person:rick jacobs

US Reform leader: Netanyahu’s deal with extremists is like ’welcoming’ the KKK | The Times of Israel
▻https://www.timesofisrael.com/liberal-us-jews-pms-embrace-of-extremists-makes-it-harder-to-defend-i

https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2012/12/Rick-Jacobs-JFNA-1024x640.jpg

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strong push for a unity deal with a racist political party makes it harder to advocate on Israel’s behalf, liberal US Jewish leaders said Sunday, with one rabbi saying the move was tantamount to “welcoming” the Ku Klux Klan into an American administration.

“It’s not as if Otzma Yehudit is a conservative, right-wing party,” said Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism. “I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say it’s the equivalent in the United States of the #KKK being welcomed into the corridors of power. It’s not a close call if you’re an umpire of baseball. It’s not even near the plate.”

#Sionisme #racisme

Netanyahu election may increase American Jewish alienation from Israel, leaders here warn
Reform movement head Rick Jacobs: ‘This is going to be a challenging time.’
By Debra Nussbaum Cohen | Mar. 20, 2015 | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/.premium-1.648028

NEW YORK – Several national leaders of the American Jewish community this week were openly critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s successful 11th hour pitch to his conservative base, in which he decried Arab citizens of Israel voting, and his pledge not to allow a Palestinian state.

While Netanyahu qualified his statement significantly in a U.S. television interview with Andrea Mitchell two days after the election, saying that there can be no Palestinian state right now, but that such an outcome is not permanently off the table, many in the U.S. remained worried.

They are concerned about Israel’s increasing isolation on the world stage and the Obama administration’s apparent disenchantment with Netanyahu, who openly flaunted the American leader’s wishes when he spoke directly to Congress just two weeks before Israel’s March 17th election.

They are also worried about an ever-widening breach between most American Jews and their sense of connection to Israel.

“It would be hard to not be disheartened, distressed and frankly stunned by the video and the way in which it portrayed citizens of Israel doing what we pray all citizens do, which is voting,” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, America’s largest Jewish denomination, told Haaretz in an interview. “To rouse the base by saying ‘they’re coming in droves’ is anti-democratic and such a sad commentary on how Arab citizens of Israel are viewed,” he said.

Reform Jews threaten to leave Conference of Presidents
Haaretz
By JTA | May 1, 2014
▻http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.588581

The Union for Reform Judaism is seeking an overhaul of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in the wake of its rejection of J Street’s bid for membership.

The Reform group in a statement posted Thursday on its website said leaving the Presidents Conference, an umbrella body, is an option.

“As of yesterday, it is clear that the Conference of Presidents, as currently constituted and governed, no longer serves its vital purpose of providing a collective voice for the entire American Jewish pro-Israel community,” URJ President Rick Jacobs said in the statement.

“In the days ahead, Reform movement leaders will be consulting with our partners within the Conference of Presidents to decide what our next steps will be. We may choose to advocate for a significant overhaul of the Conference of Presidents’ processes. We may choose to simply leave the Conference of Presidents. But this much is certain: We will no longer acquiesce to simply maintaining the facade that the Conference of Presidents represents or reflects the views of all of American Jewry.”

The departure of the umbrella body for Reform movement congregations, which bills itself as the largest single Jewish organization in the United States with 900 congregations representing 1.5 million Jews, could undercut the Presidents Conference’s claim to speak for the community on foreign policy.

On Wednesday, Presidents Conference members voted 22-17 with three abstentions against admitting J Street, a Jewish group that calls itself “pro-peace and pro-Israel.” J Street has criticized Israeli government policies on peace and backed the Obama administration’s nuclear talks with Iran that many Jewish groups have opposed.

Separately, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, the executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, said her group also would seek an overhaul.

“The Conference of Presidents has 50 or so organizations, each one has one vote, the majority of those organizations are quite tiny,” she told JTA. “The fact that J Street did not pass today’s vote is reflective of structural anomalies of the conference.”

A source close to the Presidents Conference said it was not clear from the secret ballot that J Street’s rejection was driven by the smaller groups, and that previous attempts to change the system failed in part because members could not agree on criteria that would determine the proportional weight of a member organization.

American Jewish leaders: Netanyahu should disown ’irresponsible" statements against two-state solution - Jewish World News - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/american-jewish-leaders-netanyahu-should-disown-irresponsible-statements-ag

American Jewish leaders Abraham Foxman, Rabbi Rick Jacobs and David Harris condemned recent statements by senior Israeli officials about the impossibility of a two-state solution, calling them irresponsible and saying they undermine the credibility of the government.

Earlier this week, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett told a settlers group that the idea of a Palestinian state had reached a “dead end.” His remarks came days after Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon told Israel Radio that the government will not agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon called the Arab Peace Initiative “spin” during a speech in Washington.

“I think these are all irresponsible statements which do not in any way reflect the commitment of the Israeli government, not to mention the long-standing position of the U.S., that the two-state solution is the only possible solution,” said Rabbi Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism.

Jacobs, who is in Jerusalem this week to attend the President’s Conference, added: “I think President Clinton said it best last night [at the 90th birthday celebration for President Shimon Peres] when he said a two-state solution is not the fantasy; a one state solution is. This is a black and white issue and Bennett and the others are irresponsible to speak otherwise.”

Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, told Haaretz that the statements “undermine the seriousness of the Israeli government” and compared them to the popular children’s game “whack-a-mole,” in which the furry animals pop up and need to be hammered down time after time.

“This can happen once in a while, but I feel it is happening way too often,” Foxman said. “Members of the coalition continue to stray from the basic tenants of the government. [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has made it clear that, even if we don’t know the details, there are contacts going on with the view towards reaching a two-state solution.”

Nevertheless, Foxman called on Netanyahu to repudiate the comments so as to counteract false perceptions of Israel.

“Netanyhau has to do this every time these politicians step out of line and undermine the credibility of the government,” Foxman said. “The irony is that these kinds of statements put an added onus on Israel. For, if to go by Bennett or Dannon, it is Israel that is saying no to the two-state solution, that becomes the imagery. When in fact it is not Israel that is not serious, it is the other side.”

(Netanyahu told Reuters this week that he is responsible for setting foreign policy and that he supports Palestinian independence. “I will seek a negotiated settlement where you’d have a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state,” he said.)

David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee, called Bennett’s remarks “stunningly shortsighted” in a statement on the organization’s website.

“Bennett contravenes the outlook of Prime Minister Netanyahu and contradicts the vision presented earlier this month to the AJC Global Forum by Minister Tzipi Livni, chief Israeli negotiator with the Palestinians,” Harris said.

“Livni stated clearly that a negotiated two-state settlement is the only way to assure that the State of Israel will remain both Jewish and democratic. That is a view we at AJC have long supported.”