Call for Resignations of the SFJFF Board and Executive Director

Here is a letter that Dr. Grossman recently submitted to Stein and the SFJFF Board:

Dear Mr. Stein and Board of Directors,

I wish to add my voice to the growing chorus of Jews in our community who demand that you cancel the "Rachel" screening and submit your resignations. As is well known, the Rachel Corrie Foundation (RCF), the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and the American Friends Services Committee (AFSC) are major protagonists of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions Movement (BDS) http://www.bdsmovement.net/. Indeed, the AFSC is directly implicated in BDS actions in the Bay Area, as one may read in the minutes from the group's last meeting on July 14, which not only includes a discussion of the "Boycott, divestment, sanctions initiatives," but also plans for their implementation in local Trader Joes stores! In this recent video, in which anti-Zionist activists walk the aisles of Trader Joes and interfere with Israeli products while intimidating consumers into not purchasing them, one can see their strategy in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN1-OUP62CQ

Do any of you have any idea of what you are actually supporting? Do you even realize what JVP, AFSC, ISM and RCF stand for? Based on your recent actions, I am inclined to believe that you do.

We are well aware, Mr. Stein, that almost since the moment you began your tenure with the Festival, the JVP and American Friends Services Committee have participated regularly at SFJFF screenings. That neither group has contributed financially or operationally to your enterprise, as you indicated in your most recent apologia, does not reassure us. Indeed, your explanation that your "program staff" invites "promotion partners to assist in [your] outreach efforts to diverse communities of interest who may wish to attend" worries us even more. To whom are you reaching out? The ISM and other philo-terrorists who work tirelessly for our demise? The bottom line is that you and your colleagues have invited the JVP, AFSC, ISM (Simone Bitton) and RCF (Cindy Corrie) to participate in an official capacity, and thus you have have honored and legitimized them through your efforts, while significantly enhancing their status.

The presence on your Board of Dr. Rachel Pfeffer, who has served as Interim National Director of Jewish Voice for Peace from late 2007 through at least this past May (if we believe her SFJFF bio before you abridged it on July 20), is absolutely intolerable to a great number of Jews in both the Bay Area community and, as you are no doubt discovering, the United States. That you should admit such a woman among your ranks, along with others who have had ties to the JVP, represents more than a weak-minded desire to admit viewpoints from a wide political spectrum into a cultural dialog about Israelis and Palestinians; it is symptomatic of a demonic strategy on the part of a fringe group of "progressive"-minded Jews for admitting anti-Israel extremists into mainstream Jewish organizations, who then work stealthily to undermine our Jewish ancestral homeland.

In summary, it is evident to every proud and self-respecting Jew in our community that you are aiding and abetting the enemies of the Jewish people--you who occupy the Directorship and Board of an important San Francisco Jewish cultural institution with international standing.

I strongly urge you to cancel the "Rachel" screening, publicly apologize, and resign your positions.

Respectfully yours,

Max Grossman, Ph.D.