ANALYSIS: JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS IN AMERICA
I will use this for a more expansive post in the coming days, but in the meantime: I looked into a list of 22 active Jewish organizations, based on the database of the Jewish Library. I removed inactive organizations and added the Jewish Council on Public Affairs which was missing for some reason.
My interest was in assessing the level of leftism of each organization. I used two simple metrics: A commitment to diversity, inclusion and equity (DIE), and statements regarding mass immigration or against Trump’s travel ban. Here and there I looked into further commentary.
This allowed me to categorize Jewish organizations as highly leftist (both metrics are present), moderately leftist (one metric is present, or other supporting information exists), or low (inclusive of none).
The results below show a clear bias towards leftism amongst Jewish organizations. Low-leftism is practically limited to Orthodox organizations and organizations with a high Zionist (rather than general Jewish) orientation.
Organization | Diversity Support? | Mass Immigration Support? | Other | Level of Leftism |
Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) | No | No | Executive forced to resign for supporting Trump; Donations made for BLM. | Moderate |
American Jewish Historical Society | Yes | A big project supporting Emma Lazarus’s poem. | Moderate | |
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) | No | No | Essays supporting mass immigration and diversity. | Moderate |
American Sephardi Federation (ASF) | No | No | Low | |
American Zionist Movement (AZM) | No | No | No | Low |
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) | Yes | Yes | Where do I begin? | High |
Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) | Yes | Yes | High | |
B’nai B’rith International | Yes | Yes | Yes | High |
Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) | Yes | Yes | Appealed to block Trump’s travel ban | High |
Latin American Jewish Studies Association (LAJSA) | Yes | Yes | Supporting BLM, etc. | High |
National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) | Yes | Yes | Accusing Stephen Miller of being a “white supremacist,” numerous BLM things. | High |
National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) | Yes | Yes | High | |
New Israel Fund | Yes | Yes | High | |
Progressive Jewish Alliance/Bend the Arc | Yes | Yes | High | |
Rabbinical Alliance of America | No | No | Low | |
Rabbinical Assembly | Yes | Yes | Includes both George Floyd statements and support for Obama-esque “comprehensive immigration reform.” | High |
Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) | No | No | Low | |
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU) | No | No | Supports family reunions/chain migration. | Low |
Union of Reform Judaism | Yes | Yes | Appealed to block Trump’s travel ban | High |
Jewish Federations of NA | No | No | Individual organizations (Chicago, Baltimore, Philly, etc.) issued BLM/Travel Ban statements. | Moderate |
Young Judea | No | No | Occasional sprinkling of social justice and race/diversity symposia. | Low |
Jewish Council on Public Affairs | Yes | Yes | High |
ADDENDUM: The sharp-eyed reader will notice that while some of the organizations analyzed above are indeed non-Leftist, none of them is conservative (not even the Republican Jewish Coalition). The one and only conservative Jewish organization I am aware of is this very website. TheHebrewConservative.com, doing the jobs other Jews just won’t do!
ADDENDUM II: The Zionist Organization of America, missing from the Jewish Library’s list, is a Jewish organization that passes the conservative smell test. They oppose BLM and were supportive of Trump’s immigration agenda. They even get into brawls with other Jewish organizations. The Hebrew Conservative is not alone. Duae Voces clamantium in deserto!
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