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since Wed, 26 Dec 2007 20:04:17.
Ohio Jews Fail to Understand We Are Principals in American Society
There are more and more Jews serving in high positions in Ohio government than ever, per the Cleveland Jewish News.
"I cannot ever remember this many Jews serving at this high a level" in state government, notes Joyce Garver Keller, veteran lobbyist for Ohio Jewish Communities, the coalition of big-city Jewish federations. "It's amazing to me."
Garver Keller says the accelerated leadership roles struck her when she attended the new governor's State of the State Address last February and noticed how many of the movers and shakers were Jewish. [emphasis Weiss's] "It was like a minyan gathering," she quips.
"This is huge," says June Gutterman, vice president of community services for the Columbus Jewish Federation. "But it's also a coincidence."
Other Jewish leaders and activists repeat virtually that same phrase to indicate that these Jewish office-holders have been elected or appointed not because they are Jewish, but simply because they're competent and involved... Still, political analysts and activists agree this new level of Jewish power is a logical culmination of political and civic involvement by Jews over the years.
"Jews do have a tremendous commitment to public service," notes Garver Keller. "Jews are so engaged in their community."
The explanations that the News offers for this trend are fatuous. Besides love of public service and competence, another explanation is that Jews are loyal Democrats. But blacks are, too, and they're not represented in this manner. The true explanation involves class. Jews are highly successful and represent a large segment of the new meritocratic establishment. This fact is to be celebrated, but it also means that Jewish movers and shakers are not where they are by coincidence, no--because they are close to the levers of economic and social advancement. That means that we are responsible in new ways. When will we own this?
In January 2003, AIPAC came to the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (KSG) to recruit the summer's interns to spy on the Congressman for whom they are working. Now of course, AIPAC told us with a wink that the purpose was simply to keep congressmen informed with the best and most up-to-date information. And of course, the careers of anyone that did a good job would benefit immensely from this work.
Obviously, some group efforts are perfectly reasonable.
Others are not. A lot of the grief that Nadia Abu el Haj received was simply for staking out space in a territory that a lot of Jewish academics considered their own.
Well, the behavior of her persecutors was probably illegal, and the Federal, State and City government probably should have started an investigation.
Why didn't it happen? Could the presence of a large number of Jews in the government legal offices have been an issue? What about the all purpose charge of anti-Semitism?
A lot of what Israel advocates, the organized Jewish community and unofficial Jewish networks do crosses the line into civil infractions, tax code violations, FEC violations, securities fraud and other crimes, conspiracy against rights and even into seditious conspiracy.
The behavior has a long history, and it is making conditions difficult in many professions for those that some group of Zionists does not like.
See
http://eaazi.blogspot.com/2007/09/origins-of-zionist-lobby.html
http://eaazi.blogspot.com/2007/12/african-americans-jews-and-islamophobia.html
http://www.eaazi.org/ThorsProvoni/C__Judonia1.pdf (I cleaned it up, and the links in the pdf file should work properly now.)
The Israel Lobby is probably unique among lobbies for foreign governments in that a foreign government does not pay for it and that it has generally operated with impunity.
In fact, legally AIPAC is not an agent of a foreign government, and many have complained, but I believe the legal status is correct because it follows the orders not of Tel Aviv but of a small group of wealthy group of Zionist American donors, for whom the State of Israel is a vehicle to greater wealth, status and power.
Anyway, Wexner, who has enmeshed Harvard University, in a tremendous breach of the tax code, is a major political donor in Ohio as well as contributor to organizations that encourage Jewish identification like the Wexner Heritage Foundation.
[Leslie Wexner is the billionaire founder of The Limited, Victoria's Secret, and several other major retail chains.]
Does AIPAC's brazenness at Harvard correlate with Wexner's donations to Harvard and the establishment of the Harvard Wexner Israel Fellowship, which violates the anti-racist principles of Bob Jones Univ. v. United States, 461 U. S. 574 (1983)? (See below. The Harvard Wexner Israel Fellowship depends on Israeli discrimination against Palestinians to guarantee underrepresentation of Palestinian recipients.)
Do Wexner's political donations contribute to the presence of Jews in the Ohio government?
The Wexner Israel fellowship encourages the establishment of strong personal relationships between Israeli Jews rising in the public sector and important US government officials.
Most of the Jews in the Ohio government are not elected officials. It almost looks like an effort on the part of large Jewish donors to leverage their influence by making sure that Jews are in positions to decide who benefits from state revenue disbursements. Because Jewish public officials work to eliminate public funding of African American organizations, whose leaders are critical of Israel, public anti-Zionism among African Americans has been quite effectively suppressed.
The public leveraging of Jewish political donations into disproportionate public influence has a parallel within the organized Jewish community where large donors have especially since 1991 systematically increased their influence in response to some flawed demographic studies that predicted the imminent vanishing of the American Jewish community through intermarriage. A very effective scare campaign by Jewish Federation personnel raised a lot of money that seems to have substantially increased the salaries of the upper ranks of Jewish Federation employees. The fear-mongering inspired the creation of the Mega Group and later some similar organizations among wealthy Jews. After 2001 it is hard to find much mention of Mega as a formal organization, but Mega Jews and Mega-funded organizations like the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) remain extremely active. (FDD was originally known by the Hebrew moniker Emet, which means truth).
The Mega article below discusses the Mega Group in some detail. Note the Wexner is systematically misidentified as Wexler. This article pooh-pooh's the role of Mega in Israel lobbying and advocacy, but the organization managed to insert itself in Jewish and Holocaust education throughout the country. According to the article, "Edgar Bronfman is quoted saying [in the context of Mega] 'We want it to be cool to be Jewish.'" As Chairman of the International Hillel Society [IHS] Board of Governors, Bronfman has worked extremely hard to make Palestinians and American Muslims extremely uncool, and the IHS has routinely sent out fund-raising letters accusing prominent Palestinian and Muslim Americans like Huwaida Arraf of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement and Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society of all sorts of perfidious terrorist connections. Because the extensive mailing lists associated with the International Hillel Society and other Mega organizations include many Jewish officials, the US and certainly the Ohio governments are pre-indoctrinated through their Jewish officials long before Jewish or Israel advocates go to work on any specific project.
Mega from Jewish Achievement
If there is one group working hard, albeit quietly, to sustain philanthropy directed to Israel and Jewish causes, it is Mega.
On December 21, 2001, Forward, a leading Jewish publication, did a story titled "Moneyed 'Study Group' Is Engine for Charity Revolution" It provided historical background and an inside look at the goals of "mega-group," more commonly called Mega. It followed by more than two years, a May 4, 1998 Wall Street Journal story, "Titans of Industry Join Forces To Work for Jewish Philanthropy," the first significant mainstream press reporting on Mega.
Mega is probably the single most powerful and influential group of philanthropists to support Jewish causes and Israel. As described in the Forward story, Rabbi Brian Lurie, former chief executive of the United Jewish Appeal (UJA), first assembled what would become the original Mega group in 1991. His purpose was to arrange financial support for Operation Exodus, the UJA program to bring Jews from the Soviet Union to Israel as the Soviet Union collapsed. Rabbi Lurie arranged for a small group ("a dozen or so") very wealthy Jews to provide the needed support, operating under the leadership of Charles Bronfman and Leslie Wexler. The group soon took on the flavor of a "911" service, ready to organize and fund efforts required to respond to any major crises threatening Jews.
Over time, Mega's scope broadened. The "study group" has since become a forum for discussing perspectives on philanthropy and Jewishness. As assimilation, marriages outside the faith, and other forces have weaned Jews from their religion and culture, Mega has attempted to respond by encouraging a certain pride and commitment to retaining Jewish heritage. Edgar Bronfman is quoted saying "We want it to be cool to be Jewish." Steven Speilberg spoke about his "personal religious journey" when he attended the April 1998 meeting. Members share their perspectives on philanthropy and how to have the greatest impact from their sometimes entrepreneurial approaches to practicing it.
They also promote their own high priority projects and attempt to enlist support from fellow members. Thus, in Mega, the talk is not about funding a new hospital or library, unless it is one needed in Israel, or in some part of the world where Jews are poorly served. There is also a commitment to helping Israel in a wide ranging series of projects.
Among major projects that members have singly, or jointly pursued are:
- Hillel - support of its on-campus Jewish chaplaincy
- STAR - Synagogue Transformation and Renewal
- Partnership for Jewish Education - an $18 million project to provide matching grants for Jewish day schools.
- Birthright Israel - helping to send any young Jew, who wishes to go, to Israel; as of December 2001, 22,000 young people had already gone.
- Jewish Campus Service Corps - allowing recent college graduates to provide at least a year's service supporting "Jewish life" on college campuses.
- Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education
- Bronfman Curriculum Initiative - intended to help private high schools teach Jewish ethics and philosophy (an early program not considered particularly successful)
- Foundation for Jewish camping (and summer camps)
- Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) - formerly called Emet and occasionally called "Truth," a controversial "think tank" intended to provide education about terrorism and to better communicate Israeli perspective to the American public. One project brought 52 undergraduates, 19 professors and a journalist to Israel to see, first hand, the effects of terrorists. Another organized a conference for Iraqi women in conjunction with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Mega reportedly meets twice a year, typically over dinner the night before with a session the next day. Often there are presentations by non-members and sometimes spouses attend. Members pay annual dues ($30,000 per year in 1998) to cover costs of "research, speakers and incidentals."
Mega does not release a membership list, but among those who are or have been members are some of America's wealthiest and most prominent Jews: Charles and Edward Bronfman, Leslie Wexner, Michael Steinhardt, Howard "Bud" Meyerhoff, Leonard Abramson, Lester Crown, Marvin Lender, and John Goldman. Charles Schusterman, Laurence Tisch, and Max Fisher (all now deceased), were early members of Mega. At the time of the May 1998 meeting, Steven Spielberg was reportedly considering membership.
Mega's initial success led to formation of other mega like groups whose members reportedly include Bernard Marcus and Peter May. An international group may include the Arison family, the Bronfmans, and others, including members of the Rothschild family.
Mega's members work to keep the group private and low profile. Should one wonder why, a Google search of the word "mega" together with the name of any prominent member will yield a case study of Web based suspicion, hate, and anti-Semitism. In any group of one hundred such Google links, two-thirds will likely be negative screeds. Among them, the Neo-Nazis and right wing kooks allege:
- Mega is (or was) a tool of Massad, the Israeli Intelligence Service, perhaps functioning as a mole in the Clinton Whitehouse.
- No, not a tool of Massad, Mega actually gives orders to Israel's prime minister, since its members' wealth makes Mega more powerful than anyone in Israel,
- No, it is tied to the Israeli's who were behind 9/11.
- No, it is an Israeli lobbying organization, doing Israel's dirty work in Washington, (perhaps they blackmailed George W. Bush, threatening to get John McCain elected if Bush had not towed the line and avoided criticizing Sharon.)
- No, Mega wants to keep Israel from reaching any peace deal with the Palestinians because Mega members would lose money, or peace would somehow dissipate the commitment of Jews to being Jewish.
- No, most members have family histories in organized crime; they are just perpetuating the family business.
- And, Mega member Michael Steinhart, "son of a Mafia don" is the key figure behind the Clinton pardon of Marc Rich.
Mega also comes in for criticism from Israeli liberals. They generally see Mega's concentration of powerful people as threatening and feel that instead of supporting Jews and Jewishness, Mega should be supporting internationalism and the Palestinian cause. In this way, Mega should support humanity, "as Lenin did", rather than Jewishness. Mega should head up a non-exclusionist movement for brotherhood within Palestine.
Finaly, despite the role of the UJA in its formation, and the major role Mega members have played in UJA and similar organizations, there are some Jews who express concern that Mega is diluting the efforts of the Federation and UJA.
Bob Jones Univ. v. United States, 461 U. S. 574 (1983)
Link to the Case Preview: http://supreme.justia.com/us/461/574/
Link to the Full Text of Case: http://supreme.justia.com/us/461/574/case.html
U.S. Supreme Court
Bob Jones Univ. v. United States, 461 U.S. 574 (1983)
Bob Jones University v. United States
No. 81-3
Argued October 12, 1982
Decided May 24, 1983
461 U.S. 574
Syllabus
Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 (IRC) provides that "[c]orporations . . . organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable . . . or educational purposes" are entitled to tax exemption. Until 1970, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) granted tax-exempt status under § 501(c)(3) to private schools, independent of racial admissions policies, and granted charitable deductions for contributions to such schools under § 170 of the IRC. But in 1970, the IRS concluded that it could no longer justify allowing tax-exempt status under § 501(c)(3) to private schools that practiced racial discrimination, and in 1971 issued Revenue Ruling 71-447 providing that a private school not having a racially nondiscriminatory policy as to students is not "charitable" within the common law concepts reflected in §§ 170 and 501(c)(3). In No. 81-3, petitioner Bob Jones University, while permitting unmarried Negroes to enroll as students, denies admission to applicants engaged in an interracial marriage or known to advocate interracial marriage or dating. Because of this admissions policy, the IRS revoked the University's tax-exempt status. After paying a portion of the federal unemployment taxes for a certain taxable year, the University filed a refund action in Federal District Court, and the Government counterclaimed for unpaid taxes for that and other taxable years. Holding that the IRS exceeded its powers in revoking the University's tax-exempt status and violated the University's rights under the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment, the District Court ordered the IRS to refund the taxes paid and rejected the counterclaim. The Court of Appeals reversed. In No. 81-1, petitioner Goldsboro Christian Schools maintains a racially discriminatory admissions policy based upon its interpretation of the Bible, accepting for the most part only Caucasian students. The IRS determined that Goldsboro was not an organization described in § 501(c)(3), and hence was required to pay federal social security and unemployment taxes. After paying a portion of such taxes for certain years, Goldsboro filed a refund suit in Federal District Court, and the IRS counterclaimed for unpaid taxes. The District Court entered summary judgment for
the IRS, rejecting Goldsboro's claim to tax-exempt status under § 501(c) (3) and also its claim that the denial of such status violated the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment. The Court of Appeals affirmed.
Held: Neither petitioner qualifies as a tax-exempt organization under § 501(c)(3). P P. 585-605.
(a) An examination of the IRC's framework and the background of congressional purposes reveals unmistakable evidence that, underlying all relevant parts of the IRC, is the intent that entitlement to tax exemption depends on meeting certain common law standards of charity -- namely, that an institution seeking tax-exempt status must serve a public purpose and not be contrary to established public policy. Thus, to warrant exemption under § 501(c)(3), an institution must fall within a category specified in that section, and must demonstrably serve and be in harmony with the public interest, and the institution's purpose must not be so at odds with the common community conscience as to undermine any public benefit that might otherwise be conferred. P P. 585-592.
(b) The IRS's 1970 interpretation of § 501(c)(3) was correct. It would be wholly incompatible with the concepts underlying tax exemption to grant tax-exempt status to racially discriminatory private educational entities. Whatever may be the rationale for such private schools' policies, racial discrimination in education is contrary to public policy. Racially discriminatory educational institutions cannot be viewed as conferring a public benefit within the above "charitable" concept or within the congressional intent underlying § 501(c)(3). P P. 592-596.
(c) The IRS did not exceed its authority when it announced its interpretation of § 501(c)(3) in 1970 and 1971. Such interpretation is wholly consistent with what Congress, the Executive, and the courts had previously declared. And the actions of Congress since 1970 leave no doubt that the IRS reached the correct conclusion in exercising its authority. P P. 596-62.
(d) The Government's fundamental, overriding interest in eradicating racial discrimination in education substantially outweighs whatever burden denial of tax benefits places on petitioners' exercise of their religious beliefs. Petitioners' asserted interests cannot be accommodated with that compelling governmental interest, and no less restrictive means are available to achieve the governmental interest. P P. 602-604.
(e) The IRS properly applied its policy to both petitioners. Goldsboro admits that it maintains racially discriminatory policies, and, contrary to Bob Jones University's contention that it is not racially discriminatory, discrimination on the basis of racial affiliation and association is a form of racial discrimination. P. 605.
No. 81-1, 644 F.2d 879, and No. 81-3, 639 F.2d 147, affirmed.
BURGER, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BRENNAN, WHITE, MARSHALL, BLACKMUN, STEVENS, and O'CONNOR, JJ., joined, and in Part III of which POWELL, J., joined. POWELL, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, post, P. 606. REHNQUIST, J., filed a dissenting opinion, post, P. 612.
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