A group of Chicago Jewish community professionals met with counterparts at the Niagara Foundation June 25, following that organization’s cancellation of a scheduled appearance by the Hon. Roey Gilad, Consul General of Israel to the Midwest.
The group, which included representatives of the American Jewish Committee, Chicago Board of Rabbis, Jewish Community Relations Council, and Jewish United Fund, sought clarification of Niagara’s reason for the cancellation.
In a statement, Niagara – a Midwest organization that describes itself as bringing together people to celebrate diversity in a shared society – said it had cancelled the event because it determined that it was ill-suited to the organization’s “stated mission of fostering positive interfaith dialogue in an apolitical environment free from contentiousness.” This fear of contentiousness was due to threats of disruption by extreme anti-Israel groups, which oppose “normalization” with Israel and seek to de-legitimize the Jewish state.
In light of this, the representatives of the Jewish organizations have issued the following open letter asking Niagara to reaffirm its mission of dialog and inclusion, as well as its longstanding resistance to those who seek to undermine Niagara’s relationship with Israelis and the mainstream Jewish community.
An open letter to the Board of Trustees and Advisory Board of the Niagara Foundation concerning the cancellation of an appearance by the Consul General of Israel to the Midwest:
Interfaith dialogue, multicultural understanding, and the promotion of intergroup harmony in Chicago have been the objectives of the Niagara Foundation for over a decade.
With the abrupt cancellation of a June 18 appearance by the Hon. Roey Gilad, Consul General of Israel to the Midwest in its “Friends in Faith” series, Niagara bowed to pressure from anti-Israel groups, which reportedly had threatened to disrupt the event. Niagara has explained the cancellation “because it determined that it was ill-suited to Niagara’s aforementioned stated mission of fostering positive interfaith dialogue in an apolitical environment free from contentiousness.”
In succumbing to those who sow division, by yielding to those whose goal is to ostracize pro-Israel voices, and by suggesting that the Israeli Consul General himself should have canceled his invitation, Niagara has compromised its stated mission “to promote social cohesion by fostering civic conversations and sustained relationships between people of different cultures and faiths.”
Niagara has compromised not only its mission, but also its relationship with the Jewish community.
The alternative would have been for Niagara to take the lead and to turn any disruption into a “teaching moment” about its values of respectful dialog and inclusion.
On behalf of our respective organizations, we call on Niagara to reassert its value to those who believe in dialog and to make a clear statement that it erred in cancelling the event.
We call on Niagara to restore our trust in it as a convener of people of all faiths and creeds.
American Jewish Committee
Chicago Board of Rabbis
Jewish Community Relations Council
Jewish United Fund
