President Bush held his first White House meeting with
leaders of Jewish communal organizations a few weeks ago,
but the heads of the Reform and Conservative movements were
left off the guest list.
Acccording to the Forward, leaders of two Orthodox
groups joined colleagues from a half-dozen non-religious
Jewish organizations at the March 7 parley. Reform and
Conservative movements were conspicuously missing.
The slight raises questions about access to the Bush White
House. Some observers suggested that the guest list
reflected a desire by Bush to meet with groups that have
backed him. Whatever Bush's reasoning, the guest list is
being taken as a sign of who's up and who's down in
Washington.
"The president wants to talk to people who are supportive,"
said the head of the Reform movement's Union of American
Hebrew Congregations, Eric Yoffie. "The Orthodox Union is.
We're not."
Several attendees said that representatives of the non-
religious Jewish groups voiced the views of the Reform and
Conservative movements. They included the American Jewish
Committee, American Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation
League, B'nai B'rith International, Hadassah and United
Jewish Communities.
Most attendees interviewed by the Forward downplayed
the significance of the two movements being left out. "I
don't think we should read too much into these things," said
one participant, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman
of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations. "They wanted to keep it small," he said.
In addition to the community groups present, nine
representatives of the Republican Jewish Coalition took
part, according to the group's executive director Matthew
Brooks.
The two Orthodox groups represented, Agudas Yisroel
of America and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of
America, are strong supporters of parts of Bush's domestic
agenda, including school vouchers and faith-based social
services. Both were careful to reach out to Bush even before
his inauguration.
The Reform movement has been a vocal opponent of both
policies.
Less clear was the reason for excluding the Conservative
movement, which has not taken a position on the contested
issues.
Rabbi David Zweibel, executive vice president for government
and public affairs at Agudas Yisroel, defended the
president's guest list and said the non-religious groups
adequately reflected Reform and Conservative viewpoints.
On the other hand, he said, if Mr. Bush were to have left
out the Orthodox, it would have been "a misportrayal of the
American Jewish community."
"We did notice that we weren't there and that other groups
were there," said the executive vice president of the United
Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Jerome Epstein. "Our
issue is trying to figure out if this is a one-time
occurrence" or "a deliberate decision."
The Forward article noted that other groups left off
the invitation list included the Jewish Council for Public
Affairs, an association of Jewish community relations
councils, and the National Council of Jewish Women.
Neither the White House press office nor the president's
liaison to the Jewish community, Adam Goldman, who was
present at the March 7 exchange, would comment on the
meeting or how the invitees were selected.
A one-time Republican White House liaison to the Jewish
community, Jacob Stein, is also a former Conservative
movement official. He said he was surprised that the
Conservative movement had not been included in the
meeting.
Since the discussion addressed issues of faith-based funding
and social welfare, he said, "I would have thought they
would have the full spectrum" of Jewish religious
organizations.
Bush devoted much of the meeting, which lasted nearly an
hour, to the Middle East.
The president "could not have been stronger in every
reference" to Israel, said Mr. Hoenlein, whose group, a
coalition of 54 national organizations, is often seen in
Washington as the main voice of organized American Jews.
According to the Forward, Bush discussed his policy
of dual containment toward Iran and Iraq, and he spoke of
the need to check the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction in the Middle East and to build strategic
alliances with moderate nations in the region, several
participants said. He also argued for the development of a
missile-defense system.
Several of those present noted the president's evident
willingness to consider divergent points of view and his
familiarity with a broad range of Jewish concerns, from the
threat of Iranian-sponsored terrorism to the Workplace
Religious Freedom Act, which would require employers to
accommodate needs of religious employees.
The chief executive officer of United Jewish Communities,
Stephen Solender, said he cautioned the president on
changing tax policy, urging him to maintain tax incentives
that encourage charitable donations, because "our social
services are so dependent on those contributions."
