Jerry Silverman, president and CEO of Jewish Federations of North America, which recently dropped Loeb & Troper. Image by jfna

By Josh Nathan-Kazis October 27, 2016

The board of trustees of the Jewish Federations of North America has voted to allow at least some trips operated under its auspices to visit Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The October 26 vote overturns a longstanding policy under which JFNA missions were barred from visiting Israeli-controlled areas of the West Bank.

It was not immediately clear whether the vote creates a narrow exemption for certain trips, or constitutes a wholesale change to JFNA policy.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The JFNA’s attitude towards the West Bank settlements is particularly fraught, as the organization functions as an umbrella group for dozens of local Jewish charities with a range of political views.

The JFNA’s board vote on settlement visits came days before the scheduled departure of an interfaith clergy mission to Israel run by the Israel Action Network, a JFNA subsidiary. The Israel Action Network became part of the JFNA this past year; it was previously a subsidiary of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

Last year, the Israel Action Network’s interfaith clergy trip visited a coexistence program called Shorashim in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, which was permitted under the rules of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. This year’s trip, the first under the JFNA’s auspices, would have been barred from making a similar visit.

The interfaith clergy group also visited Jewish and Christian sites in Israel proper, met with Palestinian officials in Ramallah, and visited a church in Bethlehem.

“Today, the JFNA Board of Trustees approved a number of appropriate and necessary protocols to support the advocacy and education trips of the [Israel Action Network],” the JFNA said in a statement. “This vote ensures that IAN will continue to travel to Israel and the surrounding areas, not historically visited by JFNA staff.”

The scheduled vote was first reported October 25 by the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, which obtained a copy of an email announcing the vote sent by JFNA president Jerry Silverman.

The board would vote on whether to “authorize the entry of JFNA missions, including federation community missions planned through JFNA, into Israeli-controlled territories beyond the Green Line (e.g., Ariel or Gush Etzion, etc.),” Silverman wrote, according to the Jewish Journal.

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount