Jewish Leaders Funding BDS

It’s time to out the Jews who fund BDS.

The scandal of it cannot be overstated: Jewish leaders and philanthropists, including UJA-Federation President Alisa Doctoroff; Karen R. Adler, President of the Jewish Communal Fund and JCRC Board member; David Hochberg, Carole and Saul Zabar, Sally Gottesman, Edith Everett and others are prominent donors (p.26-27) to The New Israel Fund, an organization which funds BDS and other anti-Israel initiatives.

Alisa Doctoroff hoisting cocktails with the NIF in her lavish apartment is no different from the uniformed Nazis who were invited and attended Jewish communal gatherings, and from the hope expressed by Dr. Heinrich Stahl, the Berlin Jewish community leader, for a better Nazi understanding of the Jewish situation.

Preceding Kristallnacht, the Nazis held several days calling for Germans to boycott Jewish-owned businesses. This was the direct antecedent to the BDS movement.

Murray Koppelman, an 80-year-old American Jewish philanthropist, visited Iran. NIF CEO Daniel Sokatch said that Koppelman “is a pillar of the American Jewish community.” When Koppelman came back, he declared his intention to support the New Israel Fund in a major way. That’s right: he observed the oppression of Iranian women and decided to fight Israeli “intolerance.” As Iranians are determined to build a nuclear bomb – and oppose America – a Jewish American became a major New Israel Fund donor, pledging to match every new donor up to $500,000 in support of the New Israel Fund.

Meanwhile, Doctoroff uses her position at UJA to promote the New Israel Fund’s agenda. We must shame these philanthropists who fund BDS groups – particularly the New Israel Fund. And when she is not devoting time and money to the New Israel Fund, she is focusing on the “Social Venture Fund for Jewish-Arab Equality & Shared Society” of the Jewish Federation, which claims that “the inequalities between Arabs and Jews in Israel are staggering, with Arab Israelis experiencing significantly higher rates of poverty and unemployment than their Jewish neighbors.”

This UJA-Federation project, of which Doctoroff is Co-Chair, claims that its mission is to “build mutual respect and understanding between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel; increase opportunities for Israel’s Arab citizens to share equally in the social, educational, and economic life of the country; and promote structural and institutional reforms that support the vision of Israel as a shared society that benefits all of its citizens.”

Note that there is no mention of Israel remaining a Jewish state. Doctoroff has also gushed about Palestinian so-called “non-violent activism.” In Israel, even the Labor Party would not even campaign on such a platform. In reality, life for Muslims in Israel is safer and better than nearly any other country in the Middle East. As Netanyahu noted in a 2011 speech to Congress, “Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights. I want you to stop for a second and think about that.  Of those 300 million Arabs, less than one-half of one-percent are truly free, and they’re all citizens of Israel!”

Yet despite these facts, for many years Doctoroff has insisted that getting Muslims jobs was the answer to supposed injustices in Israel. A 2009 JTA article reported that Doctoroff said that “she was inspired by the progress being made by those involved with the initiatives the fund is helping support. ‘You see people who have been energized, been utilized, that their value is being fulfilled,’ she said. ‘They are participating in making Israel a better place, whether they are Arab or Jewish. Their examples show us there are things that one can do.’”

Then there is the far-left Jewish Daily Forward, which recently named Michael Sarid the chief development officer at the Forward Association, its parent company. Sarid has posted on Facebook urging Muslims in Israel to apply for permits to fight to build all over Israel, saying “I support NIF, so that organizations like ACRI can bring lawsuits to enforce civil rights.”

Civil rights for Muslims – as Jews are being killed daily.

Birthright Israel will no longer work with New Israel Fund. Why? Because they are viciously and inveterately anti-Israel. All Jewish organizations, including The Forward, UJA-Federation and Jewish Communal Fund, should follow suit. The New Israel Fund and Alisa Doctoroff are supporting moral evil.

Yet weeks after her support for BDS was first exposed, Doctoroff has still not responded to countless emails, calls, or requests for comment from UJA-Federation donors. This is true despite the fact that there are significant forces in the UJA calling for her resignation because of her support for the New Israel Fund.

Those who support the New Israel Fund do not represent Jewish interests. Period. We will continue to demand that any American Jew who supports the New Israel Fund withdraw such funding. The New Israel Fund must be ostracized by the Jewish community and all supporters of Israel.

Pamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), publisher of PamelaGeller.com and author of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. Follow her on Twitter here. Like her on Facebook here.