A new YouTube video narrated by KGO radio host John Rothmann takes the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation to task for its support of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in showing the controversial documentary “Rachel.”
(Click here to watch the 14-minute clip, titled “Exposed — The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.”)
The video is part of an ongoing, heated war of words between a Bay Area coalition that calls itself “SFZionist” and the federation.
Although the video might go unnoticed among the millions of others available on YouTube, the group Rothmann represents has ignited an e-mail campaign to make sure that doesn’t happen.
What is striking about the video is the fact that Rothmann, an ardent pro-Israel activist, not only agreed to serve as narrator, but is seen doing so at KGO’s studio in San Francisco. Rothmann was recently named a permanent talk-show host on KGO, handling the 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. slot Monday through Friday.
Rothmann said KGO was aware of his role in the video.
“My job is to create controversy,” he said. “I’m paid to say things and express my opinion. That’s what they hire me for.”
A fourth-generation San Franciscan, Rothmann has been called upon over the years to chair or moderate events hosted by the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council, the federation and numerous other groups. He was also a leading voice in local efforts to free Soviet Jews in the 1960s.
“I agreed to [narrate the video] because of my involvement in the community for many years,” Rothmann said. “My position was and is someone who’s been active and passionate about the subject. I was delighted to lend my voice to this effort.”
The video is another attack on the festival’s programming of the documentary “Rachel,” a sympathetic portrait of Rachel Corrie. The American pro-Palestinian activist was killed in 2003, when she was protesting the destruction of homes in Gaza by Israeli bulldozers.
The festival invited Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother and president of the Rachel Corrie Foundation, for a question-and-answer session following the July 25 screening at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. Dr. Michael Harris, a leader of San Francisco Voice for Israel, was a last-minute addition to the program in an effort to placate those outraged by the film’s screening and the invitation of Corrie.
While the federation did not oppose the screening, JCF once again issued a statement this week saying it “objected” to the film festival’s decision to feature Cindy Corrie as a speaker.
“The federation expects its grantees to exercise responsibility and respect with regard to sensitive program choices,” said acting CEO Jennifer Gorovitz. “We have communicated these concerns to the film festival and expect they will take them seriously and respond accordingly.” (Gorovitz this week replaced Federation CEO Daniel Sokatch, who resigned to become executive director of the New Israel Fund.)
JCF financial statements show that its most recent allocation to the film festival was approximately $31,900 of the more than $27 million the federation raised in its annual campaign. JCF has been supporting the festival for 25 years.
The YouTube video urges federation donors to continue giving money “only when [JCF] stops its involvement with the S.F. Jewish Film Festival and any other such events or organizations that defame or demonize Israel or Jews,” according to an e-mail being circulated by local pro-Israel activist Natan Nestel.
At the July 25 screening, Cindy Corrie received cheers from the audience, while Harris garnered hisses, heckles and boos when he spoke before the film. A portion of Harris’ talk can be seen on the YouTube clip.
“I am in favor of the Jewish film festival,” Rothmann said. “There is no question of its value. But [at the screening] no one at the film festival stood up and said ‘This is not acceptable.’ And that stunned me.
“That program was completely inappropriate and wrong,” he added. “Community funds should not be used to support groups that advocate the boycott of, divestment from or cut in aid to Israel.”
The groups Rothmann referred to were co-presenters of the screening. They include: Jewish Voice for Peace, an Oakland-based left-wing group that supports Palestinian self-control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and American Friends Service Committee, a social justice organization of Quakers and others who have taken up the cause of the people of Gaza.
After watching the video, Joel Frangquist, a member of the coordinating committee for the Bay Area chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, said it was “so rife with factual errors, that it would be a waste of time to catalog all of them.”
“Anyone can juxtapose unrelated images to shock and mislead,” he said. “But that isn’t a tactic used by people who are trying to make a positive difference.”
The federation responds:
For a century, the Federation has worked diligently as the face of collective Jewish philanthropy. As ever, the abiding mission of the Federation remains a positive and hopeful one: to aid the poor, the hungry, the infirm – and to build and strengthen Jewish education, culture and identity here at home and in Israel. To that end, the Federation has supported the Film Festival for 25 years. The Federation objected to the recent Film Festival event that featured Rachel Corrie’s mother as a speaker. The Federation expects its grantees to exercise responsibility and respect with regard to sensitive program choices. We have communicated these concerns to the Film Festival, and expect that they will take them seriously and respond accordingly.
We are many communities with diverse opinions, but we are one people. Rancor and vitriol cast a dark shadow on our commonalities, including our support of Israel. The Federation does not support boycott, divestment, sanctions or delegitimization of Israel. On the contrary, the Federation grants more than $10 million annually to projects designed to strengthen Israel.
Our core beliefs are anchored by a moral obligation to repair the world; toward that great and just end, as we prepare for Yom Kippur, let us begin to repair the breach in our own community and return the community’s attention to our vital work of tzedakah and tikkun olam.