US Jewish Federations to Drop ‘Zionism’ from their Global Plans

By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus

Published: July 27th, 2012
Latest update: July 29th, 2012

Susan Stern, the 2011-2012 National Campaign Chair Designate of The Jewish Federations of North America, visited the Wailing Wall in 2005 with then U.S Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Now Stern et al may be dropping the term "Zionism" from their organizational vocabulary.
Photo Credit: Flash90

See an update at the end of this report.

In what has been described as "a closeted and cowardly move," the Jewish Federations of North America last week rejected the inclusion of the term "Zionism" in a major system-wide planning document.

The JFNA's Global Planning Table is the mechanism by which JFNA and Federation leadership come together to determine the allocation of dollars for new Federation initiatives outside of the United States.  The Report issued by this collaborative is considered a building block of the allocations decision making process, and it was the call to include Zionism in the recent report that was rejected.  The Global Planning Table page of the JFNA website does not include either the term Zionism or Israel.

Richard Wexler, former chair of the Chicago Federation and national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal in the late '90's, revealed yesterday, July 26, that JFNA's leaders have rejected the inclusion of the term "Zionism" in their Global Planning Table Work Group Report  because the term "is too controversial."
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