On Wednesday evening, Oct. 18, outside the Center for Jewish History, Americans for a Safe Israel/AFSI and JCC Watch.org led a protest against David Myers, the new president and CEO of the CJH.
Over 200 people assembled in front of the stage to hear speeches from AFSI’s co-executive directors, Helen Freedman and Judy Freedman Kadish, JCCWatch.org President Richard Allen, ZOA’s Liz Berney, AFSI’s Charlie Bernhaut, concerned citizen Stewart Cahn and Yom HaShoah Committee Chair Lynn Bursky-Tammam, along with rocking music by the trio of brothers Pey Dalid.
The overall message was the following:
We, the people, the grassroots, are here to speak up for truth. Enough of the lies and falsehoods. Enough of the revisionist history. With David Myers as CEO and president of the center, it becomes the Center of Revised Jewish History, with the Jewish story, the Jewish entitlement—biblical, historic, and legal—lost in the fictions and distortions that he brings with him.
Myers has preached the “inevitable demise of Israel.” How dare he deny our 4000-year-old history, and Hashem’s promise to us that we are his chosen people, to whom he gave the Torah and the land of Israel? How dare Myers speak about removing Israel as central to Jewish identity?
There is no other people that has always made Jerusalem its central core. In the midst of the joy of the Jewish wedding, the glass is shattered, reminding us of our connection to Yerushalayim.
Has David Myers been to the “settlements” in Judea and Samaria? Has he ever been on a trip such as an AFSI Chizuk mission, and climbed the hills of Itamar, Yitzhar, Kedumim, Elon Moreh, Shilo, Eli and more? Has he met the people and seen their homes, schools, workplaces? If he has, then he knows there is no “occupation” and these are the biblical holy places, and not the West Bank. If not, then he must visit them before he condemns them.
How dare Myers excuse the evil terrorism of the Arabs which has been going on since the early 1900s and continues on a daily basis today. He says that it is “frustration” driven. What drivel is that? What humanity is that? Do we excuse mass murderers because they are “frustrated”?
How dare Myers rewrite Jewish history so that the Balfour Declaration of 1917 is questioned, the Israel victories of 1948 and 1967 are declared disasters and a case of Israel “conquering” its own land, rather than re-claiming it?
We have to change the trajectory—anti-Israel propaganda cannot be tolerated, especially in an institution named The Center for Jewish History.
What history will David Meyers be teaching those who walk through those doors? What lies and defamations will he be promoting, disguised as historical facts? Will it be the propaganda of J Street, the New Israel Fund, BDS, IfNotNow, Open Hillel and the Academic Advisory Council of Scholars for Israel and Palestine? This is intolerable.
We denounce the evil of such teachings and plead with the Center of Jewish History to purge itself of this infection in its midst. Fire Meyers!
Judy Kadish Freedman, AFSI co-Executive Director
Helen Freedman, AFSI co-Executive Director
Jonathan Grauman, AFSI Research Analyst
