Birthright Exec's Unprofessional Response To Forward And FailedMessiah Exposés Raises More Questions About Cronyism And Pro-Haredi Bias

Rebecca Sugar's snarky response, her attacks on non-Orthodox "clergy," her refusal to say if she is Orthodox or haredi, and her organization's dismal success rate all raise a very important question: Why does she still have a job?

Only someone whose job is protected by nepotism or cronyism could write a letter like this:

An Official Response To The Editors of The Forward:

Dear Forward Editors:

I have only a few moments to write this. I have to get back to memorizing page 32b of Tractate Sanhedrin, as I was instructed to do daily by my partners at the Jewish Enrichment Center.  Thankfully, those anti-feminist Orthodox people don't require me to wrap teffilin every day as they apparently did to that poor, unsuspecting Birthright Israel alumnus in Gal Beckerman's article, "Birthright Alumni Center Tied to Haredi Outreach". Then I would certainly have no time to put pen to paper. Fortunately, I have a moment off to respond to Mr. Beckerman's very astute observations about my Birthright Israel NEXT office and its relationship with the Jewish Enrichment Center which he classifies as an "outreach arm of a yeshiva".

Thanks to Gal's terrific journalistic skills and his ability to see through the facts and to interpret them so the rest of us can understand them, I have seen the light. It must be true that an Orthodox person would be incapable of human interaction that didn't include the forcing of his views on others, because "Orthodox" so clearly equals "stealth agenda" and "dangerous". How could I not have seen that? Thanks Gal, I would have gone the rest of my life believing otherwise. Pink slips are being issued in my office to everyone with a yarmulke and a penchant for kosher food as we speak.

And thanks to all those other rabbis of various other denominations quoted in Gal's article. While it's true that they have never attended any of our events or called me to talk about working together, their status as "non-Orthodox clergy" clearly enables them to assess the agenda of our staff members better than I can. After all, I am just a run of the mill Jewish woman, and as I am so often reminded by my Orthodox rabbinic friends, women don't count anyway.

Gal's articles have not only served as a religious and professional awakening for me, but a personal one as well. Thanks again Gal! If you hadn't pointed it out, I would have never realized that I hold such sway over philanthropist Michael Steinhardt. It was your keen 

observation that I know his son David since childhood that drew the line for me between Michael's generosity toward the NEXT/JEC partnership and my ability to convince him how best to spend millions of his dollars. Given this new revelation (and I use that word in the least Orthodox sense, I assure you) I can now use my powers for good. In an upcoming Letter to the Editor to the Forward I plan to post my home phone number so that all those seeking funding for their projects might call me. I've got the direct line to Michael -- why shouldn't I use it? Whatever you need - $10,000, $100,000 - I am the girl to get it for you. Good thing Michael is such a push over and that I am so convincing.

Good journalism apparently isn't just about writing a good article. According to The Forward it is about writing two articles, without the benefit of any firsthand experience to accurately describe the subject the author has chosen to write about. Not everyone can do that, but Mr. Beckerman has. Bravo. I so very much appreciate the effort and am grateful for the insights he brings. And I understand completely why he chose not to quote a single person who had positive things to say about the JEC - clearly they have been brainwashed. Glad he caught that before he exposed their rhetoric to the world.

As for me, I will go now to the other side of the mechitza in our office and think deeply about what Mr. Beckerman has said and what it really means. Before I do, I will share a little secret with Mr. Beckerman: I am the Director of Birthright Israel NEXT, NY, not Matt Mindell or Lawrence Hajioff, not Rabbis Yoffie, Brenner or Bachman. What I wont tell him is whether or not I am Orthodox, because frankly, it just doesn't matter. And more importantly, that leaves room for the next article.

Rebecca Sugar Director Birthright Israel NEXT, NY

Birthright Exposés: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.

Here's a screenshot of Sugar's letter as posted on Birthright-Next's official website. (http://www.birthrightisrael.com/site/PageServer?pagename=next_local_ny_announce) You can click to enlarge it or you can right click to download it and then view it in your PDF reader:

The same thing, except grabbed wider and including the browser address bar:

Here is a PDF of the Birthright-Next page with Sugar's letter:

Download Birthright - Rebecca Sugar's Response

UPDATE 5:10 pm – Birthright has pulled the letter from its website.  (Hat Tip: Dood.)

View with entire url:

Close up view:

UPDATE 11 pm CDT – The letter is back up on Birthright's website, but in a different location. (http://www.birthrightisrael.com/site/PageServer?pagename=LetterToTheEditorsOfTheForward) [Hat Tip: Prasnis Warszawa.]

The previous location was Birthright-NEXT's homepage with the full text of the letter displayed.

The new location requires clicking on a link to read, and that link in placed under Rebecca Sugar's mini-bio on the right sidebar. While readily visible, it lacks the prominence it had earlier today, and there is no notice or link in the announcements section of the homepage to explain the move.

The following screenshots can be enlarged by clicking on them or you can right click and download the image(s) and then open it in your pdf viewer. There is a wide shot of each page with the full url in the browser window and then a closer shot without the url: 

Here is the letter as it now appears, tucked away on its own page:

UPDATE 9-10-09 11:05 am CDT – Birthright-NEXT has removed the link to Sugar's letter that was on its homepage, under Sugar's picture. Here are 2 screenshots of that page:

Clicking the link under Sugar's picture brings up this page. No mention of the letter there, either:

And as a PDF:

Download Birthright Israel NEXT_ New York Programs

The Birthright website does not have a search function, but it does have a sitemap:

As you can see, this sitemap, accessed from the Birthright NY  homepage, is for the national site, not for its local NY subsection. So there is no way to find the letter that way, either.

But the letter is still posted on the Birthright site, on the same page it was moved to after I first published the letter on September 6. There just is no way to find that letter using the tools native to the Birthright website.

Here's a PDF of the Birthright NY homepage made a few minutes ago:

Download Birthright Israel NEXT_ New York

Comments

[state of the Jews]

I usually flinch when someone refers to a response as "snarky" however I must admit, Ms. Sugar's response is indeed "snarky" to say the least. Had she responded with a well thought out riposte, thrown in some info on the cost/benefit of her programs and discussed how she plans to improve her organization, it would have been a useful exercise and worthy of consideration. However, her verbal foot stamping tantrum raises serious questions and sheds little light on Birthright Israel NEXT.

[joe]

ok if u don't like birthright then go pay for your own trips to Israel I for one am dying to go on b-right but they are always full and have lost a lot of money so they cant make as many trips that they used to make

[pierre]

The likelyhood of anyone stating they are an ideologically-committed Charedi, and not "*just* a Torah Jew" or similar vague definition, is generally slim; such an admittance could imply to Charedi peers that the admitter is claiming the Charedi derech is one among others. and not simply The Way - which could suggest that they believe other ways are even possible - which could be mistaken for saying other ways are kosher. If it's a public admittance, it risks ruining the "sell" being made to Non-Charedim they usually make, of being "Just Jews into Torah who want to share it with everyone - well, almost everyone" and being "free of ideology, because we only know Torah (*grin*)..."

[Successful Messiah]

Rebecca's "snarky" response is a hell of a lot more than the Forward deserved. The articles about Birthright where not researched, ungrounded and quite frankly the poorest excuse for journalism that I've seen in quite some time.

[PulpitRabbi]

Rebecca's "snarky" response is a hell of a lot more than the Forward deserved. The articles about Birthright where not researched, ungrounded and quite frankly the poorest excuse for journalism that I've seen in quite some time.

And it's entertaining, too. I don't think taht every organization needs to respond to allegations by dryly reporting facts. They want to reach young, hip Jewish urbanites, and she responded tongue in cheek, rather than boring us to death with matters over which we have no say (last time I checked, Michael Steinhardt was a private, independent person, with the ability and right to make his own decisions, freely).

Not all readers of this blog will be satisfied, but you got to recognize her nerve in using this style.

[dood]

good you got the letter up here with screen shots because she just took it off the birthright site

[steve]

Any relation to boxing writer Bert Sugar?

[Shmarya]

Kind of looks a bit like him.

[state of the Jews]

A) Michael Steinhardt can do whatever he wants with his money. He just can't claim that he is making an effort to reach out to the unaffiliated if his efforts are run through Birthright Israel NEXT which is a narrowly focused sieve designed to entice only those susceptible to the Haredi lifestyle.
Successful Meshuga: In any given year, The Forward wins more journalism awards for accurate reporting than all other Jewish newspapers combined. It has also been singled out for excellence in reporting by the association of independent newspapers and its former editor served for several years as a judge on the committee that awards the Pulitzer Prize. Just because you don't agree with who or what they publish doesn't give you an excuse for not getting your facts straight.
Ms Sugar's response was not humorous or "entertaining," it was simply juvenile and not worthy of an organization which one would hope, takes itself seriously.

[Dave Marshall]

Isn't Michael Steinhardt a professed atheist? If so, why would he fund a haredi organization? Or are we speaking of a different Steinhardt?

[nerp]

the subtext is that michael steinhardt, like most secular jewish philanthropists, takes interest in programs like birghtright because they promote "jewish peoplehood." but peoplehood is only a euphemism for jewish nationalism. and whether it's called zionism, self-determination, sovereignty or, "the right to live in peace and security," the bottom line of jewish nationalism today is the conquest of palestine.

i speculate that the point, from a secular nationalist's view, of supporting the frumming of yiddn is that it supplies money, activism and bodies for the yishuv, which are needed to draw facts on the ground. this process has rapidly accelerated this week with netanyahu approving construction on 400 new settlement units and breaking ground on e1, the area connecting east jerusalem and the west bank.

birthright > jec > ohr samayach > aliyah > idf > gush etzion

[nerp]

actually, don't forget rebecca sugar's beloeved jec booked a health care industry lobbyist to give a "what you should know!" talk about health care reform to nexters.

this is all about politics as far as i'm concerned.

[Mr. Apikoros]

No, Rebecca Sugar is the daughter of Harry Freund, Steinhardt's roommate at the U. of Pennsylvania, and a religious Jew. I believe he's MO. Don't know about her.

I totally concur with "State of the Jews" on the Forward. My parents were long-time subscribers, and I picked up the subscription after my mom passed away in 1998. In those days, Steinhardt owned a half-interest in the paper, his daughter was an occasional columnist, and the editor was a guy who used to write for the Wall Street Journal. It wasn't my mother's Forward, let me tell you. I generally agreed with the paper's editorial content back then.

About six years ago, Steinhardt was forced out by the Forward Labor Zionist-orinted board, which still owned half. Steinhardt then, with the former Forward editor, founded the NY Sun, which was a great paper, and his daughter was the parenting columnist there. Did a terrific job at it, too.

I thought that the paper would go back to being written for octagenarians, but I was dead wrong. It maintained and improved upon its outstanding writing standards, even though I stopped agreeing with its editorials much of the time. So I maintained my subscription, and recently re-upped for another three years.

I don't know what the Rebecca Sugar story is. She's a former PR publicist, who's getting paid well for running NY Birthright NEXT. Surely she could have printed a better response, and sent it to The Forward, which certainly would have printed it, rather than being a crybaby. Note: She never denied or countered the Forward writer's criticisms, which were perfectly valid. She just was sarcastic and nasty. So I guess he must have been correct right down the line.

[The Monsey Tzadik]

In her bio it is said that she went to JTS so she must became haredi later.

http://www.birthrightisrael.com/site/PageServer?pagename=next_local_ny_community

[Prasnis Warszawa]

It's still up: http://www.birthrightisrael.com/site/PageServer?pagename=LetterToTheEditorsOfTheForward

[Shmarya]

They moved it to its own page. It can therefore only be found if someone has the direct url.

The letter was originally posted on the update/news page,, the place people go to see what's new.

I'd think this is Birthright trying to take down this embarrassing letter without at the same time suffering more embarrassment from doing so.

[critical_minyan]

she will regret writing that letter. sarcasm doesnt translate well on the web, and the web never ever forgets.
if you gonna write on the web sarcasm, do it the englemayer way, and use a pseudonym.

[Mr. Apikoros]

It is still easy to click through to Rebecca Sugar's letter to The Forward: Just go to Birthright.org, then click on the "NEXT" link, then the "New York" link. The link to the letter is on the right of the page.

This controversy will undoubtedly lead to people such as myself who are not religious (in my case, irreligious) being scared away from the program. I'm sure Steinhardt, who's not exactly known for pulling his punches, has already conveyed his feelings to Mrs. Sugar.

[David Bar-Magen]

While "snarky" is actually a perfect word to describe this letter, I do understand the gist of her immense frustration.

The Forward article does assume that the fact of JEC's having anything to do with Ohr Somayach automatically spells "stealth kiruv." Furthermore, Beckerman tries to preempt the obvious rebuttal to his argument--that thousands of students have attended the program without experiencing any sort of religious coercion--by absurdly asserting that a no-pressure atmosphere is exactly how Ohr Somayach works.

Pardon the comparison, but how is that different from assuming that every Arab is a terrorist because keeping quiet about their agenda is exactly how terrorists work?

Either there is religious coercion, or there isn't.

[Shmarya]

There is DECEPTION.

[Successful Messiah]

So Shmarya, were you subject to deceptive kiruv when you joined chabad?