Who did the White House invite for Hanukkah?
The Bush administration is rubbing shoulders with Jewish representatives from the Orthodox movement, who are seen as much closer to the president's positions. And the big Jewish organizations are feeling insulted.
By Natan Guttman
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/436876.html

Invitations to events at the White House are a precious commodity in the American capital, as are meetings with senior administration officials, and appearances by U.S. President George W. Bush at organizational conventions. The shares of anyone who is lucky enough to participate in an event with the president rise on the local political stock exchange, and naturally the shares of anyone who is left out, lose ground.

It is therefore not surprising to find that in the Jewish political world in Washington, there are some who check just who was invited to the Hanukkah party at the White House, who was chosen to serve on a delegation meeting the president, and who can pick up the telephone and speak with administration officials.

During the years of Bush's term, this list has changed diametrically - veteran bigwigs and established organizations have been left out, while representatives close to the administration's positions, as well as field activists who were anonymous in the national arena, are being granted much "presidential time" and open doors at the White House. This new order has left more than a few activists embittered.

One example is the Hanukkah candlelighting ceremony at the White House in December. The president's office invited a few dozen Jewish representatives to participate in the event, but some who were there noticed that many of the others, perhaps even half, were not familiar faces in the Jewish organizational landscape. These were local rabbis, field activists and Jewish Republicans, who until then had not been active in the Washington political scene.

Afraid of the changes

The most recent incident to raise eyebrows among Jewish activists in Washington was the selection of the American delegation to the Conference on Anti-Semitism held in Berlin at the end of April. Chosen to head the delegation was Ed Koch, a former mayor of New York and a Democrat who has already declared his support for Bush in the upcoming elections. Alongside him were five representatives of Jewish organizations, three of which are considered to be in line with the president or his views: Betty Ehrenberg, director of International and Communal Affairs for the Orthodox Union, Fred Zeidman, chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum who is also a personal friend of Bush's, and Jay Lefkowitz, a lawyer and staunch Republican who is active in the Bush reelection campaign, and who served in the White House under President Bush's father.

Sometimes the struggle over a ticket to a function graced by the president also affects events that seem far removed from any controversy. Such was the case with the opening of the Anne Frank Exhibition at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The White House held a fancy reception in honor of the event, and the guests were chauffeured to the museum where they viewed the exhibition with First Lady Laura Bush before returning to the White House for a kosher meal with the president. Here too, however, some people were insulted.

Among the 150 guests again were many who had not been seen before - Republican Jews, Jewish donors to the Bush campaign and Orthodox rabbis. The organized Jewish establishment was compelled to make do with just two invitations, which were given to members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

"It's the museum, not the White House, that put out the invitations," explained Zeidman, a Texas Jew who was appointed museum chairman by Bush. "Almost everyone invited was involved in the exhibition. Everyone complains all the time because everyone thinks he is entitled to everything," he said, adding that he receives no fewer complaints from Republicans, who think it is they who are being ignored by the White House.

None of the activists in Washington wants to admit that he is no longer on the White House's list of most favored. In a political city, such an admission is an expression of weakness. Still, more than a few Jewish officials have expressed their dissatisfaction with the White House's new list of priorities on everything concerning the Jewish community.

"In the more formal kinds of set ups," says Jess Hordes, Washington director of the (Anti-Defamation League), "this administration chose to reach out to other groups." He notes, however, that his organization continues to enjoy a good relationship with the administration.

Lewis Roth, of Americans for Peace Now, one of the organizations that benefited from an open door when Bill Clintion was president, says that the Bush administration "tends to talk more often with those parts of the community that it thinks are most likely to agree with its policies. Not surprisingly, we've seen several photo-ops with Orthodox groups and meetings with American Jewish organizations on the center-right of the political spectrum." Roth, too, hastens to add that his organization still has access to all departments of the administration.

"This administration tends to be a bit more political," adds Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of the Reform movement. "We are not shut out, but there is less of an attempt to reach out."

One Jewish official, who asked to remain anonymous, mentioned a conversation he had with Adam Goldman, former White House liaison to the Jewish community, in the early days of the Bush administration. "If you continue to criticize the president," Goldman had said, "you will get nothing from this administration."

That official, as well as others who were interviewed for this article, noted that the White House's attitude to Jewish organizations that are not necessarily identified with Bush himproved when Goldman was replaced with Tevi Troy (who was himself recently replaced).

"To a great extent," explains Hordes, "it has to do with the individuals that set the tone. There are those who try to be more political and there are those who understand the complexity of the community."

Ignoring the Reform

The question is not only who is received at the White House, but also whom the administration sends to appear before the Jews. During his term Bush has appeared at conventions of just two Jewish organizations - AIPAC (America-Israel Public Affairs Committee) in April, and the American Jewish Committee during his first year in office. These two organizations are not seen as posing a political problem from the president's perspective.

The Reform Movement, the largest Jewish religious organization in the United States, was not graced by even one senior official at its biennial convention, held six months ago. It is no accident that this is an organization that disagrees with the president's positions on most domestic issues.

The ones who are undoubtedly enjoying a fresh breeze from the White House are representatives of the Orthodox Union, who have become regular guests at the president's events. Nathan Diament, director of the OU's Institute for Public Affairs, confirms that the ideological proximity between his organization and Bush is certainly making life easier.

"We were able to get something pretty easily because the administration and Congress share our views," says Diament.

This is what happened after the earthquake in the Seattle area in 2000. Among the buildings damaged was the Orthodox synagogue, but the law prevents a religious institute from receiving federal aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

"We brought it to the attention of the White House after Bush came into office," relates Diament, "and we did not need a lot of convincing to explain that this contradicts the views of the president."

A few months later Bush signed a presidential order enabling the synagogue to receive about $1 million in aid for renovations.

According to the last National Jewish Population Study, 22 percent of American Jews are members of Orthodox synagogues, far fewer than Reform (38 percent) or Conservative (33 percent) membership, but the Orthodox have been enjoying Washington's favor. This is partly because they are relatively new players in the political arena; even more important, however, is the fact that they represent views that are similar to Bush's on most issues: like him, they are against abortions, against same-sex marriages, in favor of granting federal funding to faith-based institutions that are involved in social affairs, and in favor of distributing vouchers to public school students so that they can study at private religious schools at the government's expense. The Orthodox even support drilling for oil in the Arctic nature reserve in Alaska. These positions are unusual in the Jewish community, the majority of which still adheres to liberal views.

Bush has also declared his preference for making contacts with grassroots representatives of all the organizations, and not with the senior officials who head them. This is what he is doing with the Hispanic community, the African-American community and the Jewish organizations. One leading Jewish activist relates that at one of the events he was explicitly asked by the White House to submit a list of participants that would include not only the organization's Washington-based bureaucrats but also some real grassroots representatives. When these representatives take the places of the organization's officials alongside the president, it is clear why there are more than a few frustrated Jewish activists in the American capital.

Zeidman, who is a personal friend of the president, does not feel there is any reason to complain.

"This is the most bipartisan president the Jewish community has ever seen," says Zeidman stridently. "In the past, the White House was open only to big Democratic donors, and now the president is opening it to a wide spectrum of Jews."

- posted by Izak @ 9:29 PM