A deluge of e-mails accusing the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation of “wasting our money on Arabs” landed in the e-mail inboxes of Bay Area Jews over the weekend.
Written by a group calling itself the Commitee (sic) for Jewish Concerns, the letter was entitled “Do you want your money to go to Arabs? If NO, please read.”
“SF Jewish Federation ‘Direct Grants’ program doesn’t give a single dollar to help victims of Arab terror while sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to Arabs,” reads the letter. “The question arises who do they care about, Jews or Arabs?”
The letter included links to the JCF’s online budget pages and a sample letter of complaint. It also listed e-mail addresses for Sam Salkin, the JCF’s chief executive officer; JCF President John Goldman; and Phyllis Cook, the JCF’s executive director.
Jeff Goldman (no relation to John), the federation’s media relations manager, said the committee’s letter distorted the JCF’s actions and motivations. In reality, he stressed, JCF funds don’t “go to Arabs,” as the letter claims, but fund coexistence programs.
“In terms of policy, it makes an assertion that simply doesn’t have any factual basis. About $350,000 of our annual campaign funds go toward projects touching the Israeli-Arab sector,” he said. “Certainly, none of our funds go across the Green Line.”
The S.F.-based JCF has been funding Jewish-Israeli Arab coexistence projects since 1987 and currently supports nine such programs. These include training Bedouin women to be nursery school and kindergarten teachers, funding for educational and technological projects in the Arab village of Tuba in northern Israel, and grants to the Misgav Bilingual School in the Galilee.
Since the e-mail was sent to a number of Jewish community mailing lists, some people received it several different times. Including those who forwarded the letter to their friends and acquaintances, hundreds and possibly thousands of people have been sent a copy since the weekend.
Cook acknowledged that by Monday she had received around 20 e-mails regarding the letter but said around 16 of them were in support of the JCF. Some even pledged additional monetary support.
Offering the JCF’s response with a prepared statement, John Goldman countered the committee’s contentions.
It reads: “As part of the effort to promote equal opportunity for all Israeli citizens, we are currently supporting early childhood education in the Israeli Arab sector. We are convinced that this investment will promote a future peace and security for Israel and all Israelis…The consensual decision-making process is at the heart of federated giving.”
Greg Kosinovsky, the committee’s spokesman, disagreed with the entire notion, saying this is not the time to fund the allies of Israel’s sworn enemies.
“There is nothing wrong with promoting coexistence. The problem is, it is rewarding behavior by Israeli Arabs which is directed at this time against the state of Israel,” said Kosinovsky, a Sunnyvale resident who emigrated from Minsk 21 years ago.
Kosinovsky described the Committee for Jewish Concerns as a loosely organized group of roughly 10 like-minded emigrants from the former Soviet Union.
Israeli Arabs, he continued, “have allied themselves overwhelmingly with enemies of the state of Israel. Their members of the Knesset range in support of Arafat to Hamas. It seems unconscionable to reward this population with Jewish funds.”
Kosinovsky said the committee did not make an attempt to gain support of JCF board members Rabbi Shimon Margolin of San Francisco or Galina Leytes of Palo Alto, both of whom are emigrants from the former Soviet Union.
“We did not try to seek Rabbi Margolin or anybody else,” he said. “The issue is relevant enough with or without discussion from community leaders. If the issue were not relevant, then having the rabbi’s name on it would not make it relevant.”
Margolin said he believed the majority of the Bay Area’s Russian Jewish community is unaware of the JCF’s donations to coexistence groups.
“The idea of dollars going to the Arab community in Israel is definitely shocking for Russian Jews,” said Margolin, one of the Bay Area’s two Russian-speaking rabbis. “Coexistence, I’m not sure if they’d find that shocking or not. I don’t think they’d exactly be thrilled.”
Both Margolin and Leytes said they hoped to arrange a meeting between the federation and members of the Committee for Jewish Concerns, in which the JCF could explain its allocation process to the group.
“There may still be disagreements, but I think this is the best approach,” said Leytes. “If there are concerns, it’s better to hear about them and respond to them.”