As American Jews committed to Israel’s future as a secure, Jewish, and democratic state; to a robust U.S.-Israel relationship; and to Jewish peoplehood that fully encompasses Israeli and Diaspora Jewish communities, we are opposed to Bezalel Smotrich visiting the United States later this month in his capacity as Israel’s finance minister, and we call on all pro-Israel Americans to understand that welcoming Smotrich here will harm, rather than help, support for Israel.
Smotrich has long expressed views that are abhorrent to the vast majority of American Jews, from anti-Arab racism, to virulent homophobia, to a full-throated embrace of Jewish supremacy. To this list, we can now add his endorsement of violence against innocents based on their ethnic heritage.
We reject the notion that someone must be accorded respect simply by dint of serving in the Israeli government. His presence in the U.S. to address primarily Jewish audiences would be an affront to American Jewish values, and he should not be given a platform in our community, all the more so in light of his most recent comments about Huwara.
Signed
Marie Abrams
Karen Adler
Harold Akselrad
Rabbi Aaron Alexander
Peter Alter
Talia Benamy
Jack Bendheim
Lawrence Bender
Lawrence B. Benenson
Rabbi Jonathan Blake
Stuart Blaugrund
Laurie Blitzer
Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal
Joel Breitkopf
Jennifer Brodkey Kaufman
Rabbi Sharon Brous
Stuart Brown
Nick Bunzl
David J. Butler
Victoria S. Cook
Lester Crown
Thomas A. Dine
Alisa R. Doctoroff
Rabbi David Ellenson
Irwin S. Field
Dede Feinberg
Jay K. Footlik
Abraham H. Foxman
Barbara Friedman
Marc Gary
Michael Gelman
Susie Gelman
Dana Gershon
Secretary Dan Glickman
Barbara Goldberg Goldman
Jill Goldenberg
Abner D. Goldstine
E. Robert Goodkind
Sally Gottesman
Lawrence C. Gottlieb
Stewart Gross
Steve Grossman
Rabbi Steve Gutow
David A. Halperin
Michael M. Hamilton
Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt
Michael Horowitz
Ada Horwich
Ambassador Martin Indyk
Rabbi Rick Jacobs
Oren Jacobson
Peter A. Joseph
Rabbi Doug Kahn
Jonathan Kamel
Joe Kanfer
Rabbi Nancy Kasten
Sheila Katz
Evelyn Kenvin
Priscilla Kersten
Steven Kersten
Beth Kieffer Leonard
Eric Kingsley
Hon. Ronald Klein
Rabbi Harold Kravitz
Ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer
Yehuda Kurtzer
Alisa Levin
Hon. Mel Levine
Mark Levitt
Dana Linden
Jonathan Lopatin
Daniel Lubetzky
Brian Lurie
Donald Meltzer
Daryl Messinger
Ruth W. Messinger
Sharon S. Nazarian
Marcie Hermelin Orley
Geri Palast
Debra Pell
Adena Philips
Lois Perelson-Gross
Rabbi Jonah Pesner
Martin Raffel
Hon. Richard Ravitch
Seymour D. Reich
Marcia Riklis
Stephen K. Robert
Richard Robin
Elaine Rosen Hamilton
Michele Rosen
Rick Rosen
Hannah Rosenthal
Michael Rosenzweig
Rabbi David Saperstein
Lynn Schrayer
Barry Schwartz
John M. Shapiro
Steve Sheffey
Yona Shem-Tov
Arden Shenker
David Sherman
Marc Slutsky
Carol Smokler
Karen Spar Kasner
Halie Soifer
Alan P. Solow
Daniel Solomon
Jeffrey A. Solomon
Debra Stein
Jeffrey M. Stern
Susie K. Stern
Michael Tarnoff
Susan D. Wagner
Rabbi Josh Weinberg
Lawrence A. Wolfe
Modi Wiczyk
Michael H. Zaransky
Robert Zahler
Hon. Dov S. Zakheim
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/
This hero’s word carries more weight with me than all of these others combined, which isn’t hard since I’ve never heard of more than a half dozen of them and i already disliked most of those.
Sorry to see Ron Dermer’s name but even Begin walked out on Kahane to his eternal shame.
Mr Smotrich’s presence in the U.S. would be, according to these brave and courageous letter writers, an affront to American Jewish values. Interestingly, they do not say this is an affront to Jewish values.
Even more interestingly, I can’t seem to find a letter signed by them urging the silly fool Blinken not to meet terrorist supporter Abbas on his January junket to the Middle East. Presumably Abbas is, therefore, not an affront to American Jewish values. If he were, these letter signers, stern upholders of human rights, would have signed a letter similar to the one they did sign against an Israeli government official.
Or perhaps, I’ve missed their earlier letter of protest to Blinken and need a pair of new glasses to find it.