From the Editor:

After months of controversy, including a disquieting wave of vitriol from the Right, J Street’s first national conference convened in Washington this week, attracting some 1500 attendees and an impressive roster of prominent speakers.

The intemperate tone of the assault on J Street indicates a measure of panic over its success in making so large an impact so quickly. Some of the anger, especially among Israelis, reflects resentment over aspects of American Jewish life. This is apparent the mocking condemnation of diversity and spirituality written by David Weinberg, director of public affairs at Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (1). But other critics - such as David Horovitz, editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post - offer serious and reasoned analysis (2).

Remaining unanswered is the core question: is J Street good for Israel? As Eric Fingerhut writes in JTA (3), while J Street characterizes itself as being ambiguously committed to Israel’s future as a Jewish State, it welcomed people who are not. On the one hand, this was a wise and courageous decision, countering notions, held especially by the young, that dissent is unacceptable in Jewish life. On the other, it created a situation in which reporters interviewing attendees found a broad spectrum of perspectives, including opposition to Israel as a Jewish State. There was even biting criticism of J Street executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami for the moderate interview he gave to Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic Magazine (4).

A conference highlight was a keynote address delivered by URJ president Rabbi Eric Yoffie (5).

Above all, the conference showed J Street as a very young organization seeking its identity. After speaking on the conference’s opening day, Jonathan Chait wrote in The New Republic (6) that “J Street could be a group that represents a significant chunk of the American Jewish population, or it could be a group that represents people with Walt/Mearhseimer-esque views on Israel, but it couldn't be both and would have to choose.”

While the Goldstone Report was a focus of much debate on J Street, Israeli leaders were grappling with the question of how best to respond. JTA analyst Leslie Susser summarizes their dilemma (7).

One of the most unexpected developments to arise from Goldstone is a remarkable op-ed by Robert Bernstein, founder and director emeritus of Human Rights Watch, who deplores the organization’s approach in the Middle East (8).

And as an unpleasant reminder that no matter how much tsuris Israel and the Jewish People have in addressing external threats, some Jews can always manage to say nasty things about other Jews, Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai of Shas uses an international gathering convened by President Shimon Peres as an occasion for a divisive attack on Reform Judaism (9).

I’ll be in Toronto next week at the URJ’s Biennial convention. I look forward to seeing some of your there.

L’Shalom,

Rabbi Ira Youdovin

1. David Weinberg
2. David Horovitz
3. Eric Fingerhut
4. Jeffrey Goldberg
5. Rabbi Eric Yoffie
6. Jonathan Chait
7. Leslie Susser
8. Robert Bernstein
9. Eli Yishai