Kushner Gets the Kiss Off From UJA Federation of Greater Toronto

Last week I questioned the decision of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, the organization that holds an annual Walk With Israel, to lend its imprimatur to a "one night only" appearance by playwright Tony Kushner, a vocal Israel-hater. Looks like I'm not the only one who thought that that was a terrible idea (what you see below is from the latest edition of the Federation newsletter--"From the Desk of [Federation president and CEO] Morris Zbar"--that's distributed via e-mail):

UJA Federation disassociates itself from Tony Kushner event

After thoughtful consideration and consultation with our leadership, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto has decided to disassociate itself from an event on May 9th featuring Tony Kushner and presented by the Koffler Centre of the Arts. Mr. Kushner is a member of the Advisory Board of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), an organization that supports boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Although Mr. Kushner has publicly stated that he does not support the BDS movement, UJA Federation has concerns about Mr. Kushner’s association with JVP and we will not support an event where there is any link to organizations supporting BDS. Therefore, we are disassociating ourselves from this particular event involving Mr. Kushner, although we remain strongly supportive of the Koffler Centre of the Arts.

 Under the circumstances, an eminently sensible decision/disassociation.