The Workers Circle announced it was resigning from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Wednesday, citing differences of opinion over Israeli, American and Jewish communal politics.
The group’s departure brings the number of member organizations in the conference to an even 50, with three more adjunct members.
“We have disagreed with the COP’s reluctance to critique Israel, its equation of such critique as antisemitism, its adoption and promotion of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, and its failure to condemn the Israeli parliament’s recent steps to erode democracy in Israel,” wrote Workers Circle President Zeev Dagan and CEO Ann Toback in a letter addressed to Conference of Presidents CEO William Daroff and Chair Harriet Schleifer.
“We are further dismayed at the silence of COP in the face of the many attacks on democracy here in the United States,” Dagan and Toback wrote. “We cannot be part of an organization that stands idly by in the face of these existential crises.”
The Workers Circle’s resignation did not appear to be the start of a wider exodus of progressive groups from the conference.
Other organizations that have similarly been critical of the Israeli government and of political developments in the U.S. have said that they plan on remaining in the umbrella group. This includes Americans for Peace Now, the only other member of the conference besides Workers Circle that voted against the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
“We feel it is valuable for us to be there and to be part of the conference, even though it’s not perfect,” Hadar Susskind, president and CEO of APN, told JTA.
Daroff told eJewishPhilanthropy that the Workers Circle had not voiced any such concerns with the Conference of Presidents prior to the resignation and have generally not been involved in the organization for several years. “It’s peculiar,” he said.
The Workers Circle leadership was not immediately available for comment, but Toback confirmed to JTA that the organization had not brought up these issues with the conference first, but that it was “very clear what their positions are and aren’t.”
Daroff noted that, at the time of its resignation, the Workers Circle was $15,000 behind on its dues to the conference. Toback told JTA that the organization would pay what it owed.
Daroff said he had “no reason to doubt” that Dagan and Toback were being genuine with their explanation for why they were leaving.
“They felt out of sync with the Conference of Presidents because they are out of sync with the mainstream community,” he said. “And, if they don’t feel comfortable on Main Street, I absolutely respect their desire to be elsewhere.”
Initially started as a mutual aid society, providing supports and services such as health care, life insurance and burial assistance to its members, the Workers Circle (formerly Workmen’s Circle), which today has an annual budget of more than $3.5 million, has shifted its focus in recent years to promoting Jewish — and particularly Yiddish — culture and supporting social justice activism.
The Conference of Presidents, which advocates for the Jewish community in the U.S., Israel and elsewhere, has often found itself in the position of having to navigate and negotiate its way to common ground among the politically varied organizations that make up its membership. While the conference includes a broad swath of American Jewish life, its membership is not exhaustive. There are no explicitly Haredi organizations in the group, such as the Agudath Israel of America, nor are there any Jewish groups that identify as anti-Zionist. J Street, which identifies as pro-Israel, was rejected from the conference because of its views.
Responding to Workers Circle’s resignation, Daroff stressed that the conference remains a voice for the majority of American Jews.
“Notwithstanding divisive times, the Conference of Presidents maintains the consensus position of the American Jewish community with the support and engagement of 50 national organizations that span the ideological, political and religious spectrum,” he said. “I commend our community for seeing the importance of convening, coordinating activities and speaking with one voice, where the consensus exists to do so.”
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