The United Methodist Church rejected an attempt by some to force the Church to divest from Israel on Wednesday.
The vote came during the quadrennial General Conference in Tampa, Fla. The Israel Action Network (IAN), a partnership between the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) that is chaired by Chicago JCRC chairman David Sherman, worked with church delegates to defeat the proposal. One of their efforts was coordinating a letter signed by over 1,300 Rabbis against divestment, which can be found here. (The full IAN statement on this decision can be found here.)
Sherman expressed his support for the decision. "We applaud the decision of the Methodist Church not to make divestment their guiding principle on how to engage with Israel," he said, "and hope that other divestment initiatives being considered in other Christian denominations will similarly be defeated."
