A group of prominent Orthodox rabbis and thinkers have launched a new American rabbinic organization to counter the media’s tendency to cite left-wing partisans in the American Jewish community as representative of mainstream Jewish thought. The new organization is called the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV).
"The media tends to solicit statements on Jewish concerns most frequently from those who equate Jewish beliefs with the latest trends in liberal political thinking,” said Rabbi Yaakov Menken, Director of the CJV. "We wish to clarify that Jewish values emerge only from the Torah and millennia of Jewish thought."
CJV's Rabbinic Board consists of nationally known rabbinic leaders from both Modern Orthodox and haredi circles. "I am very impressed by our consensus on the important issues of the day, and the need to speak out in favor of traditional Jewish thought," said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, Executive Vice President Emeritus of the National Council of Young Israel and a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the CJV.
The CJV made headlines with its criticism of an initiative by a group of 'Open Orthodox' leaders on 'Spiritual resistance' to the Trump Administration as unrepresentative of the positions of mainstream Orthodox Jews.
The CJV slammed Union of Reform Judaism president Rick Jacobs for his visit with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas last week and his criticism of a number of Israeli policies, such as the law banning prominent BDS activists from entering the country and the construction of homes for Jews in Judea and Samaria. The CJV accused Jacobs of “presuming to tell Israel how to protect the lives and livelihood of Israeli Jews.”