The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations is hosting a Hanukkah party this week in conjunction with Azerbaijan’s embassy in Washington. Although the event’s official theme is “freedom and diversity,” several Jewish organizations—including the Central Conference of American Rabbis (the major Reform rabbinic organization), Americans for Peace Now, and the Workmen’s Circle—are boycotting it. Why? Because the party is scheduled to take place at one of Donald Trump’s hotels. Ruthie Blum comments:
Responding to the hysteria, the Conference of Presidents’ executive vice-chairman Malcolm Hoenlein said . . . that the Azerbaijani embassy selected the venue based on its proximity to the White House, since many of the 150 to 200 guests will also be attending President Barack Obama’s Hanukkah party, which is taking place the same evening. Other hotels nearby were not available, Hoenlein said, or could not meet the requirement for kosher food.
But for these Jewish leftists, whose utter despair at last month’s election results knows no bounds, such arguments carry no weight. As far as they are concerned, any association with Trump—even one that involves eating jelly doughnuts in a building with his name on it—is worse than partaking of pork. . . . To justify their outrage on ostensibly sounder, more “legitimate” grounds, two of the groups—Americans for Peace Now and the Workmen’s Circle—lashed out at Azerbaijan. You know, a Muslim country with increasingly close diplomatic and strategic ties to Israel.
Read more on Israel Hayom: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=17835