|
|
November 26, 2004/Kislev 13 5765, Vol. 57, No. 13
Resigning in protest
YWCA head objects to group's agenda in Middle East
DEBORAH SUSSMAN SUSSER
Staff Writer
Barbara Lewkowitz's resignation as executive director of the YWCA of Maricopa County made news last week.
A Nov. 18 story in the Arizona Republic disclosed that Lewkowitz quit the job she'd held for more than five years over a World YWCA 2003 resolution entitled "For Freedom and Dignity in the Middle East."
Reached at home the day the story broke, Lewkowitz confirmed that she had resigned as executive director of the local Y on Oct. 29, but that the circumstances of her resignation were somewhat different from what the Republic reported. Not that she didn't object to the resolution in question - "I thought it was untenable" - but, she said, "I was even more offended by the report."
"The report" is the YWCA Witness Visit Report about a visit that 14 members of the World YWCA made to Israel, Palestine and Jordan last summer. Authored by Doris Pagelkopf, vice president of the World YWCA and the only American on the World YWCA board, the report reads in part: "I strongly felt the correlation to World War II. During that war Hitler tried to exterminate the Jews and now a group of Israelis ... is trying to choke off and rid the land of Palestinians."
The report was posted on the World YWCA Web site, which is where Lewkowitz came across it.
"I mailed (the report) to the executive committee (of the Maricopa County YWCA)," Lewkowitz said, "and I did not get any response from any member of the committee." She then requested that the issue be put on the agenda for the Aug. 23 board meeting. It was not.
At that meeting, Abbie Beller, a member of the YWCA board, resigned in protest. At least one other local board member has since resigned, citing the World YWCA's position on Palestine, Israel and Iraq as the cause in her letter of resignation.
In early September, at a meeting of the Southwest Delta Region YWCA in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, Lewkowitz and two other YWCA directors from the region - Trudy Fuselier of the Baton Rouge YWCA and Lisa Carreno of the Sonoma County YWCA - drafted a statement calling for a "balanced study" of global conflict.
The agenda of the Dallas meeting was amended to include discussion of the issue. That afternoon, a vote was held on the statement. According to Lewkowitz, Connie Robinson, president of the Maricopa County YWCA, did not return to the afternoon session to vote, nor did she leave a proxy for the vote. The statement could not be voted on, Lewkowitz said, because "we did not have a quorum."
The statement was later voted on by mail and passed last month. The Southwest Delta Region was scheduled to present it to the national coordinating board of the YWCA "now," Lewkowitz said.
In the Nov. 18 Arizona Re-public article, Robinson was quoted as being "surprised" at the resignation and disputed Lewkowitz's stated reason for stepping down.
However, minutes for the Sept. 27 board meeting at which Lewkowitz announced her resignation, with Robinson present, state: "On a personal level, one of the major precipitating factors (for Lewkowitz's resignation) is the position of the national and world YWCA on the Israel/Palestine issue."
Robinson could not be reached by phone. In response to an e-mail, Robinson wrote that there was no mention "of any issue outside of (Lewkowitz's) desire to 'move to other challenges' as her reason for resigning. For the period up to and including the announcement of her resignation, this has always been the ONLY reason she has given for her resignation."
In an e-mail dated Nov. 19, Natalie Fisher-Spalton, deputy general secretary of the World YWCA, wrote "...the World YWCA has not been officially informed of the resignation of Barbara Lewkowitz. However if true, we are sorry to hear it. Barbara Lewkowitz is an excellent YWCA leader and highly respected in the movement."
According to Lewkowitz, Musimbi Kanyoro, the execu-tive director of the World YWCA, received the same letter that was sent out to the community at large in Octo-ber announcing Lewko- witz's resignation. Kanyoro re-sponded to Lewkowitz's letter by e-mail and said that she was sorry Lewkowitz was leaving the YWCA.
Lewkowitz helmed the local YWCA for five-and-a-half years. During that time, she received several community awards for her work. Among her achievements, she helped start a teen program in Glendale, tripled the income from the annual Tribute to Women dinner, and more than tripled the number of elderly receiving meal services.
Bill Straus, director of the Arizona Anti-Defamation League, expressed support for Lewkowitz. "It doesn't surprise me at all that Barbara would act on principle. I admired her before. This just hikes it up a little."
Herb Paine of Paine Con-sulting, who has been retained by the board as interim exe-cutive director of the Maricopa County YWCA, said that Lewkowitz did good work and left behind a "legacy on which to build." Asked about Lew-kowitz's reason for resigning, Paine said, "The question is, do local affiliates each need to be taking a position on this? ...The YWCA USA has spoken on this, and we're part of that process."
Lewkowitz disputes Paine's contention that the national and World YWCA's position on Israel is not a local issue. "We have a Jewish mayor," she pointed out, "and we accept money from the City of Phoe-nix, and we're trying to have a sister city in Ramat-Gan."
Lewkowitz sees her position as a matter of principal.
"If you say in your mission statement that you believe in peace, justice, freedom, dignity and inclusiveness for all people," Lewkowitz said, "then you do that. You live the mission."
Like Lewkowitz, former board member Abbie Beller said that being Jewish and working for the YWCA never posed a problem, until re-cently. "I knew they were a Christian organization, but as a Jew it never bothered me, because their views were very inclusive and they focused on the empowerment of women."
But at the 2003 World YWCA Conference in Brisbane, Australia, Beller observed "tremendous anti-American and anti-Israel sentiment." She expressed her concerns to Musimbi Kanyoro, the execu-tive director of the World YWCA: "I said this is not reflective of the largest YWCA in the world, which is the YWCA USA" - and when she returned to Arizona, she and Lewkowitz, who also attended the Brisbane conference, conveyed their experience to the local board.
The posting online of the Witness Trip report was the last straw for Beller. "The report - which since has been withdrawn, I understand - was appalling in its lack of balance.
"It's not that I am concerned about support for Palestin-ians," she said. "My deepest concern was the lack of balance. ... They did not even meet with any Israeli women's organizations. The YWCA is supporting one side."
Beller said she felt "deva-stated" when she resigned. Her involvement in the YWCA began almost 40 years ago, when she was a college student. "This is an organi-zation I've been a part of my whole adult life."
She felt especially dis-appointed that the YWCA of Maricopa County didn't "take the situation more seriously."
"I felt very alone in not being able to fight, and it was really Barbara and I, even though there were some people very active in the region who really want to change this. (But) it's only a region."
After her resignation, she said, "I had someone in the community say, 'Maybe the YWCA has become too Chris-tian.' And I said, 'If they were more Christian, they'd be more inclusive.' The tenets of Christ would embrace all people."
Beller has dropped the YWCA, but not her commit-ment to helping others - she is now a life member of Hadassah. "If nothing else," she said, "the situation with the YWCA has made me become a part of Hadassah."
Contact the writer here
|
|
