An Open Letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio:

January 29, 2014

We are Jewish residents of New York who read, in
the leaked transcript of your private speech to a
meeting of AIPAC leaders, the following:
“City Hall will always be open to AIPAC. When you
need me to stand by you in Washington or
anywhere, I will answer the call and I’ll answer it
happily ’cause that’s my job.”
We understand that the job of mayor of New York
is a complex one that often calls for your
participation on the international stage, and we
would not presume to define your job for you. But
we do know that the needs and concerns of many
of your constituents–U.S. Jews like us among
them–are not aligned with those of AIPAC, and
that no, your job is not to do AIPAC’s bidding
when they call you to do so. AIPAC speaks for
Israel’s hard-line government and its right-wing
supporters, and for them alone; it does not speak
for us.
Sincerely yours,
Ruth J. Abram
Karen R. Adler
Arlene Alda
Anita Altman
Esther Ann-Asch
Emanuel Ax
Peter Beinart
Andrew Berger
Loren Bevans
Martin I. Bresler
Kenneth David Burrows
Howard Clyman
Rabbi Rachel Cowan
Barbara Deinhardt
Barbara Dobkin
Eugene Eisner
Laurel W. Eisner
Daniel Engelstein
Eve Ensler
Danny Goldberg
Sally Gottesman
Linda Gottlieb
Laurence Greenwald
Jane Hirschmann
Erica Jong
Peter A. Joseph
Alice Kessler-Harris
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum
Gil Kulick
Martha Weinman Lear
Bobbie Leigh
Jonathan Leigh
Alan H. Levine
Rabbi Ellen Lippmann
Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon
Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark
Donna Nevel
Kathleen Peratis
Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Bertrand B. Pogrebin
Michael Ratner
Anne Roiphe
Betty Rollin
Al Ruben
Marlene Sanders
James Schamus
Dan Silverman
Beverly Solochek
Carla Singer
Rabbi Felicia Sol
Alisa Solomon
Gloria Steinem
Herbert Teitelbaum
Rebecca Vilkomerson
Rabbi Burton Visotzky
Peter Weiss
Jack Willis
Eugenia Zukerman