Accusations of anti-Semitism don't derail Jewish involvement in Occupy Movement

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John Honigsfeld isn't a participant in Occupy LA. He just came out to observe. He wore a yamaka, and read a Yiddish book last Friday, to see if he would attract any kind of attention.
Honigsfeld had heard rumors from fellow Jews that there was an undercurrent of anti-Semitism in the Occupy movement. About a week ago, Patricia McAllister, an LAUSD teacher since let go, showed up at City Hall with anti-Semitic sign. "I think that the Zionist Jews that are running these big banks and our federal reserve, which is not run by the federal government, they need to be run out of this country,” she told reason.tv.
Rabbi Jonathan Klein of the Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice says McAllister is on the fringe. “If you think that what is what the occupy movement is, you obviously haven't walked around to see the vast majority of signs that are messages of love and of frustrations not at any one scapegoated groups but of an economic system that is broken,” he says. “It’s derailing. The people who use those types of media clips are people who want to derail the movement.”
This local incident, though, reflects a national discussion. The Emergency Committee for Israel, a right-wing advocacy group, released a commercial suggesting the whole movement was tainted by anti-Semitism. “Why are our leaders turning a blind eye to these anti-Semitic, anti-Israel attacks?” it says.
The commercial was largely denounced in the Jewish community, including by the Anti-Defamation League, as an attempt to use isolated incidents for political gain. Many Jews have participated in the Occupy movement nationally. Participants in New York even started “Occupy Judaism.”
“Justice is the core of our tradition,” Klein says. “Income disparity and an un-level playing field are spiritual, moral failures of our society and contradict the Torah.”
Honigsfeld is sympathetic to Occupy movement, but he’s also experienced anti-Semitism in his life. “I found that there’s no problem with being Jewish here,” he said.