Anti-Defamation League, Prof. Alan Dershowitz of Harvard, and the leaders of Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism. When Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who called for the Palestinian village of Huwara to be “wiped out” and said, “there’s no such thing as Palestinians,” visited Washington earlier this month, no member of the Biden administration would meet with him. Neither would any of the major American Jewish organizations. William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organizations, called his statements “disgusting.” Zionism itself is becoming a minority view within the Jewish community. Zionism proclaims that Israel is the “homeland” of all Jews and that Jews living outside of Israel are in “exile.” In fact, Judaism is a religion of universal values, not a nationality. The homeland of Jewish Americans is the United States. They are American by nationality and Jews by religion, just as other Americans are Protestant, Catholic or Muslim. In 1841, in the dedication of America’s first Reform synagogue in Charleston, South Carolina, Rabbi Gustav Poznanski told the congregation, “This country is our Palestine, this city our Jerusalem, this house of God our temple.” Israel would do well to confine its concerns to its own citizens. Almost all Jewish Americans believe in freedom of religion and separation of church and state. Israel, sadly, is a theocracy. Non-Orthodox rabbis cannot perform weddings, conduct funerals, or have their conversions recognized. In fact, Jews have less religious freedom in Israel than anyplace in the Western world. Shira Rubin has performed a notable service with her article about Kohelet Policy Forum. Sincerely, Allan C. Brownfeld, Editor of ISSUES, The quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism (www.ACJNA.org)