Whose job is it?

In journalism, the separation between advertising and editorial is sacred - something like the separation between church and state. So it is after much consideration that we comment on an ad that appears in this week's issue of Jewish News. Our reason for jumping the advertising/editorial wall is simple: The letter in the ad so directly contradicts what its author said in an interview with this newspaper that the discrepancy calls into question the very purpose of the letter.

The writer of the letter in the ad is Connie Robinson, president of the board of the YWCA of Maricopa County. In the letter, Robinson calls the World YWCA's 2003 resolution on the Middle East "abominable, offensive, and blatantly anti-Israel." However, when a reporter from Jewish News questioned her about that same resolution, Robinson said that she had no comment.

The letter also states that the board of directors of the YWCA of Maricopa County "adamantly denounce(d) and condemne(d) the World YWCA's 2003 resolution, and had done so "in September, October, November, December and January." The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any record of all that denouncing. Minutes this newspaper obtained of the September board meeting show that even though Executive Director Barbara Lewkowitz announced her resignation at that time and noted that one of the major precipitating factors for her doing so was "the position of the national and world YWCA on the Israel/Palestine issue," no further mention of the issue by anyone present is recorded.

Robinson later told a reporter for the Arizona Republic that the board had supported Lewkowitz in every way.

There has been a great deal of turmoil within the Maricopa County YWCA since Lewkowitz resigned. But certain facts remain clear despite the fog of "he said/she said" and the idiosyncrasies of any particular organizational hierarchy.

After Lewkowitz's resignation - and that of several other board members - over the lack of balance in the World YWCA's position on the Middle East and the local board's failure to address the issue, a reporter from Jewish News was told by representatives of the local YWCA that this was not "a local issue," and therefore didn't really bear discussing.

Now, in the wake of a meeting here in Phoenix of the YWCA's National Coordinating Board, at which members rejected a statement from their own Pacific Region denouncing the Witness Report on the Middle East, the word from the Washington office of the YWCA is that this is "a local issue," and therefore doesn't really bear discussing.

The question is: If the local YWCA won't address the issue of anti-Israel bias within the YWCA, and the national YWCA won't address the issue of anti-Israel bias within the YWCA, who will?

Home