By The Jewish Star Staff
Issue of November 13 2009/ 26 Cheshvan 5770
Die-hard New York Mets fans have one thing to be proud of this year: the Mets’ new ballpark will be the site of the Hebron Fund annual dinner, despite protests by a number of liberal organizations.
Eleven organizations including Jews Against the Occupation-NYC and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee called for the cancellation of the dinner, which will go on as planned at the Caesar’s Club at Citi Field on November 21.
“The New York Mets will be facilitating activities that directly violate international law and the Obama administration’s call for a freeze in settlement construction, and that actively promote racial discrimination, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes in Hebron,” the groups claimed in a letter to the Mets organization.
New York-based Hebron Fund is a not-for-profit charity that raises fund for Jewish residents who live in Hebron. They currently number under 600 and are surrounded by 130,000 Arabs, noted Shlomo Z. Mostovsky, president of the National Council of Young Israel. He praised the move by the otherwise beleaguered baseball franchise.
“Without engaging in a political discussion of Middle East policy, it is safe to say that paying tribute to a relatively small Jewish community that has persevered in the wake of great adversity is an innocuous act that should be free of any criticism,” Mostovsky wrote in a letter to New York Mets CEO Frank Wilpon, Mets President Saul Katz, and Mets Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon.
He called the dinner a “celebration of human spirit” and said that the National Council of Young Israel “has heard from numerous individuals, many of whom are Mets fans, who have told us how proud they are of their team and its ownership for their public stance relating to the Hebron Fund dinner.”
He did not comment about the team’s possibilities for next year’s season.
