Karen Paikin Barall, then-Director of Government Relations of Hadassah, at the American Zionist Movement / AZM Washington Forum: Renewing the Bipartisan Commitment Standing with Israel and Zionism in the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C., Dec. 12, 2018. (Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(JTA) — The head of Jewish Federations of North America is doubling down on nonpartisanship after one of his executives upset colleagues last week by signaling excitement about Jewish settlement in Gaza.
The remark by Karen Paikin Barall, JFNA’s vice president of government relations, came during a meeting in Washington, D.C., held a week after Donald Trump’s reelection. It underscored emerging fault lines within American Jewish organizations as they navigate a second Trump administration.
Speaking to leaders of local Jewish community relations councils, Barall said, according to notes taken by an attendee, “We should all look forward to the day we can hope to buy townhouses in the West Bank and Gaza.”
The remark appeared to endorse a key goal of the Israeli far right: resettling Gaza. Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have both endorsed the idea of returning Jews to Gaza after the war. And even though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he rejects the idea, it remains high on the wish list of some of Israel’s supporters, including some who voted for Trump.
In June, the right-wing Zionist Organization of America hosted a “Gaza After the War” seminar that featured two representatives of the Nachala Settlement Movement, which is active in building illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and has similar designs on Gaza.
Barall noted that Trump had just nominated former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel. Unlike most American Jews, Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, believes all of the West Bank belongs to Israel by divine right, a position that would preclude a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Some in the room at last week’s meeting said Barall’s comments distressed them.
“We all left pretty offended, honestly,” said one Jewish community relations council leader who was present.
“I want to make sure that there’s an organization that speaks out about Israel’s democracy,” said the official. “I thought JFNA stood for a democratic state. That’s what was troubling to me.”
Others said they interpreted Barall’s comment merely as a joke that had fallen flat.
“When that session was held, it was still only one week from the elections, and a lot of the JCRC directors who are progressive and represent progressive communities were emotionally raw,” an official from a different JCRC said. ”Karen was trying to put an optimistic spin, some potential advantages for Jewish communities as a result of the new elections, and joked.”
The official continued, “I think her jokes were meant simply as jokes to alleviate tension, and people simply weren’t in the mood to hear it, because of the rawness of the emotion in the room. I don’t think there’s anything more to it than that.”
What’s clear is that the remarks quickly ricocheted out of the room and have continued to prompt conversation and concern among some who have been aware of them.
A Jewish communal official who was not in the room reported receiving alarmed texts from 10 to 12 people while the session was underway.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency spoke directly with six people in the room, including one who took notes; of them, four confirmed Barrall’s comments about Gaza. Two others said they could not recall the comments.
Barall declined to comment. JFNA did not dispute the officials’ accounts, which it described as “second-hand.”
Still, Eric Fingerhut, JFNA’s CEO, said the group was taking the episode “seriously.”
“This report is a second-hand account of an informal, off-the-record briefing just days after the election, but we take seriously even the perception that we would in any way stray from these values,” Fingerhut said. “Jewish Federations take great pride in being nonpartisan organizations that represent the broad majority of the Jewish community, and will do everything in our power to ensure we remain that way.”
No one except Fingerhut agreed to be quoted by name about the meeting, which came at the end of the JFNA General Assembly, where staff and lay leaders of the network of Jewish philanthropies gather each year. The vast majority Jewish community relations councils, or JCRCs, are affiliated with the federation system, and rely on its funding.
The federation movement has traditionally tried to steer clear of internal Israeli politics, especially on hot-button security issues. In its fundraising and grant-making, it prefers to fund economic and educational development within Israel, and promote religious diversity and social welfare. When it does weigh in on national security issues, it tends to reflect what polls say is the American Jewish majority’s support for a two-state solution.
Now, with Trump returning to office, some of the people in the room with Barall are concerned that her comments indicate that JFNA may not be a partner in fighting for the liberal values most American Jews still prize.
“I don’t really know what’s going on, because that doesn’t seem to represent what they’ve historically done, and I don’t know why they would shift to the right that much,” the first official said. “But my main takeaway is we can’t rely on them for a national strategy.”
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