Sometimes it&#8217;s not the anti-Semitic incident that provokes the most fury &#8212; it&#8217;s the reaction from far-left activists and lobbyists like J Street.
Last month, the controversy over the anti-Israel smears uttered by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) reached an apex, prompting her disingenuous apologies for insinuations that American Jews pledge allegiance to a foreign government. Days later, the House took up a resolution condemning anti-Semitism. Now, Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the self-described &#8220;pro-Israel&#8221; lobbying group J Street, claims there is a lack of consensus on the definition of anti-Semitism in America. In his <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/all-in/2019-03-05">recent appearance</a> on MSNBC, Ben-Ami rejected outright the notion that Omar is an anti-Semite: &#8220;Let&#8217;s have the a discussion about the xenophobia and the racism that&#8217;s coming from the other side of the aisle and let&#8217;s stop using the discussion of anti-Semitism as a way of avoiding a real discussion about policy towards Israel and Palestine and the issues that are actually on the table about occupation and the treatment of Palestinians.&#8221;
Ben-Ami wants the American people to believe that the Jewish community is faking it &#8212; that the fear of anti-Semitism reverberating in the halls of Congress is just a ruse. It would be hard to imagine the leader of a civil rights group &#8212; the Southern Poverty Law Center, for example &#8212; giving short shrift to complaints of racism.
But J Street&#8217;s raison d&#8217;être is gaslighting America about the security threats posed by anti-Semitism.
As Jewish students <a href="https://amchainitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Campus-Antisemitism-2017.pdf">are increasingly</a> singled out for harassment and violence on U.S. college campuses, J Street&#8217;s response is to spend $700,000 on lobbying to attack policies that seek to level the playing field for students. In 2018, the bipartisan &#8220;Anti-Semitism Awareness Act&#8221; was proposed in the House to empower school administrators who investigate incidents of potential anti-Semitic bias. The <a href="https://teddeutch.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=399345">bill</a> would direct the Department of Education to apply the State Department&#8217;s widely accepted definition of anti-Semitism, providing Jewish students with the same anti-discrimination protections currently afforded other groups such as Sikhs or Muslims. But according to J Street, codifying the definition of anti-Semitism on campus &#8220;would actually harm, not help, Jewish and pro-Israel students.&#8221;
J Street has made the same slippery-slope argument while lobbying against every resolution opposing the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement on the grounds that the measure might silence debate about Israel &#8212; never mind that the goal of the BDS movement is, quite simply, to demonize Jews.
Get the pattern? Measures to define anti-Semitism, and to acknowledge the threat it poses to America&#8217;s security, are harmful.
The real reason behind J Street&#8217;s kabuki dance should be of serious concern to all Americans. The effort to rejoin the disastrous Iran nuclear deal is picking up steam in the Democratic Party ahead of 2020. The Democratic National Committee last month passed a <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/democratic-party-passes-resolution-calling-for-us-to-re-enter-iran-nuke-deal/">resolution</a> calling on the United States to re-enter the deal. Right on cue, J Street joined a <a href="https://jstreet.org/statement-of-pro-diplomacy-groups-regarding-us-policy-toward-iran/">statement</a> signaling their intent to shill for the Iran deal &#8212; again.
In the lead-up to the first Iran deal, key cogs of the Obama Administration admitted that they created a covert <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/iran-treaty-echo-chamber/">&#8220;echo chamber&#8221;</a> made up of left-wing media and Soros-linked groups &#8212; all funded by Ploughshares Fund. The largest beneficiary of funds to manufacture consent for the Iran deal was J Street, who <a href="https://forward.com/news/breaking-news/341164/j-street-scored-576k-grant-in-white-house-echo-chamber-push-for-iran-nuclea/">raked in $576,000</a>. The group leaned heavily on their &#8220;Jewish&#8221; status, using rabbis to sell the American public on the &#8220;virtue&#8221; of a nuclear Iran. J Street&#8217;s &#8220;kashering&#8221; of the Iran deal for senators like Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) partially inoculated them against backlash from the Jewish voting bloc within the Democratic Party. Then J Street was able to besmirch Israel&#8217;s defenders because anyone arguing in the presence of a purportedly &#8220;Jewish&#8221; group &#8212; complete with a confab of rabbis &#8212; is an idiot, or a racist.
After seeing the liberal establishment pull the alarm over an increasingly hostile climate for Jews, it is easy to understand why J Street is panicking. Soon after Omar&#8217;s latest smear, even the Anti-Defamation League, historically relied upon to defang incidents of left-wing anti-Semitism, came out swinging in a <a href="https://www.adl.org/news/letters/letter-to-house-speaker-nancy-pelosi-regarding-recent-anti-semitic-comments-by-rep">statement</a> of condemnation. Even Democrat standard-bearer <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/04/omar-israel-house-democrats-1201881">Nancy Pelosi</a> had to admit that demonizing Israel and championing anti-Zionist causes like BDS are anti-Semitic.
As the security risk posed by anti-Semitism becomes more visceral for Americans, expect to see Jeremy Ben-Ami and J Street operatives become more strident, for they know that selling the Iran nuclear deal the second time around will be a heavy lift while Tehran advocates for <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-general-says-tehran-aims-to-wipe-israel-off-the-political-map-report/">&#8220;wiping Israel off the political map.&#8221;</a>

Sloan Rachmuth is director of research and special projects for the news and public policy group <a href="https://salomoncenter.org">Haym Salomon Center</a>.

RACHMUTH: J Street Gaslights Americans About The Threat Of Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism

Ilhan Omar

Israel

J Street

Judaism

Leftism

Progressivism

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)

It should come as no surprise that Duke University is making headlines this time of year. The highly prestigious private school is a college basketball powerhouse that tends to dominate sports pages as March Madness approaches. But this year, the stories aren&#8217;t just related to athletics. Duke has been steeped in anti-Semitism that is being green-lighted by the student newspaper and leftist student groups.
The Duke campus has been the target of <a href="https://amchainitiative.org/search-by-university#university/name2/campus-monitor2/5b4bd8b02d7f5f28788b1639/">numerous</a> anti-Semitic incidents in just the past few months, including destruction of Jewish property, genocidal expression, demonizing Jews and delegitimizing the Jewish state&#8217;s right to exist, according to the anti-Semitism watchdog group AMCHA Initiative.
A recent <a href="https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2019/02/aipac-ilhan-omar-and-the-blockade-on-critiquing-israel">editorial</a> in the student newspaper, The Chronicle, describes Israel as a &#8220;murderous&#8221; country with &#8220;genocidal policies.&#8221; Titled, &#8220;<a href="https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2019/02/aipac-ilhan-omar-and-the-blockade-on-critiquing-israel">AIPAC And The Blockade On Critiquing Israel</a>,&#8221; the piece, authored by the editorial board, defends the &#8220;ill-conceived wording&#8221; of Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar&#8217;s recent tweet invoking the old anti-Semitic canards of Jewish power and money.
&#8220;The defense of and expansion on Omar&#8217;s overt and classic anti-Semitic trope &#8230; and calls for Duke students to engage in activism to economically cripple Israel &#8230; are reprehensible,&#8221; said AMCHA Initiative director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin. &#8220;The fact that this editorial was written by the entire editorial board of the official student paper, not an individual or a known anti-Zionist group like Students for Justice in Palestine or Jewish Voice for Peace, indicates that these anti-Semitic tropes have become completely normalized on that campus. That&#8217;s really frightening.&#8221;
Joining Rossman-Benjamin in condemning The Chronicle&#8217;s editorial board was David Brog, executive director of the anti-Semitism education group Maccabee Task Force:
<blockquote>
How sad that students at such a prestigious university have such a simplistic view of so complex an issue. They condemn Israel&#8217;s self-defense in Gaza without ever mentioning the Hamas aggression that necessitates it. They label Israel a settler-colonial state without ever acknowledging the fact that Jews are indigenous to this land. And they double down on the anti-Semitic theory that Jewish lobbyists manipulate politicians into supporting Israel while ignoring the widespread support for Israel among their constituents. I hope that one day the authors of this article have the opportunity to study this issue more deeply and supplement their stereotypes with some facts.
</blockquote>
Several Jewish students on the Durham, North Carolina campus have told the Haym Salomon Center that the op-ed created a negative atmosphere for Jews on campus. Junior Max Cherman and freshman Ezra Loeb responded to the editorial with a piece, &#8220;<a href="https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2019/02/21st-century-anti-semitism-response">The Chronicle&#8217;s Editorial Board Embodies 21st Century Anti-Semitism</a>.&#8221;
Cherman and Loeb received support from many students and alumni who also found the editorial disturbing. But it&#8217;s the response from other Duke students, who seem to regard the editorial as a license to hate, that has some students questioning whether to remain at Duke.
Anti-Semitism at Duke is not a recent phenomenon, but it has spiked over the past few months. University President Vincent E. Price issued a statement right before Thanksgiving, which reads in part:
<blockquote>
I write you this morning with a deep sense of frustration and sorrow: last night, a tribute on the East Campus Bridge to the victims of the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre was defaced by a large, red swastika. That such a craven and cowardly act of vandalism &#8212; a desecration of a memorial to individuals who were killed because they were Jewish and practicing their faith &#8212; should happen anywhere is extremely distressing. That it should occur in such a visible, public location at Duke should be a matter of grave concern to us all.
</blockquote>
Posts on The Chronicle&#8217;s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/dukechronicle/">Facebook page</a> reveal that intimidation and anti-Semitism are alive and thriving on the Durham campus.
A member of the far-left anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine posted a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2298599890358593&amp;set=gm.983155111884900&amp;type=1&amp;theater">meme</a> mocking Jewish Duke students who were made to feel uncomfortable by The Chronicle&#8217;s article. &#8220;Let&#8217;s also not forget Israel&#8217;s habit of forcibly sterilizing African/black+brown immigrants,&#8221; posted another student.
The current hostile climate on campus toward Jewish students wasn&#8217;t initiated by The Chronicle&#8217;s editorial board. Back in October, just two weeks after swastikas were found in the language arts building, Duke seniors Sanjidah Ahmed and Hadeel Abdelhy <a href="https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2018/10/israel-palestine-duke-university-environmental-justice-not-dialogue-for-palestinians">lambasted</a> the university&#8217;s efforts to build dialogue as &#8220;both ludicrous and shameful,&#8221; claiming Israel engages in &#8220;the annihilation of Palestinian people.&#8221;
This past May, anti-Semitic posters were found in Durham and on Duke&#8217;s east campus.
&#8220;I was deeply disturbed and, to be honest, frightened,&#8221; explained professor Gavin Yamey. &#8220;I&#8217;m Jewish, and these vile anti-Semitic threats, including the image of a gun pointed at a Jew, really rattled me.&#8221;
&#8220;I lost family to pogroms and in the Holocaust,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Seeing incitements to shoot Jews in my hometown is not something I ever imagined.&#8221;

Request for comment from The Chronicle editorial board went unanswered.&#8203;
Sloan Rachmuth is director of research and special projects for the news and public policy group <a href="https://salomoncenter.org/">Haym Salomon Center</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/salomoncenter">@salomoncenter</a>.

RACHMUTH: Duke University Is Not A Safe Space For Jews

The progressive advocacy group J Street claims to be &#8220;pro-Israel, pro-peace.&#8221; But during their decade-long history, they have advocated for policies that can only be described as dangerous to the safety and security of the Jewish state and have continuously supported candidates that are adamantly anti-Israel. The organization misled the public for years &#8211; denying they are funded by anti-Israel billionaire George Soros. So, it&#8217;s not surprising J Street compromises its so-called values when it comes to protecting their far-left agenda.
Belying its pro-Israel pretense yet again, J Street already has a credibility issue; but now it has a serious #MeToo problem.
&#8220;Clergy play a critical role in our movement,&#8221; according to J Street&#8217;s website. Indeed, the group has assembled a collection of left-leaning rabbis to <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.jstreet.org/images/Rabbinic_Letter_on_Susya_to_PM_Netanyahu.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1539721981573000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFrgayrQYsRkzCccAKPYmqKgs3gcg" href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.jstreet.org/images/Rabbinic_Letter_on_Susya_to_PM_Netanyahu.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">write letters</a> that appeal to moral authority as they lobby Congress for policies that fit their progressive agenda.
With regard to <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://jstreet.org/about-us/our-supporters/rabbinic-and-cantorial-cabinet/principles/%23.W7ozKWhKjIU&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1539721981573000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE9VTRj2WshtRZrsPmt6VMfHDa6DA" href="https://jstreet.org/about-us/our-supporters/rabbinic-and-cantorial-cabinet/principles/#.W7ozKWhKjIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the principles</a> that &#8220;guide&#8221; these rabbis, J Street declares: &#8220;Our work is grounded in the values on which we were raised.&#8221;
Which of these rabbinic values allows sexual misconduct to go unchecked inside their rabbinical cabinet?
At least two rabbis affiliated with J Street have been suspended for sexual misconduct, as well as Jewish leader <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jta.org/2018/07/25/top-headlines/leading-jewish-sociologist-2-organizations-following-sexual-misconduct-allegations&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1539721981573000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFvOf5fRPoUk_EtvErSloc8v8Masg" href="https://www.jta.org/2018/07/25/top-headlines/leading-jewish-sociologist-2-organizations-following-sexual-misconduct-allegations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Steven M. Cohen</a>, and a third has been expelled by the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR).
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.gigablast.com/get?q%3D%252Brabbi%2520%252Blarry%2520%252Bbach%2520%252Bj%2520%252Bstreet%26qlang%3Den%26c%3Dmain%26d%3D10989687461%26cnsp%3D0%23.W7vZpWhKiUl&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1539721981573000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGkJR1ojfuG6gCqj87YHazTrJF_VA" href="http://www.gigablast.com/get?q=%2Brabbi%20%2Blarry%20%2Bbach%20%2Bj%20%2Bstreet&amp;qlang=en&amp;c=main&amp;d=10989687461&amp;cnsp=0#.W7vZpWhKiUl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rabbi Larry Bach</a> was a member of J Street&#8217;s Rabbinic Cabinet but <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://jstreet.org/about-us/our-supporters/rabbinic-and-cantorial-cabinet/%23.W7vZ_mhKiUk&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1539721981573000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEtDom5WOPKn3PdoTbH8QqUrOAThA" href="https://jstreet.org/about-us/our-supporters/rabbinic-and-cantorial-cabinet/#.W7vZ_mhKiUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">disappeared</a> from its website after multiple <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://forward.com/news/national/404365/rabbi-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-asked-not-to-attend-spiritual-retreat/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1539721981573000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF2NRTjng0XoFX3zPZr5ayg77SUfw" href="https://forward.com/news/national/404365/rabbi-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-asked-not-to-attend-spiritual-retreat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">accusations</a> of adultery.
One of Bach&#8217;s accusers said he had &#8220;emotionally manipulated her into sex acts.&#8221; After multiple accusations and censures by CCAR, Bach resigned on April 24, 2018. The next month, Bach finally admitted what he did. Bach&#8217;s position was taken over by Rabbi John Friedman. J Street and Friedman have remained silent on Bach&#8217;s illicit sexual activity.
Rabbi Terry Bookman currently remains on J Street&#8217;s rabbinical cabinet, according to J Street&#8217;s website. Bookman has been <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ccarnet.org/ccar-expelled-rabbis/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1539721981573000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHMTQWljG4AVKNKhT7Xrjx8M7MWDA" href="https://www.ccarnet.org/ccar-expelled-rabbis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">suspended by CCAR</a> under Section I-A (Family), Section I-B (Social), and Section V (Sexual Boundaries). As a result of that suspension, Rabbi Bookman is prohibited from providing any rabbinic services to individuals and communities. J Street has remained silent on Bookman.
Rabbi Dennis Math serves as a J Street &#8220;moral leader,&#8221; yet CCAR first suspended him and has now permanently expelled him:
<blockquote>
&#8220;Dennis Math had been suspended for violations of Code Section V (Sexual Boundaries). He resigned during the pendency of his suspension, which is a violation of the Ethics Code (Section VI.E.2.), pursuant to which he was automatically expelled and is no longer a member of the CCAR.&#8221;
</blockquote>
It&#8217;s not just rabbinic immoral behavior and sexcapades that J Street turns a blind eye to. Apparently, J Street is also deaf to complaints by its female employees.
In 2014, a female employee accused event speaker Ari Shavit of sexual misconduct, but J Street seemingly ignored her assertions and subsequently did not inform other organizations. Three years later in 2017, after multiple complaints by employees about Shavit were made public, J Street continued to allow their college campus arm, J Street U, to hire Shavit.
Progressives have embraced the #MeToo movement to the point where every accused male is guilty unless they can prove their innocence. Almost every male.
For years, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami has been an adamant supporter of Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison. The former Nation of Islam member and personal friend of staunch anti-Semite Minister Louis Farrakhan was accused in August of domestic abuse by an ex-girlfriend.
&#8220;My brother and I watched our mom come out of pure hell after getting out of her relationship with Keith Ellison,&#8221; wrote Karen Monahan&#8217;s 25-year-old son on social media.
Ben-Ami has been silent over the accusations against Ellison, who serves as Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee.
J Street board member <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://jstreet.org/about-us/board-of-directors/marilyn-katz/%23.W7qb9WhKiUk&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1539721981573000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH5qWpWVOdyO0wt8Fc0cTuYUsUmCQ" href="https://jstreet.org/about-us/board-of-directors/marilyn-katz/#.W7qb9WhKiUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Marilyn Katz</a> has been silent over the numerous complaints and punishment. But she slammed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/mkatzchi/with_replies&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1539721981573000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFkwJR20t7iV3lBfBJUMXAxv0qJzg" href="https://twitter.com/mkatzchi/with_replies" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">numerous tweets</a>. She shared an article titled, &#8220;Brett Kavanaugh Hates Women,&#8221; and in a <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/mkatzchi/status/1045451750872895488&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1539721981573000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHQ1m1SzGej82ETLw-pDcGpTr48bg" href="https://twitter.com/mkatzchi/status/1045451750872895488" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">separate tweet</a> wrote:
<blockquote>
So much wrong &#8211; it leaves me breathless &#8211; forget that he either is lying or drank so much and thought so little of women that he couldn&#8217;t remember an assault on one, Kavanaugh&#8217;s hostile, intemperate and just down nasty behavior disqualifies him from the bench # Kavanaugh hearings
</blockquote>
J Street would do well to remember that people who live in glass houses shouldn&#8217;t throw stones.
Sloan Rachmuth is Director of Research and Special Projects for the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center.

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Sloan Rachmuth

Articles by Sloan Rachmuth

RACHMUTH: J Street Gaslights Americans About The Threat Of Anti-Semitism

RACHMUTH: Duke University Is Not A Safe Space For Jews

RACHMUTH: J Street’s #MeToo Problem