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I couldn’t be happier to see former Professors of mine from Trinity come out against the CT Jewish Ledger’s J Street witch-hunt.

The group — which represents a broad range of views on Israel — first tried to submit an eloquent letter to the editor, which was posted and then taken down from the Ledger’s website. Now, Trinity’s  Ron Keiner and Mark Silk have posted the letter and some additional commentary on their personal blogs. 

I sat around a Hillel table with Sam Kassow, Ron Keiner, and Mark Silk for four years at Trinity, and when I wasn’t arguing with them over some Israel related issue, they were arguing with each other! I think we even went to Hillel to argue. 

So it’s even more personally meaningful to me to have such a breadth of opinion on Israel reject these attempts to delegitimize J Street. They’ve put the Ledger’s extremist views where they belong — on the extreme and out of the communal consensus. 

The original LTE is after the jump:

To the Editor:

We are writing to take exception to your editorial condemning the Hartford JCRC for joining with J Street to sponsor a talk by Colette Avital, former Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and Israeli Consul General to New York. None of us are members or promoters of J Street. All of us, like the overwhelming majority of American Jews, support a 2-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. We are strong advocates of a safe Israel living amongst its neighbors in security and peace. At Trinity College, we have fought the proponents of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. 

The editorial attack, which claims that J Street is beyond the pale of Jewish acceptability, is supported by arguments from Frank Luntz, CAMERA, and Caroline Glick that are no more representative of  the Jewish consensus in the United States than are the views of extreme left-wing Jewish activists in our midst who try to slander Israel at every turn. For every critical interpretation of J Street’s history, one can find thoughtful Americans and Israelis who see the organization in a different light. Even a critic of J Street such as Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantichas repeatedly stated that J Street exists within the mainstream of American Jewish political life. Colette Avital, whom we all know well from her years of superb work in New York—and who is highly regarded as a mainstream politician in Israel—obviously agrees, because she has joined J Street as Senior Advisor to the political arm of the organization.

Contrary to what you claim, J Street exists comfortably under the umbrella of worldwide Jewish support of Israel. To be sure, there are profound disagreements beneath that large umbrella, in Israel as well as in America. While we may have our own disagreements with J Street, we believe that its policies and actions on behalf of a Jewish and democratic Israel are fully consonant with American Jewish political discourse. And we believe that it would be both wrong and counterproductive to exclude J Street from American Jewish or Diaspora-Israel discussions, as you urge. Rather, it is important to foster a respectful and constructive discussion amongst all who advocate on behalf of a Jewish and democratic state of Israel, and not rush to label those with whom we disagree as inauthentic or illegitimate. Far from being condemned, the JCRC is to be applauded for using its auspices to bring Colette Avital to our community.

Samuel Kassow
Charles H. Northam Professor of History
Trinity College

Ronald Kiener
Professor of Religion
Director, Jewish Studies Program
Trinity College

Barry Kosmin
Research Professor of Public Policy and Law
Director, Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture
Trinity College

Mark Silk
Professor of Religion in Public Life
Director, Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life
Trinity College

Michael Sacks
Professor of Sociology
Trinity College

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