Jewish Federation Los Angeles is not only spearheading our community’s fight against growing efforts to delegitimize Israel, we’re also at the forefront of a national effort to combat those who seek to isolate it internationally through boycotts, divestment and sanctions.
On Wednesday of this week, we personally addressed the L.A. City Council Transportation Committee to express our strong opposition to the efforts of the Dump Veolia Campaign (DVC) to connect the award of the Downtown DASH bus service contract to issues related to the Arab-Israeli conflict. DVC is affiliated with the global anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and is demanding that the City Council refuse to renew Veolia Transportation’s contract to operate the bus service on the grounds that its parent company, Veolia Transdev, does business in Israel and the West Bank. We believe that linking these issues would be unwise, needlessly divisive, and may violate state and federal law. Read the coverage of our meeting at City Hall in the Los Angeles Times.
Representing us at City Hall were our Federation’s Community Engagement Executive Committee Members Daniel Gryczman (Chair), Dave Rand and Jesse Gabriel, as well as Catherine Schneider, Senior Vice President, Community Engagement. In addition to having our voices heard, we also distributed a letter detailing our position to all Council members, as well as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and City Controller Wendy Greuel. We were pleased that our Federation’s letter was co-signed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Anti-Defamation League, Stand With Us, 30 Years After, the American Jewish Committee, and The Board of Rabbis of Southern California.
On the national scene, JFNA’s Israel Action Network – through our Federation’s funding of and leadership within – is reaching out to 5,000 rabbis across the U.S. in time for the High Holy Days with information and updates on its work, as well as sermon inserts and a resource guide for educating their congregants on promoting peace between Israel and its neighbors and forcefully combating those that attack the legitimacy of Israel. Among the rabbinic organizations partnering in the distribution of these materials are the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) Rabbinic Cabinet, The Association of Reform Zionists of America, the Rabbinical Assembly and the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism. For more information on the High Holy Day initiative, click here to read an Op-Ed piece written by Geri Palast, Managing Director of the Israel Action Network, published in the Times of Israel.
The Israel Action Network leverages existing advocacy resources and works collaboratively with other Israel advocacy organizations to proactively advocate for Israel while simultaneously defending the Jewish State against assaults on its legitimacy. Staff in both North America and Israel are constantly monitoring emerging trends and hotspots in anti-Israel activity, as well as aggressively responding to individuals and groups behind the delegitimization efforts.
Jewish Federation Los Angeles is a lead sponsor of the Israel Action Network, which is a project of the Jewish Federations of North America in partnership with the Jewish Council of Public Affairs. The Israel Action Network is just one of our Federation’s many projects and efforts to educate and advocate on behalf of Israel.
For more information about our Federation’s Israel advocacy work, contact Catherine Schneider at CSchneider@JewishLA.org.
