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February 4, 2005/Shevat 25 5765, Vol. 57, No. 23
Top female executive resigns
RACHEL POMERANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - One of the top professionals of the American Jewish communal world has resigned.
Hannah Rosenthal, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, announced her resignation to the JCPA board on Jan. 19.
Rosenthal, known for summoning fierce, unrelenting passion for crusades of social justice, cited personal reasons for leaving the umbrella group of federation-affiliated Jewish community relations councils across the country.
"I have decided to 'go home' to the Midwest - where my family lives, and to work with a different social change organization," she wrote in her resignation letter.
She will become executive director of the Chicago Foundation for Women, one of the largest foundations in the world supporting the rights and welfare of women and girls.
The announcement came only weeks before the JCPA's annual plenum, its principal venue for policy debates and resolutions.
Rosenthal, who began her post in the fall of 2000, said she would leave after the plenum, slated to begin Feb. 26 in Washington.
Despite Rosenthal's stated reasons for resigning, people close to her speculate her liberal stance on social and economic policy issues may have contributed to the decision.
Rosenthal's Democratic politics are well known - she worked in the Clinton administration as the Midwest regional director of the Department of Health and Human Services.
She vehemently opposed President Bush's domestic agenda, and often did not hold back in expressing her views.
The Forward, which ranked her in 2004 in its annual list of the 50 most influential Jews, said that as "the representative of 123 local Jewish community councils and a dozen of the largest national groups, she leads what is perhaps the most broadly democratic Jewish organization, and she seems to take it as a mandate to speak for what many see as a silent Jewish majority."
It was widely known that a past UJC chairman, James Tisch, had objected to some of the JCPA's focus on social welfare concerns, arguing that they fell outside the realm of Jewish priorities.
The New York Times wrote about the antagonism between Tisch and Rosenthal in November 2004. The Times reported that Tisch wrote what he termed a "vituperative" e-mail to Rosenthal.
"I believe that many of our donors would not be too pleased to see our communal dollars being spent advocating either for or against tax proposals," the e-mail said.
Rosenthal denied the political struggles contributed to her decision to leave.
"I've always had jobs as an advocate," she said, adding that "advocacy comes with political battles."
Tisch could not be reached for comment.
Like many JCPA activists, David Luchins, who for three decades has represented the Orthodox Union on the board of the JCPA, said he was crestfallen to learn of Rosenthal's resignation.
"Hannah did an extraordinary job of keeping the organization focused on a prophetic mission of social justice while dealing with growing pressures from those segments of the community who, having made it up the ladder of success, had little interest helping those they left behind," he said.
As for the JCPA's next move, past JCPA chairman Michael Bohnen, who is heading the search committee to replace Rosenthal, said, "We are going to be continuing in the same general direction, which is a focus on advocacy for Israel and Jews around the world and social justice here at home."
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