RSS
Progressive group quits Boston Jewish council rather than face expulsion over Israel criticism
(JTA) — A progressive Jewish group that participated in a rally in Boston calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, and accusing Israel of “genocide,” is leaving a local Jewish umbrella organization, saying it was told it would be expelled if it did not resign.
The departure of the Boston Workers Circle from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston marks a dramatic shift for both groups. The Workers Circle was a founding member of the Boston JCRC in 1944. Meanwhile, the JCRC has until now been fastidiously attached to a “big-tent” approach, allowing groups with staunch and divisive views to remain even in the face of sharp criticism.
In 2019, the JCRC’s executive director, Jeremy Burton, fended off calls to remove the Workers Circle — then called the Workmen’s Circle — from the council after the group signed a statement initiated by Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist group. After much discussion, the JCRC’s constituent organizations voted to ban such alliances going forward, and the Workers Circle remained in the coalition.
But the Workers Circle violated that ban when it took part in a rally last Wednesday at Boston’s City Hall Plaza that it organized alongside Kavod, a liberal community group; Jewish Voice for Peace; and IfNotNow, which is harshly critical of Israel and often partners with JVP. The event flier billed it as a message to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren that “Boston Jews demand a ceasefire and a stop to genocide.” Several Jewish protesters were arrested following the rally.
Burton said on Tuesday that the Boston Workers Circle’s participation in the rally crossed red lines for his group.
“We appreciate the passion by which BWC expresses its concern for Palestinian safety,” Burton said in a statement, adding that his group shares that concern. But, he added, “we cannot support those organizations that demonize Israel, hold Israel to a double standard, and ignore the safety and security of Israel and our community as a whole.”
Rabbi Rebecca Zimmerman Hornstein, Boston Workers Circle’s executive director, said she had been told — while the rally was still underway — that a discipline process in place within the JCRC would result in her group being kicked off the council. She said she had opted to resign rather than allow that process to unfold.
“In this traumatic time, when everyone’s dealing with so much, it just didn’t seem right to put everyone through a long and arduous process, both our community and the JCRC,” she said.
Leaving the council means that the Boston Workers Circle will no longer be involved when the JCRC crafts policy statements and responses to current events. It also means that the JCRC will have one fewer progressive voice shaping communal affairs.
The Boston JCRC put a different group on the opposite end of the political spectrum through an investigative process two years ago, ultimately determining that the right-wing Zionist Organization of America should remain on the council despite having “elevated white supremacist voices.”
Both the JCRC and the Workers Circle lamented the split and accused the other of being out of touch with mainstream Jewish sentiment.
“It is unfortunate that at a time when we are experiencing and expressing a profound level of Jewish unity across the world, a small minority is seeking to exacerbate fractures and divisions within our people,” Burton said in his statement.
“It’s hard to understand why they see it as worthwhile right now to spend time expelling a founding member, meaning that our voice, which represents kind of a growing portion of the community, will no longer be at the table,” Hornstein said.
The resignation is the second this year for the Workers Circle, founded in 1892 as a Jewish fraternal organization that now promotes Yiddish language and culture along with progressive values. In August, its national organization resigned from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, a national umbrella coalition, based on disagreements that included a split over discourse about Israel.
—
The post Progressive group quits Boston Jewish council rather than face expulsion over Israel criticism appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
The post UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
The post Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.