Jewish Voice For Peace - Reception

Reception

The Jewish Federations of North America removed Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of JVP, and Cecilie Surasky, deputy director of JVP, from its Jewish Community Heroes competition because JVP "is a supporter of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign targeting investment in Israel". Joe Berkofsky, JFNA managing director of communications added “our Israel Action Network is working to challenge the boycott, sanctions and divestment movement and other efforts to isolate and weaken the Jewish state. We cannot therefore support a group that seeks to harm Israel through its support for BDS."

In September 2011, Rabbi Doug Kahn, executive director of the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council said “Jewish Voice for Peace routinely allows itself to be used as political cover by organizations promoting anti-Israel boycotts and divestment so that they can claim that they have Jewish backing for their positions, even though JVP represents a tiny fraction of the community.” In response, Rabbi Alissa Wise, a national organizer for JVP who co-founded JVP’s rabbinical council, speaking on behalf of the JVP, said "we’re not responsible for the language used by others", that some "groups do more harm than good" and that she regarded the work done by JVP as "trying to promote self-determination and equality for all people...a fruition of Jewish values, the path of living a Jewish life."

In March 2011, Brandeis University’s Hillel organization voted not to accept the membership bid of the local campus chapter of JVP, citing JVP's association with the larger Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). The decision, said the group's e-board, was founded on Hillel International's guidelines for inclusion. Upon review of JVP's statement of mission, past and proposed events, Hillel leadership was quoted saying, “While we understand that JVP at Brandeis considers itself a pro-Israel club, based on positions and programming JVP has sponsored, we do not believe that JVP can be included under Hillel’s umbrella.” In response, JVP formulated a petition in favor of its inclusion in the Hillel that over a third of the student body signed.

Leonard Fein, in the The Forward wrote in regards to the tent of Jewish thought and opinion, “I remain quite uncomfortable with the notion that JVP should be barred from the communal tent.”

In February 2011, the New York Times published a piece on JVP activism in the Bay Area that noted, “The activists say they are not working against Israel, but against Israeli government policies they believe are discriminatory.” In an Editor's Note, the Times later wrote that one of the article's two authors was a pro-Palestinian advocate and he should not have been allowed to write it.

In October 2010, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) identified JVP as one of the top 10 anti-Israel groups in the United States. JVP responded by saying the ADL was wrong about several key points—among them, that JVP is not anti-Israel or anti-Zionist. JVP also invited its supporters to make financial contributions to JVP in honor of Abraham Foxman, the leader of the ADL.

Writing in the Jerusalem Post in 2008, Jon Haber described JVP as an organization that "exists largely to declare anyone accused of anti-Jewish bias 'not guilty' (with a Jewish accent)."

In February 2007, Rabbi Ira Youdovin, executive vice president of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, wrote a column in The Forward about Jewish critics of Israel, and the way in which many Jews and Jewish organizations "squash" such dissent. In his column, Youdovin wrote that "the line separating calumny from legitimate dissent is unclear and ever shifting," but he added that "Jewish Voice for Peace, which supports divestment and is currently circulating a petition urging Congress to heed Carter’s words, is certainly beyond the pale." Mitchell Plitnick, Director of Education and Policy for JVP, responded by calling Rabbi Youdovin's line "arbitrary" and saying that "Youdovin misrepresents JVP’s position" concerning divestment. Plitnick emphasized that JVP supports "selective and targeted divestment that is aimed exclusively at the occupation, not at Israel itself." Plitnick wrote that "ost Jews believe that there should be pressure on both Israelis and Palestinians to make peace" and that "JVP advocates nothing more or less than that."

On January 28, 2007, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) convened "Finding Our Voice", a conference co-sponsored by more than 50 Jewish organizations for the purpose of discussing the rise in antisemitism. Its co-sponsors represented a wide range of Jewish opinion, including the ADL and AIPAC on the right and Americans for Peace Now and the Jewish Labor Committee on the left. Tikkun and Jewish Voice for Peace were not invited to co-sponsor the conference. A spokesperson for JVP said, "From our perspective, you cannot get to the roots of anti-Semitism in the progressive movement without honestly addressing the severe human-rights violations that Israel engages in every day. Judging by the lineup, that kind of honest examination is not likely to happen at this conference."

In 2004, Jewish Voice for Peace was denied permission to set up a booth at "Israel at the Ballpark," described by one writer as "the Bay Area's biggest Jewish community event of the year." The event's sponsors told the organization that it "didn't sufficiently support Israel."

The Jewish Bulletin of Northern California wrote in 2003 that "the mainstream Jewish community has viewed A Jewish Voice for Peace as a group of radical Jews who air dirty laundry by criticizing Israel when the Jewish state is under attack. Some go as far as to label the members self-hating Jews."