Recently the Boston chapter of the Workmen’s Circle, a venerable left-wing American Jewish organization primarily dedicated to the preservation of Yiddish culture, signed a petition sponsored by the virulently anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) in support of boycotts of the Jewish state. In response, the Boston Jewish Community Relations Council—a nondenominational umbrella group—has begun the process of expelling the Workmen’s Circle. Jonathan Tobin defends this decision:
Inclusion has become the watchword in Jewish life because . . . traditional institutions like synagogues and umbrella philanthropies like federations have been in rapid decline. As surveys have shown, a population that is increasingly assimilated and intermarried has no use for the old paradigms of Jewish life. . . . [Y]oung Jews are also turned off by groups operating under the assumptions of past generations, as well as by the false perception that support for Israel is incompatible with being a modern progressive. Add to that a popular culture in which all expressions of parochial identity (except those identified with select minority groups)—let alone an ideology like Zionism that is demonized by the far-left—are presumed to be racist.
Under these circumstances, finding ways to include Jews who are on the margins is a must. Drawing lines that will exclude or alienate people is not unreasonably seen as exacerbating a problem that stems from a demographic implosion among the non-Orthodox.
And yet, drawing some lines isn’t so much an option as a necessity. . . . A Jewish community that prizes inclusion above all other values may have a big tent, but one that treats allies of anti-Semites as accepted members is one that will ultimately stand for nothing. And a community that stands for nothing cannot survive. It might turn off those who have no interest in Jewish peoplehood, but it’s high time for all Jewish organizations to make it clear that those who are bent on aiding Israel’s enemies have no place inside our big tents.
Read more on JNS: https://www.jns.org/opinion/how-progressives-are-destroying-the-jewish-big-tent/