[The following is a guest post by Zvi Koenigsberg.]

On April 13th, I posted an entry on Solomonia decrying the fact that Congregation Kehillath Israel (KI) had just hired a very left-leaning, agenda-driven, assistant rabbi. I used very strong terminology: "I could not share a space with someone who, in an official capacity, is set upon the destruction of the State of Israel." I used this language because the person in question is associated with the New Israel Fund.

A trustee of KI wrote an article in the Jewish Advocate objecting to my language, as well as to the content of my blog post. [I responded to this, here.]  The Jewish community leaders initiated a barrage of articles and organized events aimed at communication and tolerance: at KI, the Rabbi led an evening session on May 4th dedicated to "Jewish Anger Management" and "those who feel fiercely in the Pro-Israel camp". Last week's Jewish Advocate had an article about a campaign at Temple Emanuel in Newton to create "dialogue". Their Rabbi wrote:  "It's really to change hearts, and not change minds. You still feel what you feel, you still believe what you believe, but now you can make room in your soul to hear a view that you don't agree with."

So, did people react so strongly to this issue because they are convinced that characterizing the New Israel Fund as "determined to destroy Israel" is just a feeling...of mine and others who think like me...and not a fact?  Or do they think that it is okay if Jews are determined to support those who in turn are determined to destroy Israel?

In answer to the first question, let's look at some newly released data:  This week, Solomonia quoted an article in the Jerusalem Post about the arrest of the head of the Ittijah NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations) group, Amir Makhoul. He was arrested for being a Hizbullah spy. Ittijah is an umbrella organization representing most of the Arab NGO's in Israel.   Four of the first five organizations on the Ittijah website appear as grantees of the New Israel Fund:  Adallah, Afaq al Muthallath, Ahali - Center for Community Development, and Al Awar.  It is now public information that the New Israel Fund is partnering with anti-Israel terrorist organizations. This is not about hearts and souls and feelings...this is hard, cold facts about anti-Israel terrorism.

So is anger an appropriate reaction to these facts?

It is truly frightening to compare the dialogue of today with the dialogue in the early 1940's, when Menahem Begin sent Peter Bergson to the U.S., to raise awareness about Nazi atrocities in Europe. Bergson had minimal effect, because Rabbis like Stephen Wise vehemently advised American Jews against "rocking the boat" with FDR. It is impossible to think how many Jews could have been saved had the tracks to Auschwitz been bombed, or had Auschwitz itself been bombed. Historically, our Rabbis taught us, that saving even one soul is the equivalent of saving an entire world. Today, our local Rabbis are teaching us to have a dialogue about our feelings while terrorists publicly and consistently committed to the destruction of Israel are collecting money from Jews. We might as well be inviting Hassan Nasrallah and the Hamas honchos into our "big tent" as have assistant rabbis affiliated with the New Israel Fund.

So now we have an Ahmadinejad, who, unlike Hitler, is seeking hegemony over the entire Islamic world as a start, and, unlike Hitler, will probably have nuclear weapons and delivery systems in a very short time. Should we be doing exercises in political correctness when Jewish organizations in our midst are contributing money to Iran's cohorts, the Hizbullah?!?

But I am afraid that this will not faze the local Jewish leadership. Their reactions, then and now, indicate they will be more concerned about discussing our feelings about terrorists, than doing something to prevent what is coming next, coming from the terrorists.