Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Israelis Highlight First Day at J Street

J Street launched its latest annual conference with an emphasis on reaching out to Israelis.

The roster at the opening session Saturday night of the pro-Israel, dovish group was almost entirely Israeli.

“The best-kept secret about J st is that most Israelis agree with your goals,” said Michael Biton, the mayor of Yerucham, a development city in southern Israel, one of the key-note speakers at the opening event.

Also speaking was Stav Shaffir, a founder of the social protest movements in Israel last summer, and Amos Oz, the novelist and veteran peace activist.

Oz urged American Jews to back J Street, and not the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

“No one can claim Zionism for themselves, it’s a surname,” he said.

J Street has been dogged since its launch in 2008 by accusations from right wing pro-Israel groups that it does not have an indigenous Israeli constituency.

The conference theme is “Making History,” and other featured speakers include Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, and Valerie Jarrett, a top adviser to President Obama.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.