St. Louis’s Establishment Jewish Organizations Are Enabling Trump’s Fascist Takeover of America, Pt. 1

Author speaking at recent Progressive Jews of St. Louis event – Photo by Richard Reilly

By Michael Berg

The establishment organizations that claim to represent Jews in Saint Louis, wittingly or unwittingly, are at the forefront of abetting Donald Trump in the fascist takeover of the United States of America. These organizations include the St. Louis Jewish Federation, the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), the National Council of Jewish Women, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Saint Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, J Street, the American Jewish Committee and the congregations and rabbis who work within the framework of these organizations.

Does that sound too harsh? Let’s look at the evidence.

The St. Louis Jewish Community Works to Remove Cori Bush and Enhance Fear in Congress  

All the organizations named at the beginning of this article were signatories on a letter unfairly attacking Cori Bush on November 1, 2023, along with a long list of prominent St. Louis area rabbis. They falsely accused Cori Bush of “silence on Hamas’s terrorism” on October 7, 2023, despite multiple statements she made and despite her co-sponsorship of a resolution condemning Hamas. Bush was not silent about the atrocities of that day. In reality, these groups’ issue with her was that in addition to Israeli victims from that day, Cori Bush saw and cared about what Israel was doing to Palestinians in Gaza. She called for America to use its leverage over Israel and demand a ceasefire to save lives. Because she actually listened to Israeli officials at the time, she correctly labeled what Israel was doing as ethnic cleansing. This is what these groups could not abide, and they said so in their letter.

As the Israeli military relentlessly rained deadly American munitions upon the Palestinians of Gaza, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) gathered millions of dollars and a strategy for using Wesley Bell to push Cori Bush out of Congress, specifically because of her position in support of Palestinian lives. The establishment St. Louis Jewish groups also went full speed ahead, along with AIPAC, on their campaign against Bush.

These groups worked to remove Cori Bush from Congress, primarily through the officially “non-partisan” tax-deductible group St. Louis Votes, and its primary election offshoot, St. Louis Together.  This group put together a campaign called “Antisemitism is on the ballot in the Democratic Primary” which successfully worked for an increase in Jewish turnout only in the first congressional district of Missouri, and only in the Democratic primary. Given the rhetoric being spread about Bush within the Jewish community by establishment groups, the only explanation for the St. Louis Together campaign is that it was a stealth appendage of the Wesley Bell campaign. This group did not do any work in the general election, even though on that ballot was a candidate for President who unapologetically dined with unapologetic Nazis, repeatedly uses Nazi-like language, and reportedly has kept a copy of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” by his bed.

With St. Louis Together as a vehicle, people were able to give tax-deductible donations to help remove Cori Bush from Congress. In turn, establishment Jewish groups worked with St. Louis Together. “The reason we’re functioning as a 501(c)(3) is so we can partner with synagogues, institutions, JCRCs, and Jewish community organizations without fear of partisanship” said Jessica Haller in an article published on The Forward. She was one of the campaign leaders of the St. Louis Votes project, and she also worked on a similar campaign to oust Congressman Jamaal Bowman in New York for his pro-Palestinian stances. 

The combined forces of AIPAC, establishment St. Louis Jewish organizations, and other groups opposed to Bush’s progressive policies succeeded at defeating Bush in a close election. This has had a profoundly negative effect on our nation’s political climate, as I will discuss in the second part of this Op-Ed.

The Establishment Jewish Community Leaders Protect Their Own Despite Genocidal Language

I want to be clear – the entirety of the St. Louis Jewish community was not involved in the sordid campaign against Bush. Many Jews supported Cori Bush, including many members and supporters of the organizations Progressive Jews of St. Louis and Jewish Voice for Peace. Both have been involved in organizing multiple protests and vigils opposing Israel’s horrific abuses against Palestinians, including a protest against an AIPAC fundraiser in Jefferson City. They helped pass a ceasefire resolution in the Saint Louis Board of Aldermen and have been involved in raising funds to help families in Gaza. They have organized public Chanukah events that tie the liberatory spirit of the holiday to the necessity of Palestinian liberation.

Because these groups believe in full rights and equality for Palestinians and Jews, they are not welcome in establishment Jewish organization spaces. In fact, they were derided as “extremist fringe groups” by B’nai Amoona’s chief Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham. Abraham has become a spokesman for the St. Louis Jewish establishment, appearing in the St. Louis media over and over again in the last year and a half.

Abraham was a leader in the campaign to oust Bush, and he let everyone know his opinions on various matters. This included many statements to the press, often claiming that Cori Bush and many others were bigoted against Jews. He falsely accused pro-Palestinian protesters at St. Louis universities of being violent. Despite these falsehoods, or maybe because of them, he became a central figure in Wesley Bell’s congressional campaign.

This past January, Abraham proclaimed that ”there do not appear to be any innocent civilians in Gaza”, he “completely agree(d)” with a statement from another person who labeled all of the Palestinian people in Gaza as animals, and he wrote that all Palestinians everywhere need to be re-educated. In reaction to these horrifying statements, we have heard nothing but silence from all of the establishment Jewish organizations in the St. Louis area – a silence that continues over seven weeks later, despite repeated requests by the Progressive Jews of St. Louis, the Islamic Foundation of St. Louis and others to deal with this explicitly bigoted rabbi.

As far as I can find, not a single rabbi has condemned the statement nor asked for any sanction for Rabbi Abraham. The Anti-Defamation League, which is very concerned about swiftly addressing a teenage boy spray painting swastikas and other racist graffiti on school walls, is not concerned with the racism of one of St. Louis’ most prominent rabbis. The Saint Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum Director of Education Helen Turner responded to the teenager’s graffiti by saying “The only way to confront hate is when we all speak up against it” – yet neither she nor any museum spokesperson has said a single word publicly about Abraham’s language. The museum has refused to respond to Abraham’s statement. If he had said the same things and exchanged the word “Palestinians” with “Jews”, his words could have come straight out of the exhibit in the museum on Nazi practices of dehumanization. 

The mother of the young man caught spray painting Affton schools bravely decided to turn in her own son because she knew that spreading racism was wrong. She decided that hate was unacceptable in her community. At the same time, nobody representing establishment St. Louis Jewish organizations has shown the courage to actually stand up and say that hate is unacceptable in the Jewish community, even if that hate is directed towards Palestinians.

One can only conclude that the St. Louis Jewish establishment organizations share Abraham’s views, or at the very least consider calling Palestinians expendable animals to be within the range of acceptable speech for one of their leaders. Let’s look at news reports to see what different St. Louis Jewish organizations might see as outside the range of acceptable speech. Calling for freedom for everyone in Palestine “from the river to the sea”. Saying that Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing. Agreeing with the UN and all respected human rights organizations by calling Israel an Apartheid State. Calling for a ceasefire too quickly, before the entirety of the Gaza Strip is destroyed. Dancing publicly in a St. Louis art fair while being Palestinian. Labeling a plant as originating in Palestine.

Abraham continues to be in prominent positions of leadership in establishment Jewish organizations. He is the vice president of the St. Louis Rabbinical and Cantorial Association. He is also the Chair of the recently formed Missouri Alliance Network, a political action committee that vows to target and defeat politicians it deems antisemitic. The PAC’s website states that it will be guided by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s controversial definition of antisemitism, which dangerously conflates criticisms of Israel with bigotry against Jews. The Missouri Alliance Network explicitly states that one of its goals is to “promote an alliance with local and state elected officials, as well as business leaders with Missouri’s Jewish community and Israel.”” The St. Louis Jewish Light (a “community partner” of the St. Louis Jewish Federation) recently published an approving article about the organization, wherein Alliance director Stacey Newman says that inspiration for forming the organization comes from the successful campaign to mobilize Jewish supporters of Israel to remove Bush from Congress. The new organization brings together a wide array of local Jewish leaders. This includes Central Reform Congregation Rabbi Susan Talve, founder of the pro-immigrant Ashrei Foundation, working directly with Rabbi Ze’ev Smason, the only person in the state of Missouri to testify in support of terrifying Senate Bill 72, which, if passed, would authorize bounty hunters to track down and detain immigrants.   

These groups continue to use accusations of antisemitism as a weapon to shield Israel from deserved criticism for its massive human rights abuses against the Palestinian people. They tell us that they have the right to determine what is and is not within the acceptable range of language for criticizing Israel, and that if you leave those boundaries, they will call you antisemitic. If you are a politician who loudly opposes Israeli atrocities and American policies that enable them, they will raise money and organize people to defeat you. They pretend that this is part of a larger good-faith effort to combat both antisemitism and all other types of racism – but their deafening silence concerning Rabbi Abraham’s bigotry tells us otherwise.

Part 2 of this OpEd can be read here.

Michael Berg is a member of St. Louis Jewish Voice for Peace and the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee. He used to be a baker at with the Black Bear Bakery, which produced the world’s best food item, the chocolate oat bar.