There’s a great joke in a relatively weak Woody Allen movie, “Scoop,” where the protagonist quips,

“Even at the faintest hint of anti-semitism, the Jews start writing letters.”

It isn’t all that hard to find Jews to mobilize on an issue they agree with. They write letters, they send checks, they circulate op-eds. Even our enemies backhandedly compliment the Jewish community on its willingness and ability to react and, well, lobby.

Progress By Pesach, which secured the backing of major Jewish organizations, requested only that people sign their petition. 10,000 out of millions. What a joke for a program claiming to speak on behalf of American Jewry.

And still, the Jewish community refused to give it to them.

The Liberal Jewish masses (the mainline Orthodox never supported this initiative) ignored the Jewish communal leadership.

The JTA reports, in an almost Orwellian titled article, “Progress reported by ‘Progress by Pesach,” at the very bottom of the story that,

After the press conference, participants in the “Progress by Pesach” coalition — which includes 13 national and another dozen local groups — met with Tina Tchen, director of the public liaison office, to deliver petitions signed by more than 3,500 individuals.

But Progress By Pesach had set 10,000 as their goal. How hard should that have been? How hard was it to find 10,000 U.S. Jews to just e-sign something backed by the major Jewish organizations? PBP had “articles” of support written as press releases in the Jewish newspapers, appeals by this group and that one, communal appeals disguised as “panel discussions.”

There was so little official communal dissent. And still the Jewish masses refused to sign on.

Let this be clear. The Jewish community does not perceive amnesty and an end to raids as “progress” at all. They could not vote no, there was no such forum, so instead, the people voted with overwhelming silence, despite endless prodding and cheerleading for this foolish initiative. It is imperative that major Jewish communal organizations take note, and shift their policies in accordance to those their constituency approve of.

This was an important battle. HIAS held all the cards. They crafted their own test, they monitored its implementation, and they graded their own paper. And they still received a miserable 35%.

That’s an F.

HIAS’s Progress By Pesach was repudiated even by their own risible metric standards that they themselves set.

Terrible things. Worker conditions must be improved to successfully attract and retain labor, and bonuses and wages must be increased.

CIS reports in “The 2006 Swift Raids: Assessing the Impact of Immigration Enforcement Actions at Six Facilities,” that,

At the four facilities for which we were able to obtain information, wages and bonuses rose on average 8 percent with the departure of illegal immigrants.

and

In addition to pay increases, Swift introduced a number of methods to attract workers after the raids. The company paid bonuses to new employees, and to current employees who recruited others. It also advertised heavily, paid relocation expenses, and provided daily transportation from distant population centers.

Sounds good, but what about the cost to consumers?

Research by the United Food and Commercial Workers union indicates that pay to production workers accounts for only about 4 percent of consumer costs. If that is correct, a 50 percent increase in wages would cause only a 2 percent increase in consumer prices.

No, no, no…that’s still too much. A 2% increase will simply not do.

Fuck the American worker! Support Progress By Pesach!

Lawrence Auster, a Christian conservative of Jewish descent, asks on View From the Right,

A reader says that I am unfairly blaming Jews for the open-borders position promoted by well-known Jewish organizations which he says are not real Jewish organizations but liberal groups dishonestly calling themselves Jewish. I reply that he’s doing vis a vis liberal Jews what Islam apologists do vis a vis extremist Musims, claming that the extremists are not “real” Muslims.

The answer is yes and no. Progress By Pesach indeed is an American Jewish movement, because it is endorsed by the mainstream Jewish establishment. There is no way around this at this time. This is fact.

However, there is an important difference with the Muslims, and an internal contradicton as well. The Jewish state of Israel herself is NOT interpreting the Torah to mean open borders, or more accurately, amnesty, to illegal aliens. If it stopped there, then you would have the Jewish state at odds with the center of the Diaspora, and that alone would suggest that indeed, there is good reason to trust that this is quite a different situation than if, say, Muslim apologists claim “real” Islam dictates that shoplifters should receive community service and psychological counseling, while Saudi Arabia says they should have their hand chopped off.

But the situation is not even that.

More telling, the vast majority of mainstream Jewish organizations claiming that the Torah dictates such policies to the Jews to advocate “a path to citizenship” to illegals do not claim such interpretations are mandatory for the State of Israel.

Hmm….

The real question is, Mr. Auster, if these mainstream Jewish groups are so sure of their Torah interpretation…why aren’t they pressuring Israel as well?

The best answer I can come up with is that they themselves don’t really believe that this is, in fact, the only, or even best, possible interpretation for “Loving The Stranger,” and therefore they themselves don’t believe this is actually Judaism.

Therefore, the question is not on we few outspoken affiliated Jews who dispute that this is a correct interpretation of the commandment to “Love the Stranger,” but rather, a question on the majority of American Jewish ogranizations who do claim to a Biblical mandate to love The Stranger as defined by amnesty and an end to raids. Yet strangely, they do not seem concerned AT ALL that Israel is actively declining to do so.

So the real question is on their inconsistency. Only when this question is resolved do you arrive at the real question. Because the question is not whether or not they are Jewish. They most certainly are. The question is if even these Jewish machers themselves believe this interpretation is Judaism. Because even they do not appear to seriously believe that, or they would be up in arms over Israel’s strangers. The only ones who really seem to believe consistently are the far-Left.

And we all know that they have a propensity for crafting some very dubious interpretations about what it means to “love the stranger.”

Progress By Pesach, which seeks an end to enforcement of our immigration laws and amnesty for its violators, has some typically self-congratulatory news.

Jewish Community Action is happy to say that Progress by Pesach has been overwhelmingly embraced by the American Jewish community.

This is overstating the case. What is true is that the far-Left organizations spearheading Perfidy By Pesach have, horrifically, received endorsement from mainstream Jewish organizations.

While I don’t personally understand how Jews should have a right to dictate immigration policy unilaterally — despite quote after quote recited to me about The Stranger – perhaps I am just a bit slow. There are many far-Left ideas whose logic I have never been able to quite get my little shtetl-head around.

But let’s leave the elusive reasoning of the far-Left aside for the moment, and see if, indeed, has Progress By Pesach been “overwhelmingly embraced by the American Jewish community.”

Well…let’s see. There are millions of American Jews…and Perfidy has collected a total of…1,600 signatures. Now, that might sound pretty overwhelming indeed, except there are some…irregularities.

Looking at these signatures, I found a couple of strange things. I sure hope Obama looks at this list carefully, because some of these people voted, well…twice.

325 February 28, 2009 Matt Dallek Washington, DC
324 February 28, 2009 Matt Dallek Washington, DC

192 February 25, 2009 Dragos Morar Chicago, IL
191 February 25, 2009 Dragos Morar Chicago, IL

84 February 05, 2009 Rachel Maisler Silver Spring, MD
83 February 05, 2009 Rachel Maisler Silver Spring, MD
289 February 26, 2009 margy nurik bethesda, MD
288 February 26, 2009 margy nurik bethesda, MD

82 February 05, 2009 Lauren Gross Washington, DC
81 February 05, 2009 Lauren Gross Washington, DC

Since many of these are in order, it seems there may have been a computer glitch. I guess HIAS didn’t have time to fix it yet. I’m sure they will. Especially when the signers didn’t even remember to put in their names.

89 February 05, 2009 ,
88 February 05, 2009 ,

The good thing is, to represent the Jewish community on this issue, apparently, you don’t even have to be Jewish!

321 February 27, 2009 Aldo Ramos Brooklyn Center, MN

Since these two weren’t in order, I am giving the benefit of the doubt that there are two Jews with the name Andres Xu, who both happen to live in Brooklyn.

233 February 25, 2009 ANDRES XU Brooklyn, NY
14 January 29, 2009 ANDRES XU Brooklyn, NY

Apparently, some Hispanics have secret Sephardic ancestry, which I am guessing they discovered at the same time they came across this petition.

278 February 26, 2009 lina rodriguez atlanta, GA

And you don’t have to live in the U.S. to represent American Jewry.

290 February 26, 2009 Sivan Efrat Tel Aviv, ot
281 February 26, 2009 Aaron Levy Toronto, ON

Only the first few hundred were visible. For the sake of transparency, I’m hoping that Perfidy will have an independent organization monitor their final list before they submit it. But I probably wouldn’t bet on it.

Progress By Pesach notes,

1600 + signatures collected, we still need 8,400 more to reach our goal of 10,000

Oh, I’m guessing they’ll get those, come hell or high water. But they may not be Jews, they may not be Americans, they may not be unique signatures, and they may not even have signed any name at all.

It doesn’t matter. They will continue to claim to speak for all of us.

Jewish Community Action, a far-Left organization that considers white people racist and seeks their replacement by people of color (OH, YES THEY DO!), has reported some shocking (shocking!) news.

The buzz in Washington: The entire Congressional Hispanic Caucus is meeting with Obama to talk about two things: stopping immigration raids and passing comprehensive immigration reform, the same things we are talking to Obama about!

Wow. Who would have guessed that the Hispanic caucus would agree to demand more Hispanic immigrants? What a tremendous victory for Progress By Pesach! They actually convinced the Hispanics to demand more Hispanics, of all things. I can’t believe it. I have to sit down in awe of the outreach executed and the alliances secured by these extremely talented advocates.

Next week, the Jewish far-Left–after intense dialogue and bridge building–will convince the NAACP to co-sign their demands for continued affirmative action programs.

The JCPA (Jewish Council for Public Affairs) used to be a reasonable organization. Not too long ago, in fact. But this Rabbi Steve Gutow fellow is heavy on the narishkeit. The JCPA has taken a far-left lurch, becoming disassociated from reality since this rabbi took the reigns. Maybe next time, look for a hire that understands political game theory instead of Reconstructionist dogma.

The board of the JCPA screwed up royally.

The Forward’s Nathan Guttman reports,

The Jewish community’s main umbrella organization for domestic policy has struck a significant blow against internal resistance to dialogue with Muslims.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs adopted a resolution March 2, calling for local and national Jewish groups to build coalitions with Muslim Americans and to oppose anti-Muslim bias.

“Jewish and Muslim Americans…should work in coalition to advance our common commitment to civil liberties, the struggle against all forms of terrorism, racism, anti-Semitism (and) anti-Muslim prejudice,” the resolution declared. It also strongly denounces anti-Muslim bias and harassment.

But our main issue with the Muslims is not that they are facing “anti-Muslim bias and harassment,” nor is our most pressing intersection “our common commitment to civil liberties.”

The problem is we can’t risk Muslims gaining the numbers and density that they have in Europe. Or at least, that’s what we shouldn’t want to risk.

Has JCPA addressed that issue? They certainly have. They have endorsed “Progress By Pesach.” With the drivel expected from a far-Left hippy outfit, not “the Jewish community’s main umbrella organization for domestic policy.”

JCPA endorsed “Progress By Pesach,” explaining,

Rabbi Steve Gutow, is president and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), the umbrella organization for 125 Jewish Community Relations Councils around the U.S., as well as for 14 national organizations, including the four major religious movements. He points out that Jewish law and tradition make it incumbent upon us to be engaged in these kinds of issues, particularly immigration.

“In the Biblical Israel of the Torah, the Prophets and the Kings, Israel did develop a code of conduct in relation to immigrants,” notes Gutow. “In Biblical society, the sojourner was called ‘ger’ in Hebrew; it also means ’stranger.’ According to the Bible, God made commands about their treatment … The story of Ruth is actually a story of such an immigrant. [Editor's note: No, it is not. It is the story of a convert.]

First, stop mass immigration of Muslims. This is priority number one. THEN have all the dialogue you want until both groups turn red in the face with rage, and dialogue breaks off for another five years.

But before we get exasperated, there is some encouraging news as to why this time dialogue will succeed.

A recent Gallup Poll of Muslim Americans, the largest ever conducted, suggested another possible common ground for Muslim and Jews — political affiliation. Both groups have similar voting patterns: Half of the Muslims identify as Democrats, a third as Independents and only a small minority as Republicans.

Oh, my, so many of them are Democrats. We have so much in common! We surely will band together in unity and song, and a new age of cousinhood will be heralded in.

Just you wait.

I first noticed this thanks to “formermuslim’s,” catch on Jewschool. Shalom Rav described illegal aliens as “undocumented immigrants.” “formermuslim” noted, “My G-d! The brainwashing is self-imposed!”

And apparently, committee approved.

The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (JRF), the political arm of the smallest religious denomination of American Jewry, has endorsed “A Faith Leaders’ Statement on Immigration,” which insists that,

“Anti-immigrant rhetoric has no place in public discourse and should not be used.”

What constitutes “anti-immigrant rhetoric”? Oh, just read the next sentence.

As a country, we value civil public discourse as the reasonable way to address our problems and arrive at solutions. Inflammatory statements and dehumanizing categorizations of any person or people, e.g. “illegals”, should be stricken in favor of factual and more accurate descriptions of the people adversely affected by our broken immigration system.

Okay, so no more talk about “illegal” immigrants, okay? Henceforth, they are to be referred to as “people adversely affected by our broken immigration system.”

Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.

Terrible news, I’m sad to report. The xenophobes in Canada are set to deny the largest Arab organization federal funding because they are intolerant.

The Winnipeg Sun reports,

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is poised to slash federal funding to Canada’s largest Arabic group after its president called him a “professional whore” for supporting Israel.

In an exclusive interview with Sun Media from London, England, where he is to speak today at an international conference on anti-Semitism, Kenney said groups are free within legal bounds to say what they like. But groups whose leaders say intolerant or hateful things shouldn’t get taxpayer funding.

In fact, Kenney is clearly a right-wing radical Zionist, even if he isn’t Jewish himself, who lashes out at those who just want human rights for everyone.

Just look:

One of those groups, said Kenney, is the Canadian Arab Federation whose president Khaled Mouammar called him a “professional whore” after Kenney criticized the presence of Hezbollah and Hamas flags at anti-Israel rallies in Toronto.

Kenney said the same group criticized Liberal MP Bob Rae because of his wife’s involvement in Canada’s Jewish community.

Mouammar astutely fingered the real problem.

“This government is anti-Arab and anti-Muslim,” he said.

The tragedy is that it is precisely great Canadians such as Mouammar who are enabling Muslim immigrants to assimilate to liberal democratic life in Canada as happily and contently as he clearly has.

We need more men like Mouammar and increasingly powerful organizations like the Canadian Arab Federation and the Canadian Islamic Congress here, so please join Progress By Pesach to help turn the dream into a reality.