Seattle’s New Jewish Leadership – Where Are They Taking Us?
*Warning: There is some coarse language in this article.
As the 2009 Gaza war known as Operation Cast Lead raged and rockets rained down upon Israeli civilians, Jewish activist Ben Murane condemned the two groups he described as terrorist entities equally responsible for the conflagration; Israel and Hamas.
Fast forward to 2014 and Operation Protective Edge where the same Ben Murane has been welcomed into the most inner of inner circles, playing a key role in determining the Seattle Jewish community’s response to the latest war against the Jewish state.
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Much has been written regarding Jewish-American Millennials and their drift from the 20th century model of communal engagement. We are told that their relationship to organized Judaism and especially to Israel, is no longer central to their self identity.
Jewish Federations and other non-profits across the country have rushed to understand and engage this new constituency, modifying their fund raising strategies to match their micro-targeted giving patterns. Meanwhile new organizations; more political, more partisan have sprung up in this new demographic reality.
Of these new organizations, most well known is J Street, created as a sort of anti-AIPAC. No less influential though is New Israel Fund (NIF), a multi million dollar United Way of left wing Israeli causes.
NIF pours millions annually into projects which many believe undermine Israel and foments animosity towards Israel amongst Jewish young adults. Legacy organizations like the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) have criticized NIF for funding groups opposed to Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.
Says ZOA National President Morton A. Klein “New Israel Fund pursues an anti-Israel, anti-Zionist agenda of funding and supporting numerous organizations that are working hard to demonize Israel in the international arena and also working diligently within Israel to hamper Israel’s ability to defend its citizens and even to maintain itself as a Jewish state.”
NIF is a primary funder of +972, a web-magazine that according to NGO Monitor serves as a platform for anti-Zionist advocacy. Writers and contributors for +972 regularly “invoke the rhetoric of demonization, accusing Israel of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, racism, land confiscation, discrimination and displacement“.
In an analysis regarding the notorious Goldstone Report, student organization Im Tirzu found that 92% of the “evidence” presented against Israel in a critical subsection of the report were made by NIF grantees. NIF vociferously contests these findings.
Recognizing the unique opportunity presented by the combination of progressive politics and moneyed tech professionals, NIF has expanded their presence into the Puget Sound area. The public face of that expanded presence in Seattle is NIF Director of Outreach, 31 year old Ben Murane.
FOR IT BEFORE HE WAS AGAINST IT
Seattle Community anti-BDS gathering. Was Murane for it or against it?
Murane has quickly made himself a central player in Seattle’s organized Jewish communal life, welcome in the classrooms of Hillel, the pulpits of synagogues and the halls of the Jewish Federation. Murane played an important role in the planning of a Seattle Jewish Federation initiated community wide anti-BDS event this past May.
Murane represented NIF as a co-sponsor of the May 28th gathering titled “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Campaign Against Israel: Bad for Jews in Seattle and Beyond?” He participated in the planning and helped construct the excruciatingly negotiated title. Yet inexplicably the day of the event, Murane broadcast his displeasure with the very program he helped plan. Murane tweeted his consternation that the featured speaker, Ari Shavit, wouldn’t be speaking of “The Nakba, Mizrahi inequality or religious freedom in Israel”. Instead, lamented Murane “Shavit will talk about BDS”.
Murane’s actions intrigued The Mike Report. Why would a community partner lend their name to a unity rally only to diminish the event just hours before it was held? Why would they sign on as a sponsor and help in the planning of the event only to declare ignorance and disappointment as to its message and theme?
Through an exploration of one of Seattle’s most prominent Jewish millennials we hope to provide readers with a better understanding of the worldview of a vocal and increasingly influential segment of Seattle’s Jewish community.
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Born in Southern California, Murane self describes as an Army brat who grew up across the West Coast and Great Plains in 14 homes, 11 cities, and 7 states before age 18. Murane attended a Catholic High school where he and a Muslim student leader were co-presidents of the Israel-Palestine peace club. He entered Seattle University in 2001, graduating with a degree in economics in 2005 after a brief detour to the University of Haifa in 2004.
Murane (right) chatting with anti-Israel activist Max Blumenthal at a 2009 event
Murane gained employment with a series of left leaning nonprofits before beginning his relationship with New Israel Fund in April of 2008. One of Murane’s prior employers was Breaking the Silence , a traveling road show of disgruntled former IDF soldiers who accuse Israel of having committed war crimes and atrocities.
Murane has been associated with J Street since 2006 and currently serves on J Street‘s National Advisory Board. He is the Co-Publisher/Treasurer of the progressive online magazine Jewschoool which he joined in 2005. Murane describes Jewschool as “the voice of critical progressive and pluralistic thought, where once-unpopular views got their first soapbox.” Says Murane. In essence, “Jewschool [provides] critical dialogue for disenfranchised Jews alienated—and bored to death—by the Jewish mainstream.”
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In dozens of articles and thousands of tweets, Murane is very public in sharing his views on Israel, Jewish communal service and his Jewish faith.
“JEW JEW JEW”
“Every synagogue is just a ghetto to lock out the goyyim” said Murane. TMR Factoid: Recent studies have shown US Jews to be the most generous religious group in terms of charitable giving.
In many of his essays Murane has written of his and his generation’s rejection of what he sees as an insular, self serving Jewish communal structure. An article he wrote for Jewschool (under the pseudonym Kung Fu Jew) in September of 2011 provides a window into Murane’s worldview. Said Murane:
“There are plenty of Jews in my world of the predominantly young and unaffiliated who are tired of the drumming of “Jew Jew Jew” and recoil from its incessant self-centered, self-referential, selfish concerns. Every synagogue is just a ghetto to lock out the goyyim, they feel, every Jewish social event serves the agenda of the claustrophobic “marry a Jew!” crowd. Tied to a community that is lacking in fulfillment yet insists on their loyalty, they can’t stand to be around it. I feel the same.”
Murane describes Jewish communal life as a zero sum game, one in which our core Jewish institutions are inherently selfish, racist and classist. Says Murane:
“Our communal infrastructure — federations, hospitals, schools, etc. — becomes an entrenchment of race and class privilege, where Jewish needy get saved and the rest are abandoned.”
Inscription on Seattle Jewish Family Services building “If I am not for others, what am I?” Seattle JFS provides food to any needy person and assists refugees regardless of religion.
Troubled by his perception of Jewish legacy organizations as callous facilitators of institutionalized racism, Murane sees the Jewish communal model as not dissimilar from that of anti-Semitic tormentors of years past. Laments Murane:
“The effort then to sort between the Jewish and non-Jewish — be it in ideas or genes — smells of what we learned at the hands of our cruelest rulers in times we’d rather forget.”
Murane’s concern for the fallen state of the Jewish communal soul does not stop at the water’s edge. His criticism of Israel is infused with revulsion at what he sees as a dangerous mixture of trauma fueled Jewish fear combined with an ingrained sense of Jewish exclusivity.
“Israel becomes a place where the ends justify any means because we must secure safety for the Jews first, foremost and instead of all other peoples.”
Murane explains that Israel arose at a time of worldwide recognition of national rights. Unfortunately, he laments of Israel:
“A country born of a global struggle for self- sovereignty and participation among the discourse of nations becomes a bitter fest of greed to hoard and preserve power for ourselves to share with no one.”
The Israeli culture of greed and power, according to Murane, does not just reflect on the Jewish state but is a manifestation of the Jewish weltanschauung of domination and thwarting of independence. This attitude explains Murane, does not reflect well on the Jewish people:
“Israel is not just a bomb shelter, it’s the largest symbol of what Jews believe. Dominating neighbors and obstructing the self- determination of others in the UN, these actions tell the world self-defacing things.”
Disgust regarding the state of the Jewish state is infused in Murane’s writings.
JUST AS AT FAULT AS HAMAS
“Israel is just as at fault as Hamas for the deaths of those civilians.” – Ben Murane
His palpable despair over what he sees as an Israel that has sunk into the same amoral morass as her adversaries is a frequent theme of Murane. During the 2009 Gaza war Murane was especially troubled by what he perceived as an Israel acting on the same moral plane as terror group Hamas. In response to news of a UN school being struck by Israeli rockets Murane declared:
“The culpability is equal when two forces choose to stare each other down and play chicken with civilians’ lives. Israel is just as at fault as Hamas for the deaths of those civilians. Israel chose to accept civilian deaths as collateral. Israel is counting on civilian suffering to loosen the power of Hamas. This is a big game of chicken.”
He goes on to assert in the same thread that Israel’s strategy of using civilian deaths to achieve their political goals is terrorism.
“Israel never has the moral high ground when it uses civilian suffering as a tool of statecraft. It’s stooping to terrorism.”
Murane regards himself and those like him as rare elevated souls; the rest of the Jewish world being indifferent to the suffering of innocents. He dismisses Jewish expressions of grief over the death of innocent Palestinians, declaring such gestures to be cynical and self-serving.
“The Jewish world doesn’t seem to care about Palestinian deaths except where it impacts their PR. The proper response is “Gee, you’re right, civilian deaths are bad, so let’s cut a ceasefire deal!” Outside the peacenik quartet (APN, Brit Tzedek, J Street, IPF) the response to civilian deaths is, “It’s Hamas’ fault.” Hardly.”
And to whom is Murane referring when he excoriates the callous “Jewish world”? Murane explains:
“The Jewish world for purposes of my rants are all the Jewish newspapers, Israeli spokesmen, rally signs, communal public affairs councils, the right-wing yap machine, oh, and anybody with clout over Congress. The recognitions of mutual culpability, concern for both sides’ deaths, and moral voices against both sides using civilians as a tool of statecraft (as I outlined above) are limited to me, my friends, and a quartet of four small Jewish organizations.”
Along with many, perhaps most American Jews, Murane sees Israeli disengagement from Judea and Samaria as a necessity, yet his enthusiasm for a Jewish withdrawal from post ’67 territories is uniquely robust.
Tweet from Murane after kidnapping of three boys. Blaming the victims?
Before the 1929 massacre and for centuries prior; Hebron, resting place of the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs was home to a vibrant Jewish community. From the 1929 massacre until 1967 not a single Jew tread upon the holy soil. Following the Six Day War, several Jewish families returned to the historic Jewish neighborhood of the ancient city.
More than merely advocating for an Israeli withdrawal from the city, Murane proclaimed in a 2011 video that it would be a “mitzva” a “reconsecration” of Hebron to permanently return it to its short lived status as a Jew free city. Below is an edited video excerpt from this statement, the full length video is here.
CRUDE CRITIQUES
Murane seems to hold a particular lack of tolerance for practitioners of Orthodox Judaism, calling Orthodox Rabbis coarse pejoratives and accusing traditionalists of breeding xenophobia for holding fast to their faith.
Regarding a new crowd-rating app to assist Israeli newlyweds in finding the right fit of rabbi to officiate at their wedding, Murane recently quipped “Rate the Rabbinate app helps Israelis avoid “a**hole rabbis”.
Commenting on a sweet video put out by an Orthodox institution depicting an elderly Jewish scholar’s joy at witnessing the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, Murane quipped “That video is that old haredi guy’s wet dream-“
Much of the Jewish community has come to terms with intermarriage as an American reality, part of living in an open multi-cultural society. Yet even in this accepting environment Murane brings a robust enthusiasm to the phenomenon, condemning those who remain steadfast to tradition as breeders of xenophobia . Explains Murane:
“I personally feel uncomfortable around any group that insists that only their members marry their members. It is an attitude that inherently breeds xenophobia. Yes, let’s discuss strengthening Jewish identity, but under no circumstances should we make fear of loving non-Jews a foundation upon which to build anything. What an ugly faith, one that fears love. – Your connections and commonalities with others are your strength. Intermarriage strengthens the Jewish people.”
DIVIDE AND CONQUER
“Advocacy involves the deliberate polarizing of public discourse” -Ben Murane
Murane is quite open about his contempt for the organized Jewish community, in fact many of his comments seem particularly designed to provoke and divide. Some insight into Murane may be drawn from a piece he authored in Jewschool in 2012. In an article about the BDS battle at the Park Slope Co-op in Brooklyn, he explained his understanding of the art of communal warfare.
“Advocacy involves the deliberate polarizing of public discourse, so as to motivate the middle ground to take sides”. This is the thirteenth rule of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, “Pick a target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it”.
In contrast to the old-style consensus model of Jewish leadership, *Murane explains that creating dissension in a community, labeling one side extremist and the other side enlightened forces community members to choose sides and join the struggle. This also explains Murane’s persistent comparison of centrist communal organizations as right-wing groups. Perhaps it is through painting the center as extreme that Murane can claim the center for himself, J Street and NIF. An example of the practical application of this strategy is a 2010 attack against the Jewish National Fund [JNF should read Peter Beinart, then disappear] and similar Jewish communal organizations where he said:
“The establishment isn’t just right-wing and morally pegged to odious Israeli policies. It’s lost. It has no moral compass, no calling, no grand mission statement. Raising money to feed a bloated infrastructure dedicated to fighting yesterday’s battles is the only motivation it seems to offer us.”
Later in that same article Murane opines quite openly that…
“I regard the organized Jewish community with distrust, distaste and disinterest because I have values.”
Since arriving in the Pacific Northwest Murane has systematically integrated himself into the inner leadership core of Seattle’s Jewish community. A man who declares Israel as guilty as Hamas serves on the very Jewish Federation ad-hoc committee that determines our communal approach to Israel advocacy. A man who decries the Jewish state as a “bitter fest of greed” educates our young at Hillel UW (Specifically leading a series of discussions for a hand picked group of student leaders titled “Love, Hate and the Jewish State“. A man who refers to Rabbis with whom he disagrees as “a**holes” gives classes and delivers guest sermons from the pulpit of a prominent north end synagogue.
And hence the conundrum, why is a man so imbued with an open “distrust, distaste and disinterest” in our Jewish community so determined to embed himself within its inner workings. After confessing that he can’t stand being around the organized Jewish community Murane ponders the same question:
“Yet here I am, working in the Jewish world. A young career-nik.”
“But I do it for the Other, not myself. For those outside my tribe, not ourselves, though beneficial to us it is.”
In the final sentences of his illuminating essay titled Reinterpreting Jewish communal service Murane proclaims his end game…
“My work here is to salvage what we can. A cadre of others works with me, reigniting some organizations from within, lighting new ones where possible, torching others when necessary.”
The above insights are not obscure quotations dug out of a dusty archive but proud, published remarks made by one Jewish millennial who is determined to construct a new model of Seattle Jewish life atop the ashes of the old. Warns Murane “to my predecessors in the established Jewish institutions”.
I am just one example of a brave new breed of Jewish communal professionals… We are the generation born in the wilderness, waiting to inherit the mantle once the memory of Egypt has passed.
Some will undoubtedly be enthused by some or all of Murane’s perspectives, others will be appaled. Either way, when passing on the “mantle” of of leadership it is probably best we do so with eyes wide open.
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J Street sux and so do any Jews who wont defend and support Israel.
Our ancestors prayed ‘ next year Jerusalem ‘…
these spoiled liberal brats need to serve in the IDF and see what a real fight for your life looks and feels like.
Muslims would chop off your head despite your bolstering them just because you were born a Jew albeit a treacherous more Gentile than Jew.
Shame on them for trading their heritage for a bowl of liberal lentils.
VIVA ISRAEL !!!!
Seattle has the same problem as Orange County and the do-nothing-but raise-money Jewish Federation under the leadership of Shalom Elcott-who just happens to be the brother of J Street co-founded David Elcott.
Thanks Gary, keep fighting the good fight!
Or a Middle Eastern version.
Checkpoint, somewhere in Syria. A man is in a long line of cars waiting to be checked. He can’t tell who is running the checkpoint.
Checkpoint gunman to the man in the car: “Let’s see some ID.”
Man in the car, handing over the ID, from which he furiously erased any useful information.
Gunman, perplexed: “What is this?”
Man: “Uh…. It was chewed by my goat.”
Gunman: “So what are you? Sunni? Shi’a? Christian?”
Man: “Sir, I am a man of academia. I can’t believe in unscientifically proven claims. I am an atheist.”
Gunman: “Great. Are you a Sunni atheist, a Shi’a atheist, or a Christian atheist?”
American college dorm room, first day of classes:
Student Tom: “So what’s your background?”
Student Chris: “Me? Well, my mom’s Irish, but my dad’s part Italian. We moved down south about ten years ago, so I guess you can still call me a ‘Yankee’. How about you?”
Student Mike: “I’m from Brooklyn. Korean-American and Catholic. How about you?”
Student Amir: “I’m a Muslim. My parents came here from Pakistan about 40 years ago. How about you, Jake?”
Student Jake: “Guys. All this ethno-religious nonsense is deeply problematic. I feel we are beyond such petty aspects of our common humanity. I am just Human.”
Tom, Chris, Mike and Amir, in unison: “And where did you have your Bar Mitzvah?”
Matti Friedman’s words are illustrative:
“For centuries, stateless Jews played the role of a lightning rod for ill will among the majority population. They were a symbol of things that were wrong. Did you want to make the point that greed was bad? Jews were greedy. Cowardice? Jews were cowardly. Were you a Communist? Jews were capitalists. Were you a capitalist? In that case, Jews were Communists. Moral failure was the essential trait of the Jew. It was their role in Christian tradition—the only reason European society knew or cared about them in the first place.
Like many Jews who grew up late in the 20th century in friendly Western cities, I dismissed such ideas as the feverish memories of my grandparents. One thing I have learned—and I’m not alone this summer—is that I was foolish to have done so. Today, people in the West tend to believe the ills of the age are racism, colonialism, and militarism. The world’s only Jewish country has done less harm than most countries on earth, and more good—and yet when people went looking for a country that would symbolize the sins of our new post-colonial, post-militaristic, post-ethnic dream-world, the country they chose was this one.”
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/183033/israel-insider-guide
Murane seems as oblivious as Friedman and many others once were, but the world is not so forgiving as he seems to believe.
I should not have been eating dinner when I read this.
When Hamas shoots rockets at Israel, and IS is chopping off heads, I’m not surprised. Yet somehow, reading this account of a fellow Jew, who claims to “want what’s best”, is deeply, nauseatingly disturbing.
I have no real answers, except for the fact that I see no real future for Jews in America. It’s time to come HOME. Make Aliyah now, and get out of Sodom before it burns to the ground.
Well said Yocheved.