YWCA of USA must honor its own principles

The YWCA of Tucson was recently part of an unsuccessful effort to distance the YWCA of the USA from an anti-Semitic report on the Mideast conflict. We are deeply distressed by the failure of our national board to act in a manner that is consistent with the values of the YWCA, but we haven't given up and will continue to fight the good fight.

I have had the great privilege to work for more than 17 years for the YWCA of Tucson, whose mission is "to create opportunities for women's growth, leadership, and power" and "the elimination of racism wherever it exists." Whenever I tell someone that the YWCA stands for Young Women's Christian Association, I like to add that YWCA members in the United States are generally neither young nor Christian. The YWCA of Tucson will celebrate our 88th anniversary in May, and we are proud of the fact that the first president of our board of directors in 1917, Henrietta Franklin, was Jewish - and that was when the "C" really did mean Christian. The basis for membership in the YWCA of the USA has evolved over the years, and while we continue to honor our roots in the Christian faith, membership is open to women and girls from all religious denominations and those with no religious affiliation or faith. More recently, the YWCA of Tucson decided that opening membership to men would enhance our credibility as we work to combat all forms of discrimination and injustice, and ours was the first YWCA in the country to elect men to serve on our board.

The YWCA of Tucson is a member of the YWCA of the USA; the YWCA of the USA belongs to the World YWCA. The World YWCA and the YWCA of the USA share a history and common vision for a fully inclusive world where justice, peace, human dignity, and freedom prevail; however, the mission and purpose of the YWCA of the USA differs from that of the World YWCA in some significant ways. The World YWCA continues to have a "Christian purpose" and does not include "the elimination of racism" in its mission.

The cultural and political differences encountered as the YWCA of the USA and the World YWCA attempt to work together on common goals are interesting and, at times, extremely challenging. The World YWCA has a long history of adopting anti-Israel and anti-Semitic resolutions at the YWCA World Council (held every four years). The YWCA of the USA was the only country at the 2003 World Council to vote against the most recent of these resolutions and has made a commitment to work through our World Relations Committee to bring a more balanced resolution on the conflict in the Middle East to the 2007 World Council Meeting. Many of us in the YWCA feel strongly that the World YWCA should only involve itself with humanitarian issues faced by women and girls throughout the world and refrain from taking positions in political conflicts.

Doris Pagelkopf, the only woman from the United States who serves on the World YWCA Executive Council, traveled to the occupied territories of Palestine in April 2004 and wrote the Palestine Witness Visit Report that was circulated to YWCAs in the United States. The "report" was a one-sided view of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and included the following statement: "During the 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 YWCA of Tucson responded immediately with our objections to this offensive, anti-Semitic report.

Barbara Lewkowitz, executive director of the YWCA of Maricopa County, who is Jewish, experienced difficulty persuading her board of directors to take similar action and ultimately resigned from her position in October 2004.

Despite the fact that YWCAs in California, New Mexico, Hawaii and Tucson were unsuccessful in our efforts to obtain a statement last month from the National Coordinating Board of the YWCA of the USA making it clear that the views expressed in the Pagelkopf report were her own and not representative of the position of the YWCA of the USA, we refuse to be discouraged. We are joined by YWCAs in Alabama, Illinois, Washington and Wisconsin and are confident that, in the end, we will prevail. The YWCA of Tucson is especially grateful for the support and friendship provided by Josh Protas and Michelle Steinberg, directors of the Jewish Community Relations Councils of Southern Arizona and Greater Phoenix, respectively, and we are inspired by the words of Rabbi Robert Kravitz, who made the following remarks at the YWCA of Maricopa County's Tribute to Women on March 2: "O God of us all, this Young Women's Christian Association is founded on principles of morality. It must honor those principles. And let those who lead the organization honor those principles."

Janet Marcotte is executive director of the YWCA of Tucson.

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