JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Who’s meeting with Obama? Just about everybody (UPDATED with info on Conference of Presidents)

By Eric Fingerhut · December 18, 2008

Who was at Thursday afternoon's meeting of Jewish organizational representatives and Barack Obama's transition team? Pretty much everybody. According to a source, there were representatives of 29 Jewish organizations present at the D.C. get-together. Some quick observations on the guest list:

• A broad spectrum of pro-Israel organizations were invited, from the more dovish Brit Tzedek v'Shalom and J Street to the more hawkish Zionist Organization of America;
• Among those present was Jewish Funds for Justice's Mik Moore, whose stature rose this fall as his separate, campaign-related organization, the Jewish Council for Education and Research, released "The Great Schlep" video and led other activities helping Obama in the Jewish community;
• There was no official representing the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations -- but COP executive vice chair Malcolm Hoenlein tells JTA the group was invited but no one could make it because the organization doesn't have a Washington representative and was busy with meetings in New York this week. He said he had already discussed key issues with the transition team in advance of Thursday's meeting.

A variety of domestic and international issues were discussed, including economic recovery legislation, church-state matters, judicial appointments, energy independence, Iran, the Midlde East peace process and U.S. participation in the Durban II conference.

Obama transition team reps present included Dan Shapiro, Middle East adviser to the transition team; Michael Strautmanis, chief of staff to assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public liaison Valerie Jarrett; Tom Perez, co-chair of the transition teams on health care and justice; Tonya Robinson, from the justice and civil rights transition team; and Eric Lynn, a senior adviser to the inaugural committee who worked on Jewish outreach during the campaign.

Here's the guest list:

Diana Balser, Brit Tzedek v'Shalom
Jeremy Ben Ami, J Street
Herbert Block, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel
Abe Cooper, Simon Wiesenthal Center
William Daroff, United Jewish Communities
Debra DeLee, Americans for Peace Now
Nathan Diament, Orthodox Union
Dan Ehrenkrantz, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Wayne Firestone, Hillel
Ira Forman, National Jewish Democratic Council
Eric Fusfeld, B'nai B'rith International
Marla Gilson, Hadassah
Sadie Goldman, Israel Policy Forum
Richard Gordon, AJCongress
Jess Hordes, Anti-Defamation League
Richard Foltin, American Jewish Committee
Mort Klein, Zionist Organization of America
Peter Knobel, Central Conference of American Rabbis
Sammie Moshenberg, National Conference of Jewish Women
Laura Kam, The Israel Project
Mark Levin, NCSJ
Mik Moore, Jewish Funds for Justice
Tom Neumann, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Mark Pelavin, Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism
Marilyn Rosenthal, American Israel Public Affairs Committee
Levi Shemtov, American Friends of Lubavitch
Hadar Susskind, Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Amy York, Chicago Jewish Federation

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Muslim governments, Jewish philanthropists top Clinton foundation givers

By Eric Fingerhut · December 18, 2008

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Muslim governments are big donors to Bill Clinton's foundation, but there are also plenty of big Jewish givers as well.

Perusing the foundation's website, where the list was posted Thursday morning, reveals a number of Jewish activists and philanthropists. (Apparently because of high demand, the link was only sporadically working, and very slowly, on Thursday afternoon.)

Haim Saban, an AIPAC supporter and the founder of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, gave between $5 million and $10 million to the foundation. The non-profit organization, which raises money to fight poverty and HIV/AIDS and financed the former president's Little Rock library,only listed ranges of giving and not specific contribution amounts.

Also at the same level was the Wasserman Foundation, founded by the late Universal Studios head Lew Wasserman.

Among the names in the next level down -- from $1 million to $5 million -- are Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation founder S. Daniel Abraham; the Los Angeles-based Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, Ukranian Jewish oligarch Victor Pinchuk, Barbra Streisand's foundation and Harold Snyder, a member of the board of directrors of the Israeli company Teva Pharmaceuticals.

Other Jewish donors in the $250,000-$1 million range include film director Steven Spielberg, media mogul David Geffen, George Soros, Edgar Bronfman, the Ted Arison Family Foundation, top Jewish Democrats Bernard Rapoport and Alan Solomont (his family foundation), diplomat andformer American Jewish Commitee president Alfred Moses and pardoned fugitive Marc Rich's ex-wife, Denise Rich.

The American Jewish Committee also had a donation in the $250,000-$500,000 range. Clinton spoke at the group's annual meeting in 2005.

No single Jewish donor, though, gave as much as Saudi Arabia, whose gift was in the $10 million-$25 million range. An organization called "Friends of Saudi Arabia" -- which the Wall Street Journal reports is a group of former diplomats and U.S. businessmen with interests in Saudi Arabia -- as well as the "Dubai Foundation" and the governments of Kuwait and Qatar donated between $1 million and $5 million.

The foundation has raised $492 million from 205,000 donors in the last 11 years, but the former president had not previously made the list of donors public. He agreed to release the names after the nomination of Hillary Clinton to serve as secretary of state because of worries about the impact his business dealings around the world could have on his wife's new job.

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Political tidbits: Hamas not Obama fans

By Eric Fingerhut · December 18, 2008

• Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar tells Bloomberg he "isn't expecting U.S. policy to change under President-elect Barack Obama":

“He is 100 percent pro-Israeli and his positions are unacceptable,” Zahar said.

• Ori Nir of Americans for Peace Now, writing in the Washington Times, says "the current comeback of the Arab League's peace initiative is a big deal":

If the Obama administration is looking for a good place from which to launch its Mideast peace efforts, this is it: Push Israel to impose a real, full settlement freeze while working with the Arab world to animate the Arab peace initiative.

• Current White House chief of staff John Bolten brought 11 former White House chiefs of staffs together to meet with incoming Obama COS Rahm Emanuel. Politico notes the site of the meeting:

Bolten, who is Jewish and a motorcycle aficionado, set the tone by hosting the get-together in an office that is currently dominated by a Christmas tree bedecked with Harley-Davidson ornaments and pipes instead of a star on top.

• CNN reports liberal and gay rights groups are not happy over the selection of Pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration. And abortion rights advocates are upset over a recent interview Warren gave to Beliefnet:

"Don't tell me it should be rare," he said in the interview. "That's like saying on the Holocaust, 'Well, maybe we could save 20 percent of the Jewish people in Poland and Germany and get them out and we should be satisfied with that -- I'm not satisfied with that. I want the Holocaust ended."

• Jewish activist Menachem Rosensaft, in the Huffington Post, defends Caroline Kennedy:

We have yet to hear a single substantive criticism of her ability, her intellect, or her political views. As Senator, she would most probably make education her signature issue. She would also continue Senator Clinton's commitment to women's and children's health issues. This is not only commendable, but would be of enormous value to New Yorkers and Americans alike.

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