indicated that the vast majority of American Jews actually support the agreement. (While other polls have produced different results, the methodologies used to produce those apparently conflicting results have been called into serious question).
The fact that there was apparent disagreement within the American Jewish community was not news. But those organizations and community leaders who have spoken out against the agreement with Iran have left little or no room to accommodate anyone holding a different opinion. What is particularly disconcerting is that the message that has been delivered is that if you supported the agreement, then you surely didn't support Israel. In fact, you may not even be a very good Jew. And that became a very difficult message for these Jewish organizations to walk back once the deal with Iran was politically resolved.
The outcome of the Jewish Journal's survey raises an important question. For whom do our Jewish organizations and institutions speak? This question becomes especially important in light of the extensive outreach efforts made by these same organizations since the 2013 publication of the
What is particularly disconcerting is that the message that has been delivered is that if you supported the agreement, then you surely didn't support Israel. In fact, you may not even be a very good Jew.
Pew Research Center's A Portrait of Jewish Americans. Jewish institutions and organizations throughout the United States have invested significant amounts of time, effort, and money in trying to ensure that their mission and message will resonate with Jewish young adults; with countless millennials for whom ideas about religion, philanthropy, and the very concept of belonging have evolved into something different from the ways that their parents and grandparents defined those terms.