יום חמישי, נובמבר 30, 2006
AJC to PM: Don't
Continuing a theme I mentioned a few days ago (just scroll down), Haaretz reports:
No kidding.
Back at the start of the Intro course, our rabbi asked us to list what we considered the main challenges to the Jewish people. I said: Increasing divergence of interests between the Diaspora and Israel. This issue of converts and the Law of Return is a more or less perfect demonstration of what I had in mind.
Haaretz again:
I think that is a risk to be taken seriously. On the other hand, given that another of my concerns is that the institutional voices of American Judaism all too often take "support for Israel" to mean support for the right wing in Israel (e.g. regarding the Territories), maybe a little alienation would be a healthy thing.
The heads of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) sent an unusually harsh letter Tuesday to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, warning that if a proposed change goes through in the Law of Return excluding converts in the definition of a Jew, it could seriously impair support for Israel among American Jews.
No kidding.
Back at the start of the Intro course, our rabbi asked us to list what we considered the main challenges to the Jewish people. I said: Increasing divergence of interests between the Diaspora and Israel. This issue of converts and the Law of Return is a more or less perfect demonstration of what I had in mind.
Haaretz again:
In the letter, AJC president Robert Goodkind ... said if the bill became law it would alienate precisely those groups that are the basis for support for Israel in American society.
I think that is a risk to be taken seriously. On the other hand, given that another of my concerns is that the institutional voices of American Judaism all too often take "support for Israel" to mean support for the right wing in Israel (e.g. regarding the Territories), maybe a little alienation would be a healthy thing.
