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This Post is Not For Publication! |
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 by David Kelsey, April 1, 2009 |
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Exclusive: HIAS Resorts to E-Blast McCarthyism
The Jewish community’s appropriate position on legal and illegal mass immigration is one of debate, including here at Jewcy. But HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), which now spends the bulk of its resources advocating for non-Jewish immigration, wants to preempt debate, and is using deplorable means to achieve that end.
To be clear, despite backing of the mainstream alphabet soup organizations for its “Progress By Pesach” initiative, not all Jews are certain that amnesty for “undocumented” workers (referenced as “a path to citizenship”) or an end to raids on rogue employers are truly beneficial for the Jewish community specifically or for the U.S. generally. But HIAS presents Jewish communal support for amnesty and an end to raids on companies defying U.S. law as if this is a unanimous, uncontested opinion in the Jewish community.
Leading the resistance in the affiliated Jewish community is Dr. Stephen Steinlight. Steinlight has provided a long-standing, if independent-minded (this is a bad thing?) service to the Jewish community, including at the American Jewish Committee, the US Holocaust Museum, and the National Conference of Christians and Jews, prior to his work at CIS.
Now, he is being promoted as a persona non grata by HIAS through McCarthyite tactics. This email was sent to various Jewish newspapers and organizations by Roberta Elliot, the HIAS V.P. of media and communications:
Dear editor – This note is not for publication. In the next few days, you may receive an op-ed piece staking a position against “Progress by Pesach,” a campaign launched recently by a large coalition of national and local Jewish groups who favor comprehensive immigration reform. If this op-ed comes from an author who works either at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) or the Center for Immigration Studies, it is important for you to know the origin of these groups—they were founded and are funded by an individual in Michigan who is a white nationalist and foments nativist groups. Attached is a press release that HIAS distributed several weeks ago and pasted below is a link to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s press release on three anti-immigration groups, including FAIR and CIS. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Notice how Elliot is slandering CIS and Steinlight through guilt of non-association with a non-existant connection to FAIR based upon a 1985 letter from someone not even involved with CIS. The SPLC had to go that far back to come up with even that.
While this specific email did not target Steinlight by name, another one did. In addition to another nonsensical attempt to link CIS to FAIR and John Tanton, Elliot noted,
“This report confirms that which all of us in favor of just and compassionate immigration laws have known for a long time – that the policies of these three high-profile groups are intertwined with the ideology of the nativist fringe,” said Aronoff.
Their penetration in the Jewish community has been primarily through appearances before Jewish groups by Steven Steinlight, senior policy analyst at CIS, and opinion pieces and interviews in the Jewish press. His legitimacy is enhanced because he previously worked for a Jewish organization. Likewise, the three organizations have also attempted to penetrate the African-American and Latino communities through a similar model.
Oh, heavens. Steinlight has not only attempted to influence his own community, which in fact, he long-ago “penetrated,” but even more egregious, Steinlight and CIS have dared to offer counter-arguments about mass immigration to Hispanics and Blacks, which is exceptionally problematic, since clearly HIAS owns, operates, and speaks on behalf (and to) these communities as well, and they don’t need to hear any second opinions either, thank you very much.
At the apparent professional risk of violating HIAS orders, you may read Steinlight's essays here and here. Please check to make sure you don't have a controversial letter from 1985 lying around from someone who has nothing to do with your organization before doing so. In today's dark times, one can't be too careful.
It should go without saying that the Jewish community should not be influenced by the poisonous censorship attempts of Gideon Aronoff (president and CEO of HIAS) or his employed McCarthyites to preempt Steinlight’s dissent and opinions (or anyone else who dares to disagree with Aronoff) from being heard, nor should we be dissuaded from discussion by HIAS or SPLC attempts at guilt by non-association.
Aronoff should be forced to advocate his position in the marketplace of ideas, which has been the Jewish way since time immemorial. This debate should absolutely include Stephen Steinlight. Judging by the ass-whooping Aronoff received at the hands of John Derbyshire previously on Jewcy, Aronoff may have good reason to fear an open debate.
That’s his problem. Not ours.
But when a New Jersey Hadassah chapter cancels Steinlight’s appearance because it was “ordered” by the legal department at Hadassah’s national office to do so, or when the JTA’s Eric Fingerhut pens a press release article about Progress By Pesach devoid not only of a Steinlight counterpoint, but of any criticism of the Progress By Progress campaign, this has indeed become our problem. And when the Jewish press is (so far) strangely silent about the tactics being employed by HIAS, we know how serious the problem truly is.
And this may be greatly understating the severity of the situation. The next couple of weeks will probably reveal a lot.
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Gary D Anderson
This is a difficult issue. First, business allows open borders because they want a breakdown of borders. This is not good. I believe in national sovereignty, although the banking system seems like a one world government, at least in Europe and the US. On the other hand, people from Mexico do help our economy. If they leave and go back to Mexico who will purchase our overpriced houses and cars?
But the whole issue was exacerbated by a phony credit economy. Surely people would not have flooded to the United States to overbuild the real estate market if there were no liar loans. So maybe with some simple adjustments to our economy to stop it from becoming a banana republic would result in a more balanced immigration in terms of numbers coming across. No more phony bubbles, no more Greenspans, no more international Basel 2 off balance sheet banker scams that allowed for liar loans, and just maybe our country will survive this immigration crisis.
Gary D Anderson
http://hubpages.com/author/bgamall/best/
http://hubpages.com/hub/Be-Patriotic-Stop-International-Bankers-From-Raping-America
JohnQPublic
Both Hadassah and HIAS -- two venerable institutions with legal departments -- have found something unsavory about Steinlight. It clearly goes beyond insinuation. I've read his articles. Steinlight wants to be the last immigrant. EVERYONE wants to be the last immigrant. But that's not the charter of HIAS, Hadassah, and any other human rights group. Neither Aronoff nor Elliott need to defend themselves -- to you or to Steinlight. The Southern Poverty Law Project may have dug up a few facts that were wrong; but clearly, legitimate organizations (HIAS et al) have enough goods on Steinlight to show that he is a puppet for a sinister operation. Actually, he's like Sarah Palin, in a way: too egomaniacal to realize he's being used. I just wonder: who's behind him? Which wacko group is funding his activities, as he makes a full-time job out of being the Jewish Lou Dobbs.
Stephen Steinlight
"Something's Not Kosher" entirely misses Kelsey's point. That "two venerable institutions" with, heavens, "legal departments" in one case circulates a slander (SNK admits the Southern Poverty Law Center may have goofed in its heinous accusations, but heck, why should Steinlight care?) and in another acts on it indicates just how serious McCarthyism is rather than mitigates it. Having a Legal Dept confers moral/intellectual authority? Virtually every organization, including the Mafia, has a legal department. Point? Aronoff's "secret" emails blackening someone's record (which is distinguished in the area of civil rights, among others) is cowardly and sickening. My guess is that Aronoff, among other things, is paying Steinlight back for having made mince meat of him (no pun intended) in a paper responding to Aronoff's embarassingly stupid, illogical and sleazy piece on AgriProcessors published in JTA. Steinlight wants to be the "last immigrant?" Don't think so. You've been reading someone else. He's an old-fashioned progressive who fears the mass immigration of the poor and unskilled on our own working poor and working class (where are the Marxists when we need them?) and out of concern for Israel. His issues with immigration (like that of many other thinking people) have to do with scale and the bases for selecting immigrants. Your own version of guilt by association -- Lou Dobbs and Sarah Palin -- is too funny and moronic even to rise to the level of being beneath contempt. As to your unquestioned acceptance of the views of "venerable authorities" (that just happen to be policy enemies of Steinlight's) take the Sixties adage to heart: "Question authority."
David Kelsey
JohnQPublic,
Your suggestion that an organization should be allowed to determine for everyone else who its "legitimate" critics are is risible. If you wouldn't have hurled ad hominems at Dr. Steinlight, I would have mistaken this for delicious satire.
Viera
However one feels about the complex ethical, political, and practical issues surrounding U.S. immigration policy and its enforcement, I think it's clear that a top-secret "not for publication" memo from HIAS does not represent a contribution to the debate but a refusal to engage. It's a scare tactic: an act of intellectual cowardice and professional dishonesty. The language of "penetrating" the Jewish community truly does convey a bizarre paranoia on the part of HIAS. In the absence of any credible evidence, their claims appear no better substantiated than JohnQPublic's vague suspicions of "something unsavory" and visions of a "sinister operation" by some unidentifiable nemesis. Should we treat all our ideological opponents as guilty until proven innocent? This reminds me of McCain's baseless allegations that Obama's campaign was launched "in Bill Ayers living room." Please. An honest and serious dialogue entails addressing the issues themselves. HIAS needs to challenge Steinlight's argument on its own merits rather than raising specters and appealing to the ad hominem fallacy.
lazerqueen22
don't know anything about dr. steinlight. i probably wouldn't agree with him on immigration from the sound of it, but...
i don't know. something about saying "this note is not for publication" seems really fishy. if these allegations were true, wouldn't it be more effective for HIAS to make them public? instead, it almost seems like a lack of confidence in their own case against him that they sought to discredit steinlight through private channels only (thereby avoiding any potential libel lawsuits, etc.)
also, i tend to think a person should have the right to defend themself against claims being made against their character. but that's just me.