In the News

Rabbis say anti-Israel professor at Yeshiva University is an ‘outrage,’ emphasize that, ‘academic freedom no excuse for bigotry.’

“We must make a statement, and we were encouraged by leading Rabbinic scholars and community activists to launch this effort,” said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, President of the CJV.

“We believe that this is a needless conflict and are pleased that the Supreme Court is finally asking hard questions of those causing [problems],” Rabbi Pesach Lerner, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, a U.S-based Orthodox advocacy group, wrote to The Media Line in an email. “The Western Wall should be a place of prayer, not politics.”

Rabbi Pesach Lerner, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values and Executive Vice-President Emeritus of the National Council of Young Israel, expressed satisfaction. “We are glad the court asked real questions, that the government realized the agreement was not a good one and that tradition at the Kotel will be maintained.”

It is routine for democratic countries to ban foreign nationals who wish to harm it. The goal of BDS is to destroy Israel, and it is prudent for Israel to respond as it has.

The Coalition for Jewish Values argued that the president’s choice to renominate Chai Feldblum to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was “akin to putting an avid hunter on the board of PETA.”

“The December 6 statement was consistent with the attitudes of those URJ leaders who sat down with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, yet refused to join President Trump for a High Holy Day phone call,” said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, which represents several hundred Orthodox rabbis. “It’s heartening that the pushback from other Reform leaders apparently forced a change of course.”

Olson’s participation in the petition drew sharp criticism from some in the Jewish community. The Coalition for Jewish Values, a new right-wing Orthodox organization advocating “for classical Jewish ideas and standards in matters of American public policy” criticised Olson’s endorsement in a letter to YU’s president Rabbi Dr Ari Berman.

The Coalition for Jewish Values, a new right-wing Orthodox organization, released a statement calling on YU president Ari Berman to “publicly disavow this repugnant statement, and refer Professor Olson’s endorsement to the appropriate faculty committee for review.”

In a December 14 letter to Dr. Berman, six rabbis, the officers of the [CJV], claimed that the statement “misportrays propaganda” as fact. They requested “that Yeshiva University publicly disavow this repugnant statement” and referred “Professor Olson’s endorsement to the appropriate faculty committee for review.”