Women of all ages came to the 2009 Women’s Awareness Day on April 23 on the Whippany campus, some with babies.
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April 30, 2009
An official of a top Jewish rescue organization said anti-Zionism is “rampant,” and drew little solace from those who suggest that one can be anti-Zionist without being anti-Semitic.
Speaking in Whippany April 23, Will Recant quoted Martin Luther King Jr. in describing how rejection of the idea of a Jewish homeland invariably goes hand in hand with the rejection of Jewish aspirations.
“‘Anti-Zionism is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people returning to live in their own land,’” King wrote in 1967, said Recant, adding that the civil rights leader went on to say, “‘Anti-Zionism is ‘discrimination against Jews because they are Jews. In short, it is anti-Semitism.’”
“Around the world, anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism,” Recant told his audience. “Because around the world when they spew anti-Zionist literature and hate, it translates to the local Jewish communities who feel it.”
The assistant executive vice president of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee spoke to nearly 300 women gathered at the Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus in Whippany for the 2009 Women’s Awareness Day. The event is sponsored annually by Women’s Philanthropy of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ, which supports various programs overseas through the JDC.
Recant described the resurgence of anti-Zionism — citing examples in Iran, Turkey, and in the rhetoric of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez — and offered descriptions of JDC programs designed to counter negative perceptions of Jews and Israel.
He worried that people around the world get their perspective on the Middle East from Al Jazeera, the Arab news station. He gave as an example the case of a Jewish woman in Turkey who no longer felt safe there once the Gaza War started.
“When you live in Turkey and there’s a war in Gaza, the television is on full time. And Al Jazeera is the network everyone watches. It is the most one-sided, prejudiced view of what takes place in the world. But the world watches Al Jazeera…and for the first time in her life, [the woman] felt she was no longer welcome as a citizen of Turkey.”
Dr. Will Recant, assistant executive vice president of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, was keynote speaker for the event.
Photos by Johanna Ginsberg
Recant took the pulse of the Jewish community in Venezuela, comparing its situation today with its well-being 15 years ago, when it had a population of 24,000 and was doing “really well.”
“President Chavez shows up nine years ago and suddenly they started to feel insecure,” said Recant. “They started to feel as though Venezuela might no longer be the home they had grown up in. They started to hear anti-Zionist rhetoric on TV. And they started to see anti-Semitic activities for the first time showing up in the Venezuelan press.”
Today, said Recant, Venezuela’s Jews number a little under 12,000.
“Why have they left? Because they don’t feel safe, and they don’t feel secure. There’s a wave of xenophobia couched in anti-Zionism. That really means anti-Semitism in Venezuela today.”
Recant said the JDC tries to counter this trend by providing services not just to needy Jews in far-flung countries — the historic role of the 95-year-old organization — but to the general population as well.
Among the efforts he described was a youth village in Rwanda that the JDC has helped sponsor for the orphans of the genocide that took place there in the mid 1990s.
Modeled on the youth villages set up in Israel after World War II, Agahozo Shalom Youth Village opened in December 2008. It now houses 125 orphans but will eventually take in 800.
Recant described his arrival during his latest visit to the African nation. When he reached passport control and offered his documents, the official looked up and said, according to Recant, “‘Thank you. I know your village. What you’re doing for our country is remarkable. Thank you for being here and thank you for helping us.’”
Pam Fishman and Judy Sandman served as cochairs of the event, which is partially underwritten by a grant from the Maxine Fischer Memorial Scholarship Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest NJ.
“I was watching the audience and they were absolutely mesmerized,” said Sandman following the talk. “There was total silence. Everyone was paying attention to every word. And that’s what we wanted.”
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