NY Times & Israel: All The Bias Fit To Print
FREEDOM & REDEMPTION
The Chanukah story -- a saga of freedom, redemption and religious faith -- continues to resonate deeply with the Jewish people. Chanukah begins tonight with the lighting of the Menorah. On behalf of The Birmingham Jewish Federation, we wish all of our Jewish readers a Happy Chanukah!
ALL THE BIAS FIT TO PRINT
The following is from the Jerusalem Post:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is refusing to pen an op-ed piece for the New York Times, signaling the degree to which he is fed up with the influential newspaper's editorial policy on Israel.
Netanyahu's senior adviser Ron Dermer made clear that this had much to do with the fact that 19 of the paper's 20 op-ed pieces on Israel since September were negative. Dermer's letter to the Times, saying that the prime minister would "respectfully decline," came a day after Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that the resounding ovation Netanyahu received in Congress when he spoke there in May had been "bought and paid for by the Israel lobby."
Dermer wrote that "the opinions of some of your regular columnists regarding Israel are well known. They constantly distort the positions of our government and ignore the steps it has taken to advance peace. They cavalierly defame our country by suggesting that marginal phenomena (which have been) condemned by Prime Minister Netanyahu, and virtually every Israeli official, somehow reflect government policy or Israeli society as a whole."
Click for more from the Jerusalem Post.
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ONGOING BJF EFFORTS
The above also illustrates the importance of The Birmingham Jewish Federation's ongoing efforts, through Update and other venues, to educate people about Israel. Unfortunately, we are living at a time when influential media, such as the New York Times, continue to demean Israel's efforts to attain peace and ignore Israel's acute and complicated security dilemmas.
BJF Update readers also might recall that Dermer, the Netanyahu aide mentioned above, is an Update reader himself. In an email last January to The BJF, Jerry Silverman, President & CEO of The Jewish Federations of North America, our national agency, wrote, "I was in Israel recently and met with Ron Dermer, the Senior Advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu. In our conversation, Ron shared his praise for the daily emails that come out from The Birmingham Jewish Federation."
"Ron thinks your articles are terrific and shares them with the Prime Minister," added Jerry. "Ron specifically asked that I share this with you. All of you should take pride that your work is recognized at the highest levels."
Everyday in so many ways, The BJF, through Update and other venues, such as the Birmingham News, strives to tell Israel's story, so people have a better understanding of its difficulties and dilemmas.
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ANALYZING THE BIAS
Meanwhile, in a separate column, Jerusalem Post columnist Isi Leibler, who is also an Update reader, provides an analysis of the Times' bias. Writes Leibler of the Times' coverage:
It was with the election of Netanyahu that the editors embarked on a determined all-out campaign to undermine and demonize the Israeli government while invariably providing the Palestinians with a free pass.
A constant stream of unbalanced editorials blasted Israel for the impasse and mercilessly attacked the government. It continuously "put the greater onus" for the failure of peace negotiations on Netanyahu "who is using any excuse to thwart peace efforts" and "refuses to make any serious compromises for peace."
Its columnists and op-eds have mimicked that behavior. For a newspaper purporting to provide diverse opinions, it rarely publishes dissenting viewpoints from its editorials and in-house columns which only find fault with the Israeli government.
'FRIENDING' THE FOUNDATION
In 2011 The Birmingham Jewish Foundation took a virtual page from Facebook and started a new project called "Friending the Foundation."
Foundation board members visited with people they knew to tell them about The Foundation and all the great things it does in the community. No hard sell, just great information and enthusiasm!
The Foundation and The Birmingham Jewish Federation work together to raise funds for community needs and new ideas. Most Foundation donors are contributors to The Birmingham Jewish Federation Annual Campaign as well.
These donors recognize the need to have a strong level of unrestricted funds each year to sustain our community while, at the same time, providing for the future by establishing Donor Advised Funds (from which donors make grant recommendations) or permanent endowment funds.
As a result of a remarkable level of community participation over the years, The Birmingham Jewish Foundation today has over 300 funds that have made grants of more than $11,000,000 in the last dozen years. Foundation grants have covered a wide array of needs and new initiatives.
Grants, for example, have helped fund efforts to combat Juvenile Diabetes and Alzheimer's. They have provided assistance for those who could not afford a Jewish burial for family members and helped children attend Jewish summer camps. Foundation grants have underwritten ethics lessons based on Pirke Avot ("Sayings of the Fathers") for pre-schoolers at the Levite Jewish Community Center and provided scholarships for students to attend the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School. Foundation funds also have helped provide a hand-up to disadvantaged teens in Israel and food baskets for poor Jewish elderly in eastern Europe. And these are just some of the grants!
The Foundation has donors who are as young as 12 and also donors in their 90s. With a $1000 Foundation contribution, one can open a fund designated for an organization or agency. With a $2500 donation, one can create a Donor Advised Fund from which grant recommendations can be made.
So, to borrow some Facebook lingo...if you "like" what you've read here, and would like to be "friended" by The Foundation to hear more about what we do, please "accept" our offer and contact Foundation Executive Director Sally Friedman at (205) 803-1519 or sallyf@bjf.org.
