by Steven Windmueller in The Times of Israel
I believe our community is now operating through four ideological policy camps: the Far Right and the Far Left, along with the Center Right and the Center Left. Employing the two central issues facing America’s Jews, Israel/Zionism and Antisemitism, I have constructed this evaluative model.
Labeling the numerous organizations and placing them into their respective spaces, based on their Zionist credentials and antisemitism alignment (identified with a specific definition), is of course problematic. Obviously, introducing other “policy items” will no doubt change the positioning of some of these institutions. I take responsibility for possibly mislabeling some of the 40 organizations that have been examined, with many more to be inputted. For purposes of this article, only some of the organizations included in this study are referenced.
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Assigning an organization to an “Ideological Camp” applies only where an organization regularly takes public-policy positions in connection with these two overarching themes reflecting a particular stance or viewpoint. There are numerous organizations that can be defined as “Non-Combatants” meaning such groups can be identified as primarily operating in other “neutral” policy or content areas, such as religious, social service, philanthropic, educational, security or health, and only on occasion may address one or both of these issues.
Examples of Current Intra-Camp Coalescing:
Right: Republican Jewish Coalition functions as the partisan hub linking Jewish conservatives and Republican officeholders. ZOA has assembled pro-IHRA and campus-enforcement coalitions in defense of Israel, while CJV (Coalition for Jewish Values) connects Orthodox social conservatism with pro-Israel advocacy. Other organizations that are identified with this ideological sector include Betar US, Americans for a Safe Israel, Religious Zionists of America, and American Friends of Likud.
Read the full article at The Times of Israel
Photo: Members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations meet with President Reuven Rivlin by Zoom, May 2021, by Mark Neyman (Israel GPO), licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons