J Street releases plans to open regional chapters
‘Pro-Israel, pro-peace’ lobby seeks to ‘shake up the status quo’
Debbie Schlossberg of East Brunswick is volunteering to chair J Street’s Central NJ chapter because, she said, “My connection to Israel is long and strong.”
Photo courtesy Debbie Schlossberg
If you go
What: Launch of NJ chapters of J Street
When: Feb. 4, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Princeton Municipal Building
Contact: Debbie Schlossberg at njcentral@jstreet.org
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January 13, 2010
The dovish lobbying group J Street is setting up regional chapters in several dozen areas of the United States — including three to cover New Jersey.
The self-described “pro-Israel, pro-peace” group announced its regional organizing campaign in a Jan. 7 press release.
It will launch its regional offices at a Feb. 4 kick-off event in Princeton.
J Street spokesperson Amy Spitalnick told NJ Jewish News the chapters will be “loosely divided along the lines of congressional districts.”
J Street, founded in April 2008, supports an active White House role in brokering a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Seen as being to the left of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee, detractors say it is too critical of Israel’s leadership and that it undermines a unified pro-Israel voice in Washington.
Debbie Schlossberg of East Brunswick, a volunteer, will chair the Central New Jersey region that will span much of Monmouth, Mercer, and Middlesex counties and a part of Somerset County.
Leaders of the group’s Southern and Northern New Jersey chapters haven’t been named.
Schlossberg describes herself as “a lifelong ardent supporter of Israel” who grew up in West Orange, then made aliya in 1983. “I have always considered myself a Zionist. My children were born there, and I go back regularly,” she said. “My connection to Israel is long and strong.”
She returned to New Jersey in 1992 because of “family obligations” and joined Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, a peace group that merged last year with J Street.
The merger added an estimated 45,000 supporters to J Street’s 125,000 members.
Spitalnick said J Street anticipates opposition from AIPAC and others in the organized Jewish community who avoid criticizing Israel — at least in public.
“We are trying to shake up the status quo and give voice to a previously unrepresented part of the Jewish community,” she said. “We wouldn’t be doing our job if there wasn’t some controversy about what we’re doing. The real purpose of launching this on the local level is for people to get engaged who previously felt like they didn’t have a place to go.”
Officials of AIPAC, which has an extensive network of regional offices, had no comment on J Street’s expansion plans.
David Steiner of West Orange, a past president of AIPAC, said J Street’s policies — what J Street literature calls “robust and strong diplomatic engagement” — amount to an endorsement of “pressure” on Israel.
“Mainstream Jews have rejected any approach to put public pressure and confrontation on the Israelis.” J Street, Steiner said, has “a right to exist, but I think they should stop putting pressure on Israel.”
Among J Street’s NJ critics is Ben Chouake of Englewood, president of NORPAC, a pro-Israel political action committee.
“I have my opinion like everyone else, and I have my ideas about how to solve problems,” Chouake told NJJN. “But at the end of the debate — which we have internally all the time — we have to act in consensus.”
Because J Street is willing to air American-Jewish differences with Israel, Chouake calls it “an antagonistic group to Israel that says, ‘We have to bash Israel for their own good.’ I don't think J Street is a pro-Israel group.”
One of J Street’s most significant local backers is developer Alan Sagner of Livingston, a member of its advisory committee.
In a letter in this week’s NJJN, he writes, “J Street's objective is to bring together Americans who seek a new direction for American policy in the Middle East and a broader public and policy debate in the U.S. about ways to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East.
“That is why many of us who are, and have been, ardent supporters of Israel look to J Street as an additional, new voice for our community.”
Comments
Randy Jenkins
January 12, 2010
J-Street, which opposes sanctions on Iran, supports the Goldstone Report, and entertains the idea of cutting foreign aid to Israel, is pro-Israel like Paris Hilton is pro-family values.
What an absolute joke.
heather
January 13, 2010
Please STOP giving J-street any additional publicity. They are a horrendous organization that undermines every great thing that other TRUE Jewish organizations have done.
Toby
January 16, 2010
Injecting J-Street into NJ is like putting Tay Sachs disease in our drinking water. How much money is co-founder George Soros giving them to set up shop “along lines of congressional districts” so that Congressman Rush Holt and other lockstep New America Foundation leftists can whitewash Abbas and Fatah in order to pressure and threaten Israel into suicidal concessions? J-Street is more dangerous to Israel than Hamas because it uses Jews who claim to be pro-Israel to validate ant-Israel propaganda and erode support for the Jewish state. True supporters of Israel must fight J-Street in every way they can and any synagogues foolish enough to give them a platform should be renamed in honor of Jimmy Carter or the memory of Neville Chamberlain.
Sarit Browar
February 02, 2010
The above statements by Toby, Heather and Randy are a perfect example of why non violence must be the tool for peace and why Jstreet is so important.
The Jewish people have been persecuted for centuries, and as a result, have developed a fear, and paranoia that is understandable. However, the paradoxical result of using violence to quell disputes, is to bring more violence and more fear and paranoia.
Toby, Heather and Randy make comments that are psychological not factual, as they resort to labeling and Fox News one liners-that indicate little depth of knowledge.
Unlike the above, the majority of Jews have always been Democratic and Jews have been in the forefront of all peace movements in the USA. We understand oppression.
The majority of American Jews have never been to Israel, are clueless regarding what is going on inside of Israel. The fabric of the society continues to deteriorate-as it becomes more and more capitalist. A growing divide between the affluent and the poor- more people living in poverty-a shrinking middle class. Violence in schools, domestic, and on the road (more people die in car accidents then in all of Israel’s wars), have increased dramatically. Land, water and air have become increasingly polluted. The continual occupation has created a brain drain, created youth who, for the first time refuse to serve in the occupied territories. Israel is not the Israel from our youth.
Never fear dialogue and debate. It’s the essence of any democracy and of authentic truth finding and compromise.
Without a doubt- Israel’s future is on the line- not from “left wingers” who want Israel to adhere to democratic values and stop the occupation and destruction of Palestinian land and people- but from people who don’t read, live in fear, and don’t understand conflict resolution.
Alicia Ostriker
February 05, 2010
I am reading some ugly name-calling here. I wonder if Randy, Heather and Toby actually know anything about J Street and the policies it supports. May I suggest they (and anyone else who cares about facts rather than slander) look at the J Street site. It’s just one click away:
http://jstreet.org/issues