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November 5, 1999/26 Cheshvan 5760, Vol. 52, No.10
Ad campaign urges more civil discourse in Jewish community
JULIA GOLDMAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - A coalition of Jewish philanthropies is putting its money where its mouth is. An advertisement signed by 11 Jewish foundations calls on Jews to speak respectfully to one another in public, in accordance with Jewish tradition.
The group brings together some of the biggest names in philanthropy - including Steven Spielberg, Judy and Michael Steinhardt and Ronald Lauder - in pledging to foster open dialogue in the Jewish community and to withhold grants from groups that engage in uncivil discourse.
"A diversity of views is a sign of healthy debate. Sensationalism and slander are not," reads the ad, which was set to run this week in 35 Jewish newspapers in the United States and Canada, including Jewish News. The advertisement marks an uncommon alliance of Jewish philanthropic organizations to take unified action to influence the Jewish community as a whole.
The idea to promote civil speech as a criterion for Jewish grant making did not stem from any one incident, said Mark Charendoff, the vice president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, one of the participating philanthropies. Instead, the "joint pledge on unity and civility" grew out of a realization that hostile rhetoric can have "disastrous consequences," he said, citing the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the rancorous debate in Israel and North America over religious pluralism.
"There should be economic consequences when people speak irresponsibly about other members and groups in the Jewish community," Charen-doff said. Each individual foundation signing the pledge will determine its own criteria for grant-making, but all agree that institutions or their representatives who engage in irresponsible rhetoric will be viewed "with disfavor."
The ad is not meant as a threat so much as a clear statement, said Sanford Cardin, executive director of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.
"Family and friends can argue," the ad says. "It is our fervent desire to see those arguments become like the disputes of Hillel and Shammai: disputes for the sake of heaven," it continues, referring to the famous rabbis who took divergent views on religious practice.
The civility pledge signatories are: the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies; the J.E. & Z.B. Butler Foundation Inc.; the Dobkin Family Foundation; the Jesselson Family Foundation; the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation; Steven Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation; the Sapirstein-Stone-Weiss Foundation; the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation; Jewish Life Network: A Judy and Michael Steinhardt Foundation; Synagogue Transformation and Renewal (STAR); and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation Inc.
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