ADL, Major Jewish Groups Snub Invite to Trump Hotel Hanukkah Party in DC

[CORRECTION: The AJC just wrote to me to tell me they attended.]

More and more Jewish groups are backing out of the high-profile Hanukkah party; even White House Jewish liaisons refused invites to be honored at the Trump Hotel bash.

By Debra Nussbaum Cohen (New York), HAARETZ

NEW YORK – Malcolm Hoenlein may be standing in a largely empty, ornate Trump International Hotel ballroom late Wednesday afternoon during the Conference of Presidents’ now-infamous Hanukkah party.

It is well known that eight of the Conference of Presidents’ left-of-center member organizations, including the Union for Reform Judaism and National Council of Jewish Women, pulled out of the event. They cited reasons ranging from the fact that the party is being co-hosted by the embassy of Azerbaijan, a Muslim-led country with a questionable human rights record, to the fact that it is being held in a new hotel property owned by the president-elect, which raises questions about the appearance of trying to curry favor with him.

What has not been known, until now, is that several of the Conference’s centrist member groups – core constituents including the ADL, the American Jewish Committee, Hadassah and Jewish Federations of North America – are also refusing to attend the party.

Sources at the ADL, AJC and Hadassah confirmed that they will not participate, as did someone close to JFNA.

“These groups seem to care more about displaying their partisan anti-Trump animus than about the serious mistake of offending the next president of the United States, which would negatively impact our joint duty to promote strong U.S.-Israel relations,” Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America – which is definitely attending the Conference party – told Haaretz. “I doubt these groups would have complained if we had booked a ‘Clinton’ hotel after a Hilary Clinton victory.”

What’s more, the Conference invited the current and three former Obama White House liaisons to the Jewish community to be honored and attend its party. All declined to participate at any level. To be fair, they will all likely be at the White House Hanukkah reception – Obama’s final Jewish party in the White House – which starts at 6:30 P.M. local time. 

The Conference’s Hoenlein did not respond to several emails sent by Haaretz seeking his comment.
His organization’s party, timed to allow people to go to both its party and the White House reception, is slated to take place at the Trump hotel a few blocks away from 4 P.M. to 6 P.M. The Conference gathering will take place in the Trump hotel’s Lincoln Library, which the hotel’s website describes as having 16 foot coffered ceilings, ornate millwork, gilded mirrors and velvet draperies. 

The mainstream Conference member agencies have not put made public statements about their decision.

“Nobody’s going. The reasons are obvious,” said one Washington Jewish insider. “It is highly embarrassing for Malcolm Hoenlein.”

Hoenlein “obviously did not anticipate the backlash” against holding it in a Trump hotel, said another. “He really didn’t know what he was doing.”

Some of the mainstream Conference member executives offered public explanations for why they aren’t going. 

Janice Weinman, Hadassah’s CEO, told Haaretz that her organization has an executive committee meeting ending just in time for her to take a 4 P.M. flight to Washington for the White House party.

Someone close to the JFNA said that its leaders “are traveling home” and “have other commitments.”

One of the White House Jewish liaisons struck a different tone, telling Haaretz, “are you kidding? I was getting invitations to the protest and I know half the people who are going to that,” speaking of the If Not Now-organized demonstration planned for outside the hotel.
If Not Now is a grassroots protest group whose main focus has been the Israeli occupation, but since Trump’s election has been busy demonstrating against the Trump administration and the Jewish groups it views as cozying up to the president-elect. Hundreds of people turned out to protest outside the Zionist Organization of America’s recent annual banquet, which expected to host Trump adviser Steve Bannon. His Breitbart News agency has proudly promoted white supremacist groups. Bannon never showed up.

The remaining Conference of Presidents member organizations apparently still planning to attend the Hanukkah party include relatively small groups like the ZOA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (or CAMERA) and Emunah of America as well as some larger ones like the Orthodox Union.

“A number of the groups are seemingly not that distressed by the Trump administration’s direction. It seems pretty clear that there is a strong desire to protect access for the full agenda, one piece of which is Israel,” said Gideon Aranoff, CEO of Ameinu, one of the Conference member institutions that earlier pulled out of the Chanukah party. 

“From our perspective it’s worse for the Jewish community, worse for Israel, and worse for Jewish-Muslim relations to appear to be currying favor with the Trump administration, so holding this event at his hotel is a terrible mistake,” Aranoff told Haaretz.

December 16, 2016 | 82 Comments »

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32 Comments / 82 Comments

  3. @ honeybee:

    I go on prolonged sessions of reading Western books from time to time, a habit picked up from my late father G-D Bless him, who said they always relaxed him after a day’s work. He was right. So I’ve come across many scenarios where Longhorns were prominently featured, apart from also reading valid reminiscences of old time former trail hands who left a ton of information. I know it’s suicide to be anywhere near one whilst on foot.

    So perhaps I’ll look into this scheme and find out a bit more about it.

    By the way I don’t think I like “sugie”…..Ah’d favour a Southern name Honey…

    I went to school with a boy named Sugarman, (who made a huge name for himself in the US) whom we always called “Shuggar” or “Shug”.. Odd to see his bearded face looking at us from the internet page…. There were 3 of us, the fiercest competitors in the class, neck-and-neck for years, all promoted a couple of classes together. The other became a very famous Rabbi in Israel, recently deceased. Even aged and bearded they were perfectly recognisable, but hard to imagine what they’d become…..

  4. Edgar G. Said:

    Surely I have your attention for always

    Austin sugie is the you with a brand new Yankee name. No you don’t have to beet me ever, I am at your command. But remember when it come to spelling and typing I am an abstract artist.
    I have had many debates about Long horn cattle. Long horn beef is good, but remember it’s not the breed but feed.
    Long horns are aggressive, big and dangerous. Many use them “between the road and the house” in other words watch cows, especially with a calf. They take very special handling. I personally would not approach them unless I had raised them. I believe it is not a scam.
    They are rangy animals and need LOTS of room.

    Great read https://www.amazon.com/Longhorns-J-Frank-Dobie/dp/B00FF4C8VA

  5. @ honeybee:

    Surely I have your attention for always….and top marks for “bait” rather than “beat” beat….Although the only “beat” that I’m familiar with are the drums in my old Dixieland Band…… I’ll forswear kidding from now on.

    An xox is better than an oxo…which reminds me, on a serious point, have you seen letters from a poster about importing Longhorn Texas cattle embryos into Israel, setting up a small facility and raising them as being much better in the arid Negev than any other cow…? The amount needed seems rather small for an endeavour like this, $500.000…

    What do you think about it? To me it seems a cinch, as longhorn beef is far healthier than any other, and the detailed layout seems foolproof, but this poster has been advertising for investors for the past couple of years at least so perhaps it could be a scam……

  8. @ honeybee:

    As long as it is correctly diagnosed as a typo (that darned “e” is right next to the “w”) then that’s quite alright (as Old Mother Riley used to say). I forgive you-but I can ignore you if you prefer it.

    I often used to see Western movies in which there would be written messages remarkable for their adventurous spelling. Some of your schoolkids -perhaps….

    Also, in writing about popes, it is permissible (say the rabbis) to make errors in spelling so as not to glorify him by correctness. That is a very good axium.. just freshly minted…

  13. Edgar G. Said:

    You know Honeybee you are not living up to your reputation. You are inanely (not insanely) inconsistent.

    ” A foolish consistency is the Hobgoblin of Small Minds” R.W. Emerson

  14. Edgar G. Said:

    ehen

    Oops a typo Sugar !!!!!!!!!!

    I have told everybody on the pundit I can’t spell or type worth ” a load of Manure”. Deal with it or ignore me Sugar.

  15. @ Sebastien Zorn:

    They do that with cocktails so I’ve read in Mickey Spillane stories, and others of that ilk. (I wonder if an ilk is related to an Elk…) although I really liked Earl Derr Biggars too. along with Peter Cheyney, and about the worst but most exciting writer, Dennis Wheatley.

    My all time thriller favourite of course is Edgar Wallace. His African stories are hilarious, by a sort of no-no these days…PC of course… and he wrote some very good racing stories too. When I was a kid I used to read a lot of Nat Gould, of whom nobody today has heard, but he was very big when I was young, on racing in Australia.

    Not forgetting the weekly Frank Richards Magnet stories about my buddy Billy Bunter et al….. Ah me…. And I’m only touching at the outer edges of the stuff I avidly read. Oliver Strange’s Sudden Jim was great, and R.B. Saxe character the “Ghost”,…. I still have most or all of the books I’ve mentioned stored away. I hope to have space in which to put them sometime.

    Right now I’m reading Louis Constant Wairy’s Recollections of the Private life of The Emperor Napoleon, whose valet he was for about 12-15 years. A monumental work-although criticised over the years by other “recollections” writers… It takes up 1.9 KB in Gutenberg. He is an absorbing writer indeed.

    I recall laughing my head off all through Gogol’s Dead Souls….

  18. @ Edgar G.:

    I was a P.G. Wodehouse fan as a boy. Only recently read that he was an anti-semite. Kinda’ wish I hadn’t. They were fun. Would probably spoil it for me now. Was a Pink Floyd fan, too when I was young. and Mel Gibson. Why can’t these morons just keep their big mouths shut about politics and confine themselves to entertaining us which is all God equipped them for.

  19. @ Sebastien Zorn:

    When I was young the term “splash” went hand-in-glove with “whisky and…” meaning a splash of soda water. You can often read the same useage in P.G. Wodehouse books, of which I read many. But that was before I discovered that he was a fervent Anti-Semite.

  21. @ Sebastien Zorn:

    Sebastien,

    Which comment of mine are you answering which you say is wrong….. I AM puzzled, because I’m always right…. (and not as Honeybee might say “write”)

    You have an esoteric answer which nobody, including myself will understand.

    Sorry Seb I just realised that it must be connected to “peeking-peaking”….but thought I’d leave my original deep end jump-in so that you could see how stupid I am…

  22. @ Edgar G.:
    @ yamit82:

    You’re both wrong. It’s “Beijing!” Don’t try to Duck the issue. So politically incorrect. For shame.

    And while we’re add it, I’ll sneak in this gem:

    “While in the West, the insane are so many that they are put in an asylum, in China the insane are so unusual that we worship them, as anybody who has a knowledge of Chinese literature will testify.” https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lin_Yutang

  23. @ honeybee:

    You know Honeybee you are not living up to your reputation. You are inanely (not insanely) inconsistent. How dare you spell underwear (one word) as “under ware” (two words as well as spelling error), and NOT also spell “peeking” as “peaking”…. You make me lose (not loose as you might think) faith in you…

    As it happens, according to social historians and others, the Scots DID wear a kind of “clout” under their kilts as well as warm underskirts in bad weather..

    Tut, tut, and another tut for luck as Oliver Hardy might say.

  24. yamit82 Said:

    “For the Jews have long been in revolt not only against the Romans, but against humanity; and a race that has made its own life apart and irreconcilable, that cannot share with the rest of mankind in the pleasure of the table nor join in their libations or prayers or sacrifices, are separate from ourselves by a greater gulf than divides us from Sura or Bactra of the most distant Indies.”

    – Philostratus – The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 3rd Century CE Teacher

    By the time of Apollonius of Tyana, the Jews had been disastrously defeated several times in Israel by the Romans, also in Cyrene in between the two Roman Wars, and Alexandria amongst other places. Zealotism had been cruelly stamped out, and the defeatist and pacifist had taken over completely. So the Pharisee doctrines and the teachings of the Sages, which were all about “peace’ and “love thy neighbour” etc were well advanced in Jewish teaching. Also they believed that by secluding themselves from the goyim, and spending their time praying, the Creator would shine down on them again, and the Moshiach doctrine was well advanced too.

    So they secluded themselves as we all know how the Datim do it today, with little outside contact, causing those ignorant of Jewish thought, philosophy and concept would believe. Even as far back at the 5-4th cent. BCE the Greek and Roman geographers were referring to them, newly discovered perhaps, as “A Race of Philosophers”.

  25. @ Birdalone:

    I think that was Pope John the 23rd,was bout 1962, who was already an old man ehen elected. I remember the fuss he caused when he took out the word “perfidious” from a prayer mentioning the Jews. At the same time all that was decided was that the Jews of today were not responsible for Jesus’ death, but the Jews of then were not absolved, although Israel was clearly ground under the Roman heel and the punishment was Roman, not Jewish.

    Anyway all that has been forgotten and they still blame the Jews for everything that happens anywhere in the world. I re call at the time that a close musical friend, a Catholic, when he heard about the loosening of restrictions like Friday meatless day….said that he doesn’t accept that he’ll still only eat figh on Friday. He was very serious. Irish of course, but we met in Canada, and played in an orchestra together. Never a word of Anti-Judaism from him in the 15-20 years I knew him, nor his wife, except that she said that all the Jews she knows are very smart and clever, and sh’d like to go into business with one.