**Dear Friends,**

After yesterday's CJP Israel Connection email, we heard from a number of people upset at Sarah Palin's presence at the upcoming Stop Iran rally in New York City and at the way that our email was worded.

While Hillary Clinton had originally been slated to speak, she withdrew after Palin was invited. Many people across the country felt the same way about the apparent politicization of this event, which has been organized by a consortium of national Jewish organizations. Without both sides represented, the rally became controversial.

Yesterday afternoon, the organizers of the rally did what was right. They decided that no American political figure should participate - exactly as many of you suggested. Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and Israeli Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik will speak.

We regret if our email in any way appeared to be partisan. CJP has never been, nor will it ever be, tied to any political party. We thank all of you who contacted us and told us so honestly what you thought of our communication.

We also hope that you will still consider attending the rally and focusing on its goal - raising awareness about the threat of Iran's nuclear power and protesting the visit of Iranian President Ahmadinejad at the U.N. General Assembly. Seats are still available and can be reserved by visiting http://www.jcrcboston.org/ [They never did get enough people to get on that bus. -S].

Please don't hesitate to contact me with more feedback either now or in the future. We welcome it. We know we can always do better.

Dear [X]

Thanks for your note of September 19th asking to be taken off our mailing list and sharing your disappointment with the way the New York Rally was mishandled. Actually I share your disappointment and I hope you'll allow us to continue to communicate. I hope you'll give me a moment to explain.

First, I need to be very clear. CJP was not the organizer of the rally and had absolutely nothing to do with any of the decisions taken with regard to Governor Palin, Senator Clinton or any of the invitees. The rally was primarily organized by the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, an umbrella group representing 51 different member organizations as diverse as the ZOA (Zionist Organization of America) the Friends of the IDF, The American Jewish Committee, AIPAC and the Americans for Peace Now! It is generally a strong and effective voice for Israel because of (or in spite of!) its diversity. Its leadership comes from across the American political spectrum and it's never been accused of being biased toward the Democratic Party.

But again, */CJP had no part in organizing the rally. CJP is not involved in any partisan politics and our board is made up of Democrats and Republicans, Conservatives and Liberals who are deeply committed to unifying the Jewish community and keeping CJP out of partisan politics. The rally was organized by the Conference of Presidents with no consultation with any local Federation and the final decision with regard to Governor Palin was made without consultation with CJP or even with any of the Conference of President's own member organizations!/*

All that having been said this situation turned out disastrously. The political divisions within the Jewish community were exacerbated and the rally's effectiveness was greatly diminished by the terrible in fighting among political interests within the Jewish community. In essence the fierce partisan politics within the Jewish community and the repeated mistakes made by the Conference of Presidents overshadowed the rally. All this created a political and communal tragedy.

CJP's initial reaction as reflected in the email you received was based on information provided by the Conference of Presidents. We were told that the decision that no American political speakers should participate was necessary to save the rally (which after all was of primary importance to all of us.) Their rationale for "depoliticizing" the rally seemed logical based on their claim that they could lose their 501(c)3 status if they proceeded as planned. All of this happened in the space of four hours and the email you saw suggesting that "the organizers did what was right" was based on incomplete information which suggested that "depoliticizing" the rally was the only way to save the rally --which after all was the point...staging a unified rally and stopping Iran's nuclear threat. Obviously, as we learned from the many newspaper reports, columns, debate and dissension that followed, there was a lot more to it. As you can see from the email below I'm asking the organizers for a complete explanation. This is about the most mishandled situation I've seen in 37 years of communal work.

Thanks again for taking the time to write.

Barry

-----Original Message-----
*From:* Barry Shrage
*Sent:* Sunday, September 21, 2008 8:59 AM
*To:* [Malcolm Hoenlein] [Howard Rieger]
*Subject:* The Rally

Dear Howard and Malcolm

As you can imagine our community (as most) was shocked by the events surrounding the Rally to stop a nuclear Iran. The controversy has already, tragically overshadowed the Rally and given aid and comfort to our enemies. Many find it difficult to understand why Governor Palin was disinvited since the Democrats had agreed to send Congressman Wexler to represent their campaign. According to AP:

"Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor batted away the suggestion, saying they had planned to send Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., to attend the rally on the campaign's behalf and did nothing to discourage Palin's attendance.

"Israel needs real leadership to stop Iran, not phony political controversies," Vietor said."

I've attached all three versions of the story (AP JTA and INN.) As you can see we badly need an authoritative report, signed by all the sponsoring organizational leadership, on how all this happened.

Thanks

Barry