SAN DIEGO — Following are some of the stories of Jewish interest that hit our editor’s computer mail box at editor@sdjewishworld.com on Thursday, June 21. We are interested in local, national, and international news of Jewish interest, and welcome comments from members of the Jewish community about these news items.
Bennet welcomes Herzog’s appointment as head of the Jewish Agency for Israel
Naftali Bennett, Israel’s Minister of Education and Diaspora Affairs, issued this statement following announcement that Isaac Herzog, former leader of the Labour party, had been selected to head the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI):
“Greetings to my friend, Opposition Chairman Isaac Herzog, for his selection to head the Jewish Agency.
“The Jewish Agency has earned an honest person and man of values, who will contribute greatly to the consolidation between us and our brothers in the Diaspora. Especially now, when the relationship between the State of Israel and Diaspora Jewry faces significant challenges, I am certain that Herzog will be able to create a true bridge between us and world Jewry.
“Herzog, as a former Minister of Diaspora Affairs, is one of the few people who fully understand the importance of this connection to the future of the Jewish people.
“The Knesset may have lost an excellent parliamentarian, but the Jewish people have earned a man of vision and action. ”
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Hadassah Foundation distributes $330,000 to NGOs helping women in Israel
The Hadassah Foundation, which invests in social change to empower girls and women in Israel and the United States, has announced $330,000 in grants to twenty Israeli organizations that enhance economic opportunities for women in Israel, according to Julie Morris, Chair of The Hadassah Foundation, now in its 18th year of grant making.
First-time grantees ANU received $25,000 funds to provide strategic and technological tools to the members of the Women’s Activist Forum to help them run more effective social and advocacy campaigns. The Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel received $15,000 to write a report that will focus on the differences in women’s and men’s retirement income in Israel in comparison to other countries, and how this issue, alongside growing life expectancy, may impact the well-being of elderly women in Israel.
In addition to the two first-time grantees, the Foundation also awarded “sustaining” grants for the sixth consecutive year to long-term grantees that have played a particularly critical role in promoting the economic security of women in Israel: The Center for Women’s Justice; Economic Empowerment for Women; Itach-Maaki—Women Lawyers for Social Justice; and The Ruth and Emmanuel Rackman Center at Bar Ilan University.
Hadassah Foundation Chair Julie Morris stated: ““Our grantees are making a real difference in the lives of Israeli women, enabling them to become more economically secure, advocating for their rights, and championing their voice in the public sphere.”
Orit Sulitzeanu, Executive Director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, which received a $25,000 grant to train and create a forum, for company ombudsmen charged with enforcing Israel’s anti-sexual harassment code in the workplace, notes: “The ombudsmen charged with preventing sexual harassment in the State of Israel play a difficult role, often lacking the tools and highly-specialized knowledge to deal with the complex dilemmas facing them in these professions. They often lack the organizational support to implement serious change, finding themselves unable to provide protection for women who are sexually assaulted at work. The project of establishing an ombudsman’s forum focused on the prevention of sexual harassment, one that provides the tools and training to do so, meets the critical need of protecting women in the workplace and empowering them mentally and economically. These goals are consistent with the goals of the Hadassah Foundation to empower women and girls.”
The Hadassah Foundation is a philanthropic pioneer in the fields of improving economic security for low-income Israeli women and developing leadership and self-esteem programs for adolescent Jewish girls and young women in the United States. Since 1999, the Foundation has made nearly $8.3 million in grants to almost 100 nonprofit organizations devoted to improving the lives of girls and women.
In 2017, the Foundation made grants totaling $500,000—it awarded $335,000 to 22 Israeli organizations which work to support Israeli women from all walks of life, as well as $165,000 to seven organizations in the United States as part of its initiative to strengthen leadership development opportunities for young Jewish women, — From Hadassah
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Americans for Peace Now: Trump’s UNHRC pullout a ‘blow to America’s leadership’
The Americans for Peace Now organization says the Trump administration has “dealt another blow to America’s leadership on the global stage and to the US commitment to multilateralism by withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
“One of the chief reasons given for the US decision to withdraw is the UNHRC’s treatment of Israel. This is the second time the Trump Administration has announced it will pull the US out of a UN body over alleged anti-Israel bias. The first was the US withdrawal from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), announced last year. The pullout fits a broader Trump administration pattern of abandoning multilateralism for an America First approach, evident also in its exit from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord.
The UNHRC is not without significant flaws. Its membership includes gross violators of human rights like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Its focus on Israeli human rights abuses is clearly out of proportion, given the overall picture of human rights violations worldwide.
“Yet, it is wrong to dismiss the body as “a cesspool of political bias,” as our UN Ambassador Nikki Haley did. It is currently investigating human rights violations in Syria, Yemen, Burundi, Myanmar, and South Sudan. Appropriately, its chief has called out the Trump administration for its “unconscionable” policy of separating migrant children from their parents and urged the US to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. And investigating companies whose activities in the Occupied Territories enable the existence and growth of settlements – the greatest threat to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – is worthy of our support.
“The United States must have a seat at the table to push for fixes when the UNHRC falls short. That means avoiding the temptation to pick up its marbles and go home when others choose not to play by its rules. Further curtailing the US commitment to multilateralism is not in Israel’s interest, nor is it in the interest of America’s national security or the post-World War II liberal world order of which the US is chief architect.
“When the White House at last reclaims the historic role of the United States in bringing together Israelis and Palestinians to make peace, enlisting the support of the international community will be crucial. All those with an interest in bringing about the conclusion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should push for an America Engaged, not Trump’s move to an America Alone.”
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StandWithUS: U.S. pullout may be impetus for U.N. to fix a broken system
StandWithUs (SWU) says it hopes the June 19 decision of the United States to completely withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will bring much needed change to the UN. “We specifically thank U.S. Ambassador to the U.N Nikki Haley for her bold efforts to hold the UNHRC accountable. We fully agree with her that this, ‘hypocritical and self-serving organization makes a mockery of human rights.'”
Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO stated, “The UNHRC has a vitally important mission: to call governments to task for violations of human rights. To be effective, it should be unbiased and non-political to ensure that the rights of billions of people around the world living in dictatorships are safeguarded. Tragically, the UNHRC has failed. It has become a home for rogue regimes, human rights abusers, and state sponsors of terrorism. We hope the U.S. withdrawal will prompt the UN to overhaul its broken system.”
“The UNHRC has failed primarily because of its obsessive focus on only one state, Israel. Since 2016, the UNHRC has passed 135 resolutions condemning member states. 68 of these were against Israel alone, the remaining 67 against the rest of the world.
“UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted in 2016, ‘Decades of political maneuverings have created a disproportionate volume of resolutions, reports and conferences criticizing Israel. In many cases, rather than helping the Palestinian cause, this reality has hampered the ability of the UN to fulfill its role effectively.’
“The UNHRC’s predecessor, the UN Commission on Human Rights, was similarly politicized with a disproportionate focus on Israel. This caused former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to criticize the UN Commission on Human Rights’ ‘declining credibility and professionalism [that] cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nation’s system as a whole.” Aware that the Commission had degenerated into a forum for demonizing Israel, the UN voted to disband it in March 2006 and replaced with the UN Human Rights Council.
“Unfortunately, the UNHRC devolved into the same pattern of politicization. Its current members include such non-democratic states as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cuba and Venezuela. Despite these governments’ abysmal human rights records, the UNHRC has not once condemned their behavior. This allows these governments to freely continue their repression of hundreds of millions of their citizens.
“The failure is the UN’s and we hope the U.S. withdrawal will create momentum to fix this broken system.” — From StandWithUs
Preceding stories culled from news releases