So as the country is becoming more liberal on social issues, I think they are great allies. And like Jews, they are disproportionately represented in many walks of life. You have a few very famous Mormon politicians on both sides of the aisle.
Some Jews fear working with Christians, remembering all the centuries of persecution their ancestors suffered at the hand of Christian anti-Semites in Europe.
The church was often our enemy in Europe. So was the government. But this government is our friend and [so are] many of the churches. And the Mormons are a totally American creation. We have no negative history with the Mormons. They never persecuted us. In fact, they view themselves as a persecuted minority.
Your predecessor, Rabbi Pesach Lerner, campaigned heavily for the release of Jonathan Pollard. Does your promise to “return Young Israel to its roots” mean you will be abandoning the Pollard issue or just placing less emphasis on it?
It’s funny you ask the question this week because over 100 members of the Israeli Knesset, including some of the Arab members, just voted for the immediate release of Pollard and the prime minister met with Jonathan Pollard’s wife.
In the wake of [revelations that] the NSA has been monitoring e-mails of a number of Israeli ministers in the government, I think there has been a renewed call by the Conference of Presidents, the Reform movement, the Conservative movement, and the Israeli government – which really originally tried to distance itself from Pollard… all of them did – to ask for Pollard’s release. I think the majority of the Jewish community believes that he’s been in jail way too long.
That having been said, we are primarily a synagogue service organization. I’m returning us to our roots. So, God forbid, we’re not abandoning [the Pollard issue], but it’s not the raison d’être of the organization. I also think we’ve been very successful in this area so that now the organized Jewish community is really taking up this cause.
Since you took over the helm of the National Council of Young Israel a few months ago, you have cut the organization’s costs by 50 percent. However, you also let go of many employees in the process. Does this mean Young Israel is now doing less?
I think this organization not only has to be relevant but it has to be a leading force in American Jewish life. It’s a 100-year-old organization, so it was doing a lot of things. But I think we need to find areas where no one is leading and to make a difference in those areas.
I don’t want to duplicate services with my friends at Agudah, OU, or Yeshiva University. We’re really going to focus on areas they are not focused on.
For example, we’re reevaluating our magazine. Viewpoint, which has come out for at least 60 years, has a great history. But the OU publishes a beautiful magazine called Jewish Action. There doesn’t need to be two Jewish Actions. There’s also The Jewish Press, which is an excellent publication. So we’re reevaluating it. If we do continue publishing Viewpoint, it will have to fill a niche that no one else is filling. That’s just one example.
