Tag Archives: Camp Solomon Schechter

Reform & Conservative Jewish Leadership “At War” With Judaism & Israel – What’s To Be Done? Commentary By Adina Kutnicki

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Image result for hebrew union college la honors michael chabon

{Self-hating Jew, Michael Chabon, depicted receiving an honorarium at this year’s graduation from the Reform Movement’s flagship entity, the Hebrew Union College. Paradoxically, it was coined a “Coalition for Jewish Values!” Orwellian. Suicidal.}

MOST have a hard time wrapping their mind around a very harsh reality, namely, that there are “traitors within.” Of course, history is replete with said treacherous behavior. But when it comes from deep within one’s so-called tribe – a tiny and beleaguered one at that – the knife twists even sharper. Unconscionable. Unforgivable. Mind you, none of this is meant to suggest that mere ideological, political, or this and that difference(s) represents the grave crisis at hand. Far from it. 

BUT before seguing to what can only be deemed a Jewish tragedy and travesty, rational folks must agree that there are certain red lines which should never be crossed by one’s communal leadership. 

MOST egregiously and dangerously, doing so under the guise of what it means to be a “good Jew” – housed under the bull-crap of the “tikkun olam” umbrella mantra – is not only reprehensible, but worthy of tarring, feathering, and disabusing in a most public manner. Hence, today’s smack-down – though hardly a stand-alone at these pages, as will be bullet-pointed below.

It is so very difficult, indeed utterly unbearable, to sit silently by while Jews, and now the general religious and secular communities, completely misuse and distort the term Tikkun Olam– certainly not intentionally or out of any malice, but rather out of ignorance in the pursuit of virtuous goals and principles which may be applicable to general society and civilization but which have tragically become a poor substitute for authentic religious observance.

This repair rhetoric has become an obsession, a catch-all credo. Everything today is Tikkun Olam. Enough with the Tikkun Olam. It is a senseless and meaningless misconception, its true meaning nothing like it is commonly used and purported to be.

It is not at all a centuries-old tradition, it is not a call to action, and it is not a commandment. And to be clear, Tikkun Olam does not even mean repairing the world in the sense of social justice. Nor in traditional sources is Tikkun Olam in any way even a direct human imperative or action, but rather one that is left in G-d’s hands.

We cannot, and are not instructed to, save the world, or even to repair it. Judaism teaches no such thing. Rather, we are instructed to conduct ourselves properly, to observe the Mitzvos, the Commandments (which are not good deeds, but rather commandments, required imperatives), and in that way to contribute to society and civilization both by example and through practice and action…..continue the truth-telling here…..

NOW that that has been established, it must be noted that the most recent nails in the heart of Reform and Conservative Judaism were “predicted” at these pages. How so? As always, let’s rebuild the case. Then, and only then, will the truth become self-evident. The indictment sealed.

  • Going back to Sept. 2012 (the onset of this site), it became an absolute imperative to warn my fellow “tribes-people” about the dangers associated with voting for, once again, HUSSEIN Obama! Mind you, a preponderance made said mistake in 2008. Indeed, the so-called smart-set never seem to learn their lessons, at least, when it comes to their real religion: leftist universalism!
  • Demonstrably, in between 2012 and 2016, know that several more proofs of the same have (dis)graced this site, but no matter. Like clockwork, along came another mandatory outing – this time in the aftermath of the 2016 election cycle. Par for their leftist course, the ADL got in on the act – they just can’t help themselves! Egregiously, their stated (fundraising-inclined) mission is: “To stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all…“, but truth dare be told, if a leftist and universalist outcome is not assured, well, the poohbahs at ADL have zero interest in pursuing “justice.” This was exactly what transpired when President Trump won the election, as their smear machine went into hyper-drive. Full throttle.
  • So, is it any shock that a main day camp for the Conservative Movement, Camp Solomon Schechter, in the summer of 2017, flew the “Palestinian” flag, yes, ostensibly in a “hand of friendship” to visiting Muslim children?? Indeed, it is under this flag that avowed enemies of the Jewish people, let alone Israel, pledge their allegiance to! Comparatively, can anyone imagine a so-called Jewish camp flying the Nazi flag for any conceivable reason? Same thing. Mind you, it was only after outraged parents and benefactors raised a ruckus that the camp’s leadership, sort of, kind of, apologized. Too damn late.
  • Disgracefully and dangerously, Solomon Schechter’s leadership betrayed its own to appease the powers-that-be on the left who bow to “the god of universalism” – Jews and non-Jews alike.
  • Camp Solomon Schechter and Camp Ramah, “the camping arm of Conservative Judaism”, have chosen sides – and it’s not the Jewish one. Wait and see…
  • Which brings us to one more repugnant exposure (August 21, 2017), that is, before the newly promised indictments. Alas, once again, this finger is pointing in the direction of Michael Chabon (and wifey, Ayelet Waldman) via an open indictment of a self-hating Jew. He isn’t satisfied with maligning Israel, not at all. A low-life, a “JBB” (Jew by-accident of-birth), not only does he seek the destruction of Israel, but the evisceration of Judaism in toto! Tragically, the aforementioned join an increasingly long list of self-destroyers. But it is due to their (misguided) “stature” that they require the highest form of opprobrium.

TO wit, how much worse can it get? VERY.

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Major American Jewish groups have had to deal with the challenge of Jewish anti-Israel groups. Some of them, like Jewish Voice for Peace, exist to serve as fig leaves for antisemites. Some, like J Street, were formed to legitimize anti-Zionism among American Jews and push mainstream Jewish groups away from their traditional support for Israel.

Over the past few weeks, the leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements have chosen to deal with these challenges by delivering their flagship institutions – and through them, their movements – into the hands of Jewish antisemites. That is, they have placed their movements on the fast track to self-destruction.

On May 14, Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles held its annual graduation ceremony. HUC, with its campuses throughout the US and Jerusalem, is the flagship institution of the Reform movement. HUC ordains Reform rabbis, cantors and professionals. Its curriculum and priorities determine the direction of the entire movement.

This year, HUC’s leadership conferred an honorary degree on novelist Michael Chabon and asked him to deliver the annual commencement address….

The pinnacle of Chabon’s anti-Jewish screed to newly ordained Reform rabbis revolved around his revulsion at the Passover Seder. Insisting that the whole story of the Children of Israel’s enslavement in Egypt and subsequent liberation was a lie (“It seems pretty clear that we just made the whole damn thing up”), he explains that God is immoral because he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, “ensuring the slaughter of thousands of innocent Egyptian boys.”

And of course, Israel is the evil, modern equivalent of Pharaoh’s Egypt.

Chabon then exhorted the new Reform religious leaders that their job is to transform Judaism into Chabon’s image. They must essentially completely reject its teachings. They must reject Israel. They must transform Judaism into something indistinguishable from the radical leftist mélange that inhabits Chabon’s hometown of Berkeley, California.

When a few Jewish writers condemned the HUC for inviting Chabon, the college’s interim president Rabbi David Ellenson and the dean of its Los Angeles campus Joshua Holo published an article where they did more than just defend having provided an antisemite with their most prestigious platform in the name of open discourse and diversity – they defended Chabon’s positions.

In their words, “Chabon… articulated deeply Jewish and Zionist commitments (not merely abstract or literary in nature, but specifically religious, communal and even tribal).”

If there was ever a better articulation of “white is black and black is white,” it’s hard to think of one.

Chabon articulated a deep desire to destroy Judaism and Zionism and replace them both with anti-Judaism and anti-Zionism, in the name of destroying the tribe, community and religion through intermarriage.

By defending Chabon’s message, and pretending it was the opposite of what it was, Ellenson and Holo adopted it as HUC’s message.

Chabon’s message is now the position of the Reform Movement.

This brings us to the Conservative movement.

Last week, the radical group IfNotNow held a workshop in Boston for young activists who will work this summer as counselors at Jewish summer camps affiliated with Reform and Conservative Judaism. Several of the participants will work as counselors at the Conservative movement’s Camp Ramah.

Camp Ramah, whose eight-week session costs nearly $10,000 per camper, is one of the most important institutions in the Conservative movement. With nine camps throughout the United States, 9,000 campers a year and some 200,000 alumni, Camp Ramah has played an outsized role in engendering and maintaining Jewish identity, Zionism and communal attachment and commitment among young American Jews.

Aside from sports, drama and other standard summer- camp fare, campers at Ramah have daily Hebrew classes and Torah classes. The camps are kosher and keep Shabbat. Israel and Zionism have always played central roles as well in Ramah’s daily routine.

According to the JTA write-up, IfNotNow’s workshop was the brainchild of a Camp Ramah alumna. Its goal is to bring the group’s ideology into Camp Ramah.

IfNotNow met with Ramah Director Rabbi Mitch Cohen in March. Several workshop participants have been hired by Ramah.

The very fact that IfNotNow members have been hired by Ramah means that the camp – and through it, the Conservative movement – has embraced Israel hatred, and indeed, hatred of Judaism, as a legitimate position.

IfNotNow is a spin-off of J Street. It was formed during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Its members organized violent protests outside the offices of major Jewish groups in New York and Boston demanding that they end their support for Israel and support Hamas terrorists.

IfNotNow members said kaddish for Hamas terrorists.

The group has placed the cessation of US support for Israel among its top goals.

HUC’s decision to honor Chabon was shocking in and of itself. Chabon is an outspoken hater of Israel and Israeli Jews. His books Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation, and The Yiddish Policeman’s Union are, each in their way, major assaults on Israel’s very right to exist, not to mention on the inherent morality of its existence.

So by inviting Chabon to speak, HUC wasn’t merely inviting a “controversial” speaker – it was inviting a speaker who openly hates Israel.

At the commencement, while he laced his address with Israel hatred – and a particularly vicious abhorrence for Jews who live beyond the 1949 armistice lines – Chabon did not focus his remarks on the Jewish state.

Most of his speech was a diatribe against Judaism. Chabon began his speech with an assault on endogamous marriages. When a Jew marries a Jew, he explained, they create “a ghetto of two.”

The Jewish marriage ceremony is hateful because “it draws a circle around the married couple, inscribes them – and any eventual children who come along – within a figurative wall of tradition, custom, shared history, and a common inheritance of chromosomes and culture.”

In contrast, intermarriage “is the source of all human greatness.”

Judaism is hateful in Chabon’s views because it is all about drawing lines, distinctions and boundaries. And he thinks boundaries and lines – up to and including the separation of the heavens from the earth – are evil.

Chabon took his audience on his journey from Jew to anti-Jew and explained that it would be no tragedy at all if Judaism would disappear altogether.

In his words, “On the day that the last Jewish couple dies, after watching their children marry Hindus, Lutherans, atheists, Sunnis, Buddhists, the fault for that extinction will lie squarely with Judaism itself – and not because Judaism failed to enforce its teachings against intermarriage but because it was necessary… to have such teachings in the first place. Any religion that relies on compulsory endogamy to survive has, in my view, ceased to make the case for its continued validity in the everyday lives of human beings.”…..continue reading the horrendous truth here…..

NOW, with the latest (communal/tribal) dirty laundry hanging out, what’s the upshot? 

UNLIKE others who prefer to either close their eyes and ears to the truth, or attempt to create a silk purse from a sow’s ear, this address is more confrontational.

IN other words, to Jewish and Christian supporters of Israel: the more that these flagships and their leadership are exposed for what they really represent (effectively, demonstrating that the Reform and Conservative movements of yesteryear no longer exist, the ADL alike), the more likely their highly derelict and dangerous stewardship will collapse. In two words: bankrupt them!!

IN so doing, duly qualified non-traditional Jews who really care about their people’s survival will be forced to step up into positions of leadership, with the understanding that doing nothing is akin to a slow suicide – tribal-wise, spiritually, familial-wise, and personally. 

INESTIMABLY, according to the glorious words of Hillel The Elder (110BC – 10AD) in Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14, its authentic meaning cries to the heavens for action:

If not us, who? If not now, when?

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“Follow The (Jihadi) Money” Into Camp Solomon Schechter’s Palestinian Flag Raising: “Interfaith” Smokescreens. Commentary By Adina Kutnicki

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Image result for pics of palestinian flag at camp solomon schechter

AS always, when it comes to investigative journalism and security arenas, the most effective tool, weapon, if you will, is the ability to “follow the money.”

INDEED, while the public is generally familiar with law enforcement’s usage of forensics to bring criminals to heel (as gleaned through highly popular crime shows), few understand how important “tracking and tracing” the money trails are to an overall investigation, thus, bringing about an indictment. Read: RICO and money laundering. Trust, little is more intrinsic. 

AND, it is this well-honed ability, more often than not, which leads to the truth – come what may. So, those of us involved with the intersecting arenas of investigative journalism + jihadi terror have a decided advantage; unmasking some very ugly and dangerous linkages in the process. Truths. Heretofore secrets.

IN this regard, the reader should view a previous commentary (Aug. 2, 2017), “Leftist Jewish Leaders – Ala Delusions Of A People Under Siege – Stoop To New Depths: Betraying The Kiddies; The Danger Within”, as the opening shot to the following money trail, that which reveals the nexus between Mohammedans + Jewish leftist/fantasist enablers + interfaith mischief-makers, all of whom are part and parcel to “financing the flames!”

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PRESENTING, my close colleague….

The Palestinian Trojan Horse and Jewish Institutions

Jewish news media was all atwitter with a news report about Camp Solomon Schechter in Washington state, a more than 60-year-old Jewish educational day camp, that states on its website that “Jewish camp can be one of the most rewarding and influential experiences a child has. A summer at Camp Solomon Schechter raises self-confidence, builds decision-making skills, improves social skills, and enables children to reach inside themselves and discover talents and abilities they never knew they had. These benefits last a lifetime – in fact, Jewish camping has been identified as one of the most important influences a child can have in building Jewish identity and commitment.” At issue was that the camp’s director and head administrator, Sam Perlin, chose to fly a PLO flag over the campgrounds for the world to see. This action was on the heels of several bloody terrorist attacks on Jews throughout Israel and Judea and Samaria, including the Temple Mount that left several Israelis dead – both Jewish and non-Jewish, even an entire family – acts that were praised by the Palestinian leadership that such a flag represents!

A call to Sam Perlin, however, showed that decision-making and social skills from the camp’s director are sadly lacking.  When asked in an interview whose idea was it to raise the PLO flag over the camp, Perlin immediately said arrogantly it was his alone, then he abruptly hung up the phone. He earlier said in other media it was suggested to him by the “Interfaith Peace Group” Kids4Peace, then changed the story again saying it was his idea alone, then again, the group’s suggestion.

Perlin ultimately apologized to the Jewish community, but was this sincere? Further research and a brief phone conversation with one of Perlin’s subordinates revealed Perlin did indeed make his decision during a visit to the camp by Kids4Peace. Perlin did so to promote “dialogue”, he said, with a delegation of Muslim, Christian and Jewish children who visited as part of the Kids4Peace program. It seems unlikely that to Perlin, the idea of mounting a terrorist flag waved by Jew-killers over a Jewish day camp was an example of just how the Solomon Schechter camp’s director instills in his wards “benefits that last a lifetime.” But what Perlin has refused to recognize until this day was that he purposely allowed a Trojan Horse into a Jewish institution affecting Jewish youth to side against Israel for the future.

Pro-Israel Jews fell into the trap of declaring this event as just another example of “liberalism” run amok among the Jewish community when the scenario is far more sinister.

In 2003 and 2005, the Palestine Solidarity Movement held conferences at Ohio State and Duke university where seminars were held and plans were conceived to drive a wedge between American Jewish and Christian support for Israel, formerly deemed unbreakable, to end the Jewish state. Attendees were told this was achievable by their activists joining Jewish Federations, day schools (and day camps) and other Jewish functions to promote the idea of Israel as a human rights violator and promoter of “genocide” against Arabs, a result of the “occupation.” Such activists and groups would act as a Trojan Horse to set the tone from within and target especially students and the young so future generations of young Jews would be opposed to a Jewish state in the Middle East. Anyone who has witnessed what is going on at American colleges can see how such a plan has been growing rapidly. Originally fueled by Saudi and Iranian money, it now is swimming in money from certain philanthropic organizations that promote George Soros style “social justice,” such as the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Fund and the U.S. State Department. This “social justice” front even fooled the World Zionist Organization into unwittingly donating money to the BDS movement.

As for Kids4Peace, one might argue how anyone could be against children. But the PLO and Arab terror groups have always used children as the cover for their fundraising. Most revealingly, The Holy Land Foundation trial was the biggest fundraising scheme ever closed down by Homeland Security, yet, it always presented itself as a charity for children – when it really raised money for terrorists in Hamas!

Kids4Peace is no different.

If one looks at the leaders of Kids4Peace and its Board of Directors the concept of a Trojan Horse comes into view: The President is Diane Nancekivell, who is, along with her spouse, a major sustaining donor to Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) and has been for over several years according to the FOSNA newsletters. If one reads these newsletters, they are virulently anti-Semitic and filled with writings and lectures by ISM anti-Semites. The Anti-Defamation League, in a report to law enforcement, has described Sabeel as “…the “voice for Palestinian Christians” against Israel’s policies and has been a driving force behind various Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns against Israel, including those initiated by mainline Protestant churches in the U.S.” In 2013 and 2014,  Nancekivell and her spouse were both listed as Sustaining Donors of Sabeel which is a Christian front for the Arabs designed to drive a wedge between American Christians and support for Israel. FOSNA is also a major part of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) that organizes the weekly riots in the West Bank and promotes BDS worldwide. Sabeel teaches “Palestinian Liberation Theology” in U.S. Churches where Palestinians replace the Jews in the Bible and Jesus is said to be not Jewish but a Palestinian. Sabeel is fiercely anti-Semitic and spreads that message to all churches according to NGO Monitor. 

Sabeel’s newsletter also has listed as guest speakers and workshop teachers various leaders of the ISM who call for Israel’s destruction such as terrorism supporter Ali Abunimah, Middle East Children’s Alliance’s Barbara Lubin, and many other virulently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic groups all of which promote BDS and always praise terrorism as “resistance.” Sabeel also receives funds from American Muslims for Palestine that the Investigative Project  has stated  is a front for Hamas. The list of similar funders and supporters, such as the anti-Semitic Marxist front group Jewish Voice for Peace, that are all calling for boycotts or the end of Israel as a Jewish state that “occupies” “Palestine” is endless. 

With a closer look at  Kids4Peace’s Board of Directors one finds Abi Raik who served for nine years also on the Board of Directors of World Vision. World Vision is an anti-Semitic Christian organization now accused of being complicit in funneling $4 million to Hamas, which they used to build tunnels to conduct terror attacks. Another board director, the Reverend Judith Stuart, leads Witness trips to the West Bank where she has tourists “witness” alleged abuse of the Arabs by Israel. Kids4Peace also has hosted as a speaker, board member Mae Cannon. Cannon was Director of Public affairs for World Vision during the time the West Bank chapter of the organization was taken over by Hamas.  Cannon is now head of the anti-Israel Churches for Middle East Peace that actively also promotes BDS.

Then there is the question of money. Kids4Peace received a grant for $800,000 from USAID, the U.S. State Department, then another one for $77, 500 from the U.S. taxpayer-supported U.S. Institute for Peace. That’s just a few drops in the bucket for this moneymaking operation worldwide. Kids4Peace was founded in 2002 in Jerusalem.

When queried if Camp Solomon Schechter Executive Director Sam Perlin was given remuneration either directly or through a donation to the Camp by Kids4Peace, leadership at Kids4Peace stonewalled repeated inquiries. Perlin, who changed his story more than once about the PLO flag, also would not talk to reporters. At the same time, Kids4Peace founder, Yakir Englander, titled as Director of a “Dialog for Action” department of Kds4Peace, claimed the non-profit has no money despite nearly the one million dollars cited above and many other donors.  He further stated that regarding questions of any money paid out to Camp Schechter, it was necessary to speak with Executive Director Father Josh Thomas, the current top leader of Kids4Peace. Despite numerous requests for information, Father Thomas would not respond even when asked to by the Kids4Peace founder himself. Father Thomas has been linked to other BDS movements. Despite this, Thomas managed to speak before AIPAC. In addition, Kids4Peace leaders like Englander have stated they see nothing wrong with Boycotting Israel.

These “Interfaith” front groups serve a purpose, not for peace, but to allow young Jewish kids to be indoctrinated with the Palestinian narrative so they will grow up and be opposed to a Jewish state described repeatedly as an “occupation.” That is the wedge between US support for Israel that the Palestinians hope to create and they are well on their way. There are enough Jews and Christians who are more than willing to help along in this subversive scheme for money, sinecures and prestige. Groups like J Street and If Not Now that all are also funded by the Soros bloc are making great strides with college students and the adolescent Jewish market. The Palestinian ISM leader in the village of B’ilin who leads riots every week against IDF soldiers and the security Barrier is a convicted terrorist killer named Basem Tammimi . He recently spoke before a group of third graders in upstate New York about an “Intifada” and at UC Berkeley sponsored by FOSNA. He was brought to the US with money and help from just this type of “interfaith group” that links to Kids4Peace.

Further evidence shows that the director of the Kids4Peace organization has led other anti-Israel indoctrination tours which also partnered with Holy Land Trust, Israel Committee Against House Demolitions, and directly with Sabeel, all ISM-linked groups promoting BDS. Sami Awad of Holy Land Trust, an ISM and Sabeel apparatchik is also active in this front group mix.

If anyone still has doubts about all this, they need only to look at a brochure put out by Kids4Peace that shows its leader posing with Siraj Wahaj, who is an unindicted co-conspirator in the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and has “preached that the bombing was a terrorist attack staged by the U.S. government and possibly Israel as a ‘conspiracy’ against Islam.” Englander and Wahaj pose arm-in-arm on the cover of the promotional brochure. This is the face of a non-profit that wants to create a “teachable moment” for Jewish day camp pupils at a young age.

Jewish schools and other places of Jewish learning need to stop this indoctrination and not simply claim it’s a liberal vs. conservative issue when it is subversive activity to bring down a Jewish state by misinforming future generations of young Jews and Christians. What better place to start than in a Jewish day school camp that flies the PLO flag? The evidence is there and should be heeded for all concerned as it doesn’t bring peace, but is just more war by deception to end Israel as a Jewish state.

Sloan Rachmuth contributed to this report. 

Lee Kaplan is an undercover investigative journalist and a contributor to numerous anti-terrorism websites. He is also a regular columnist for the Israel National News and Canada Free Press and a senior intelligence analyst and communications director for the Northeast Intelligence Network. He heads the organizations Defending America for Knowledge and Action (DAFKA) and Stop the ISM. He has been interviewed on over two hundred nationally and internationally syndicated radio shows and been a guest on Fox Cable TV’s Dayside with Linda Vester and Bill O’Reilly’s The Factor. Email him at leekaplan@stoptheISM.com.

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STILL yet, lest anyone is confused as to where the onus lies, don’t be. In a nutshell: just follow the money, then couple it with an obdurate refusal to answer even the simplest investigative queries! Ask yourselves: why the stone cold silence?

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