President’s Conference Affirms Commitment to Civil Discussion

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations has brought together 50 of its member organizations to express their commitment to civil discussion in the Jewish community.

In a statement issued last week, leaders of the conference and all but one of its member organizations affirmed their “stake in assuring the civility of debate and behavior.”

The lone holdout was the Jewish War Veterans of Americans, which feared that the conference statement aimed to slow down debate in the Jewish community.

The statement came in response to increasing rancor in the American Jewish debate over Israel’s peace process policies.

In May, Israeli Communications Minister Shulamit Aloni was allegedly punched by an organizer of the New York Salute to Israel Parade.

In June, an Orthodox rabbi in New York, Abraham Hecht, declared it acceptable under Jewish law to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Earlier this month, several Jewish groups issued their own statements condemning extremist, violent rhetoric. The included a coalition of mainstream Orthodox groups, the New Israel Fund, the American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Congress.

Unlike some of those statements, however, the Conference of Presidents did not single out any incidents. At the insistence of right-leaning member organizations, the final language of the statement referred to “those from all sides of the spectrum who engage in verbal violence, demeaning characterizations and other excesses.”

Such people “violate basic Jewish tenets,” endanger “the interests of the community” and “have been and will be rejected.”

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the conference, said the examples of incivility have been the exceptions.

“The fact that the community as a whole together to make this declaration will say something to those who have engaged in such name calling,” he said.