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Ron Kampeas | JTA.org
T he Jewish Council for Public Affairs has tapped
Amy Spitalnick, who spearheaded a success-
ful multimillion-dollar lawsuit against neo-Na-
zis, as its next CEO.

The decision is a sign that the group, called the
JCPA, is pursuing a more assertively liberal approach.

For nearly 80 years, it was an umbrella for local
Jewish community relations groups and was affiliated
with the Jewish Federations of North America, which
has historically been driven by consensus across local
Jewish communities. But in December, it split from the
federation system and rebranded as a more explicitly
progressive group.

The statement on May 8 announcing Spitalnick’s
hire highlighted her work at the helm of Integrity
First for America, the nonprofit that underwrote a
successful lawsuit against the organizers of the deadly
neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. The
statement emphasized fighting for democracy against
hate as priorities, and called Spitalnick “a powerful
national voice on issues of democracy, antisemitism,
extremism, and hate.”
Spitalnick, 37, said that she would focus on building
relationships with other communities that are vulnera-
ble to hatred and erosions in democracy.

“There needs to be an organization that whole-
heartedly recognizes how deeply intertwined Jewish
safety is with other communities’ safety and how
bound up that all is in a broader fight for democracy at
this moment, and builds the sorts of coalitions within
and across communities that are essential to moving
the needle,” she said.

The organization will remain nonpartisan, Spitalnick
said, but she made no secret that she especially
opposed many of the tropes peddled by Republicans
including former President Donald Trump, who
is a leading contender for the 2024 Republican
nomination. “We are grappling with a wave of anti-democratic
extremism that is deeply tied to rising bigotry and
hate,” Spitalnick said. “And we see this in many forms
— we see this with the attacks on immigrants and how
so many of the conspiracy theories that underpin, for
example, election lies, happen to utilize anti-immi-
grant and antisemitic conspiracy theories. We see this
with the attacks on the trans community and on drag
20 MAY 11, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Amy Spitalnick
shows, where for example, neo-Nazis are using those
attacks and those flashpoints to actively recruit for
their violent antisemitic hate.”
Spitalnick was a communications official at J Street,
the liberal Israel lobby, before transitioning into the
rough-and-tumble of New York politics as the commu-
nications director for Mayor Bill DeBlasio and then in
the state attorney general’s office. Last year, she was
named director of another progressive Jewish group,
Bend the Arc, but ultimately declined the position.

She earned a reputation for giving as good as
she would get from her bosses’ critics and rivals. An
email exchange she had with Tucker Carlson in 2015
made headlines when Carlson and his colleagues
lambasted her with misogynist and vulgar language.

She was characteristically blunt last week after
Carlson’s firing from Fox News after a history of using
racially charged language. “When reporters write the
story of Tucker Carlson, do not gloss over who he is,”
she wrote on Twitter. “He is a raging white suprem-
acist, misogynist, and bigot who has done more to
normalize violent extremism and hate over the last
few years than nearly anyone else.”
Spitalnick’s style is a sharp departure from the
tone that the 79-year-old organization had taken until
December, when it announced an amicable divorce
from the Jewish federations structure and its empha-
sis on consensus. It also means the group will be led
by a millennial woman, a rarity among large national
Jewish organizations.

“This now makes two millennial women at the helm
of legacy Jewish organizations,” said Sheila Katz,
CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women. “I’m
looking forward to getting in good trouble together
as we push Jewish organizations and leaders toward
justice.” Founded in 1944 as the National Jewish Community
Relations Advisory Council — it changed its name
in 1997 — the storied group was at the forefront
of Jewish community advocacy for decades, from
rescuing Europe’s Jews and opening up immigration
to allow refugees to enter the United States to the
Black-Jewish civil rights coalition, pro-Israel advocacy
and advocacy for Jews in the Soviet Union. It received
funding from dues paid by scores of local Jewish
Community Relations Councils and from 16 national
Jewish groups.

In recent years, as the American — and American
Jewish — populations became more politically polar-
ized, JCPA’s consensus-driven structure made it
increasingly difficult for the group to take noteworthy
stands on the issues of the day.

A turning point was the group’s decision in 2020 to
sign a statement recognizing Black Lives Matter as a
leading civil rights body. Officials in the Jewish feder-
ations system, which underwrote much of JCPA’s
funding at the time, thought it was reckless to endorse
a movement despised by most Republicans, and
which has been accused of vehement opposition to
Israel. That spurred an effort to roll the JCPA directly into
the Jewish Federations of North America, a shift that
JCPA defenders said would place Jewish community
relations under the purview of major donors, who tend
to be more conservative than the grassroots.

Instead, the current chairman, David Bohm, led a
split from the Jewish federations that would guaran-
tee JCPA’s independence. Bohm and one of his
predecessors, Lois Frank, joined UJA-Federation of
New York in providing a substantial cash influx that
would allow JCPA to function for three years.

That led to the divorce from the Jewish federations,
and the end of dues that had come into the organi-
zation from the local and national groups. A JCPA
official said Spitalnick would be expected to diversify
the funding base and did not count out a return to the
dues-paying format. ■
Courtesy of Amy Spitalnick via JTA.org
JCPA Names Amy Spitalnick,
Who Sued Charlottesville Rally
Organizers, as its CEO



arts & culture
bonus digital content
Omer counters blend space and time,
past and present
Photos Provided
Sarah Ogince
Tobi Kahn grasps an asymmetric
block of wood in both hands. He turns
the piece, a fluid combination of angles
and curves painted a rich metallic
pewter, to reveal the base: a perfect
rectangle, soft gold and marked with
a hand-written number eight. Behind
him, 48 similar blocks sit in a wooden
grid suspended from the wall. “I didn’t
want each individual piece to look the
same because every day is a different
day,” he says.

Very much a work of 21st-century
art, Kahn’s sculpture is also part of a
tradition that stretches back centuries.

The Torah commands the Israelites
to count 49 days each year—from
the second day of Passover until the
holiday of Shavuot (which begins this
year at sundown on Thursday, May
25, and lasts through the evening of
Saturday, May 27). Originally a celebra-
tion of the grain harvest in ancient
Israel, the seven weeks of Sephirat
HaOmer have absorbed additional
shades of meaning over millennia of
Jewish history.

And they have inspired generations
of Jewish artists.

Omer counters have been a staple
item of Judaica since at least the
18th century. “We see so much artis-
tic creativity: paper cuts, books—
handwritten and printed—parchment
scrolls in calendar boxes,” says Abigail
Rapoport, curator of Judaica at the
Jewish Museum in New York, which
has a large collection of Omer count-
ers, including Kahn’s. The richness
and detail in the counters reflect the
meditative aspect of the practice, she
notes. “The makers of these calen-
dars are thinking about ingenious
methods for counting the Omer and
then converging it with a work of art.”
Though the Torah describes it
purely as a harvest ritual (omer is the
measurement of the barley offering
“Saphyr,” Counting the Omer. Art by Tobi Kahn.

brought at the start of the count),
in the Diaspora, Sephirat HaOmer
quickly took on spiritual significance.

The fifth-century text Leviticus Rabbah
describes the Israelites counting 49
days in the desert after the Exodus
from Egypt in anticipation of receiving
the Torah. In the 16th century, Rabbi
Isaac Luria and his disciples connected
the seven weeks to seven Kabbalistic
sephirot, attributes of Divine revela-
tion, and Sephirat HaOmer became
a period of self-reflection and refine-
ment in preparation for receiving the
Torah anew on Shavuot.

But Omer counters also reveal the
contemporary experiences of the
communities that produce them. A
parchment counter from the 18th century
in the Netherlands depicts the numbers
intertwined with tulips—not long after
the region’s “tulip mania”—and colorful
birds. Portuguese script next to the
From “I Am Still Alive,” Omer 2011. Art by
Jacqueline Nicholls.

numbers hints that the counter was
made by descendants of refugees
fleeing that country’s inquisition.

A counter produced in early
20th-century Rochester, N.Y., shows a
darker aspect of Sephirat HaOmer: The
Talmud relates that 24,000 students
of the Tannaitic sage Rabbi Akiva
perished in a plague during this time,
and many Jews observe it as a period
of mourning. The intricate papercut
counter doubles as a memorial plaque
that includes hundreds of names of
eceased congregants.

Kahn has been fascinated by
Sephirat HaOmer since childhood
(his birthday falls during the count),
but never saw an Omer counter that
inspired him. In 2002, he produced his
sculpture, “Saphyr,” which allows the
user to count by removing or adding
one piece each day. The 49 unique
pieces are an expression of his own
relationship with tradition.

“I believe in diversity in Judaism,”
he says. “I like that there are many
types of Jews. I like that each person
looks more interesting because of the
person next to them.”
‘Engage with the place I am in’
As counting apps and electronic
reminders have made traditional
counters obsolete, Jewish artists
have taken a different approach to
Sephirat HaOmer. In 2011, British artist
Jacqueline Nicholls began creating a
drawing on each of the 49 days, each
year focusing on a different theme.

“It’s really slowing down that ritual
of counting the day, realizing that
the process of time is slow and
steady,” she says. “But also, by doing
it as a drawing practice, it allows me
to grow.” ■
−JNS JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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